Theme for Variations in C (fragment), K. 383d (C major)
av Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart’s Theme for Variations in C (fragment), K. 383d, is a short surviving torso from his early Vienna years, sketched in 1782. What remains suggests a straightforward keyboard theme intended to anchor a variation set—an everyday compositional exercise in a period when Mozart was rapidly sharpening his pianistic style and technique.
What Is Known
The item known as Theme for Variations in C (fragment), K. 383d, dates to Vienna in 1782 and survives only incompletely, preserved as a brief keyboard draft rather than a finished, publishable set [1] [2]. In the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe it appears among the keyboard variations, explicitly described as a “theme in C for variations for organ or clavier,” implying flexible domestic use (organ, clavichord, or fortepiano) rather than a concert vehicle [2]. Modern reprints and uploads generally transmit only this surviving theme, reinforcing that any continuation (variations proper, a closing cadence, or a fuller layout) is lost or never completed [3].
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Musical Content
What survives is essentially a compact, singable C-major theme—regular in phrase profile and harmonically direct—well suited to the standard late-18th-century variation procedure (melody retained while the figuration, texture, and bass activity change from variation to variation) [3]. Its unpretentious outline fits Mozart’s Viennese habit, at age 26, of generating adaptable keyboard material for teaching, private music-making, and compositional testing—work that sits in the background of the more public piano writing he was simultaneously bringing to maturity in the early 1780s.
[1] Wikipedia — Köchel catalogue entry listing K. 383d (Anh. 38) as a C-major theme/variations fragment, dated to Vienna, Spring 1782.
[2] Digital Mozart Edition (Mozarteum) — NMA IX/26 table of contents, Appendix entry: “Theme in C for variations for organ or clavier K. 383d … Thema Manualiter.”
[3] IMSLP — “Theme in C major, K.Anh.38/383c” (NMA IX/26 scan), giving basic cataloging, date (1782), key, and instrumentation ‘organ (or piano)’.