Aria in B♭ major for bass (fragment), K. 685
ヴォルフガング・アマデウス・モーツァルト作
Mozart’s Aria in B♭ major for bass (fragment), K. 685, survives only as a brief melodic draft from 1783 and is not a complete, performable aria. Preserved on a Vienna sketch sheet, it offers a small but vivid glimpse of Mozart (aged 27) thinking in vocal terms at the start of his independent Viennese decade.[1]
What Is Known
Only a short fragment of an aria melody for bass voice survives for K. 685, in B♭ major.[1] The International Mozarteum Foundation’s catalogue describes it explicitly as an uncompleted work, transmitted in Mozart’s autograph, and links it to a specific 1783 Vienna sketch sheet (Skizzenblatt 1783e).[1] The same source gives the dating as Vienna, 1783, even though no occasion, text, singer, or destination work can be identified with confidence.[1]
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
In that year Mozart was newly established in Vienna: the city remained his base, and sketch-leaves from 1783 document an intense period in which he moved flexibly between theatre, concert writing, and contrapuntal study.[2]
Musical Content
What survives is best understood as a melody sketch—a single vocal line rather than a set, texted aria with accompaniment.[2] Even in this reduced state, the choice of B♭ major (a key Mozart often treats with warmth and breadth) suggests an intended bass cantabile rather than purely comic patter; yet the fragment is too short to confirm an affect, form, or dramatic situation.
[1] Köchel-Verzeichnis (International Mozarteum Foundation), work entry for KV 685: status, dating (Vienna 1783), key, and source notes (autograph; uncompleted).
[2] Digital Mozart Edition (DME), Neue Mozart-Ausgabe X/30/3 table of contents: lists Skb 1783e (1) as a “Melody sketch of an Aria for bass in B flat,” documenting the sketch-sheet context for K. 685.