Trio (likely for 2 violins and cello) in C minor (fragment), K. 686
av Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart’s Trio movement in C minor (K. 686) is a brief, uncompleted chamber-music fragment from 1783, likely sketched for two violins and violoncello. What survives—an autograph leaf—offers only a tantalizing glimpse of a darker, more contrapuntal Mozart at age 27.
What Is Known
The International Mozarteum Foundation lists K. 686 as an authentic but uncompleted Trio movement in C minor, “probably for 2 violins and violoncello,” transmitted in an extant autograph source dated to Vienna, 1783.[1] The surviving musical text is very short: a single leaf (one written page) is noted in the source description, alongside at least one copy (Abschrift).[1]
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
A detailed description of the autograph leaf (offered in a 2024 auction catalogue) indicates that Mozart sketched 29 bars of a trio movement in C minor, notated in common time (C); the final six bars reduce to two staves, consistent with sketch-like shorthand rather than a fully laid-out trio score.[2]
Musical Content
What can be said with some confidence is chiefly a matter of scale and texture: the fragment comprises 29 bars and appears conceived in three real parts (hence the likely string-trio scoring), though Mozart’s notation shifts toward a compressed layout at the close.[2] Even in this abbreviated state, the choice of C minor—the key of several of Mozart’s most intense works—places the sketch near the expressive world he was exploring in Vienna in the early 1780s.[1]
[1] International Mozarteum Foundation (Köchel-Verzeichnis Online), work entry for KV 686: title, status (uncompleted), key, dating (Vienna, 1783), instrumentation probability, and transmission/source summary.
[2] Ader Paris auction catalogue (Lot 137, Feb. 28, 2024): descriptive details of the autograph leaf including extent (29 bars), meter (common time), and notation layout (last bars on two staves).