Melodic Notation in F (fragment), K. 691 (F major)
ヴォルフガング・アマデウス・モーツァルト作
Melodic Notation in F (fragment), K. 691, is a tiny surviving keyboard sketch in F major, written in Vienna and generally dated to the mid-1780s, when Mozart was about 28 and at the height of his freelance career as pianist-composer [1]. Rather than a finished piano piece, it reads as a working idea—an outline meant to be continued or transferred into a more complete draft.
What Is Known
The Köchel-Verzeichnis lists Melodic notation in F (K. 691) as an authentic, extant, but uncompleted work in F major, associated with Mozart’s Viennese years [1]. The dating given there (Vienna, 1784–1787) suggests a broad window rather than a single secure day, and fits Mozart’s intensely productive period as a composer-performer in the city [1].
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The fragment is linked with a surviving sketch-sheet complex (Skb 1785b), whose description indicates an autograph leaf with two written pages and multiple short clavier-related sketches [2]. In other words, K. 691 belongs to the practical, private world of Mozart’s compositional workshop: brief melodic or harmonic “notes” captured quickly, without the fuller textures (bass, accompaniment figuration, formal joins) required for performance.
Musical Content
What survives appears to be primarily melodic notation—a short idea in the treble that implies a keyboard context but does not develop into a complete miniature (with a settled cadence plan, balanced phrases, and a worked-out left hand) [1]. Even so, the choice of F major is telling: in Mozart’s Viennese keyboard writing it often supports a genial, open sonority and invites clear, singing line—precisely the kind of “carryable” theme one might jot down for later use. In that sense K. 691 can be heard less as a lost piece than as a glimpse of Mozart composing at speed: isolating a melodic profile first, trusting that the rest—the accompaniment, the modulatory route, the final polish—could be supplied when the occasion demanded it.
[1] International Mozarteum Foundation, Köchel-Verzeichnis entry for KV 691 (“Melodic notation in F”, fragment): authenticity/status, key, dating window, work relations.
[2] International Mozarteum Foundation, Köchel-Verzeichnis entry for Skb 1785b (“Sketch sheet 1785b”): sketch-sheet context and source description (autograph leaf).