Orchestral Piece in E minor (fragment), K. 693
ヴォルフガング・アマデウス・モーツァルト作
Mozart’s Instrumentalstück in e (Orchestral Piece in E minor), K. 693, is a brief surviving symphonic/orchestral fragment from Vienna in 1785—only 16 measures long. Though slight in extent, its E minor tonality is strikingly rare in Mozart’s orchestral writing and hints at a more serious, dramatic impulse during his peak Viennese years.
What Is Known
K. 693 is an authentic Mozart autograph fragment for orchestra, dated to Vienna, 1785.[1] The sketch breaks off after 16 bars, suggesting a quickly abandoned opening idea rather than a draft of a complete movement.[1] It survives on a double-sheet that Mozart had originally used for a sketch connected with Cherubino’s aria “Non so più cosa son, cosa faccio” from Le nozze di Figaro, K. 492—a reminder that, in 1785, he was already stockpiling musical ideas for the opera he would finish for its 1786 premiere.[1]
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No reliable evidence survives for a full movement plan, intended occasion, or complete instrumentation beyond the generic designation “for orchestra”; nor is a place of composition more specific than Vienna securely documented in the surviving source description.[1]
Musical Content
Because the fragment is so short, it reads less like a developed symphonic argument than a darkly colored opening gesture: an E minor start that immediately sets a tense, urgent profile, before Mozart abandons the thought midstream.[1] Heard against his 1785 output—dominated by public virtuosity (piano concertos) and the long-range planning of Figaro—K. 693 feels like a momentary glance toward the severe orchestral rhetoric Mozart would later pursue more fully in works such as the D minor Piano Concerto No. 20, K. 466 (completed earlier in 1785).[2])
[1] Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum, Köchel-Verzeichnis entry for KV 693: dating (Vienna, 1785), fragment length (16 measures), and manuscript note about reuse of paper from a Figaro aria sketch.
[2] Wikipedia: overview and date context for Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466 (1785), used for cautious stylistic/historical comparison.