Fantasia No. 3 (Mozart)

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Fantasia No. 3 in D minor, K. 397 (Fantasy in English, Fantasie in German) is a piece of music for solo piano composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1782. Despite being unfinished at Mozart's death, the piece is nonetheless one of his more popular compositions for the piano. Because of its somewhat unusual rhythm, its constantly changing tempo (seven different tempi occur throughout the piece), and its complete lack of any recognizable musical form (as indicated by the "Fantasy" title), the Fantasia is considered to be a relatively challenging piece to perform.

Although the title indicates that the home key is D minor, approximately one third of the piece -- the last third -- is written in the tonic major. This is not necessarily unusual in itself; however, it is unusual for a smaller piece like the Fantasia to conclude in a key other than its home key. This is largely due to the fact that the manuscript has not survived and the final measures of the piece have been lost. (The ending as it currently exists is believed to have been written by August Eberhard Müller, one of the composer's admirers).^{[citation needed]} As a result, some performers choose to repeat the introductory material at the conclusion in order to create a sense of completion.^{[citation needed]}

The Fantasia runs to just over 100 measures, and a full performance takes approximately seven minutes.