A forgotten work written by Mozart as a teenager has been discovered in a German library: a seven-movement string trio that was recently performed in Salzburg.
A previously unknown piece of music composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, likely when he was in his early teens, has been discovered in a German library, researchers announced Thursday.
The Leipzig City Library said in a statement that the piece was composed in the mid-to-late 1760s, consists of seven short movements for string trio and lasts about 12 minutes.
Born in 1756, Mozart was a child prodigy who began composing at an early age under the tutelage of his father.
Researchers discover Mozart works in music library
Researchers discovered the piece in the city's music library while compiling an updated edition of the Köchel Catalogue, the definitive collection of Mozart's musical works.
According to researchers, the newly discovered manuscript was not written by Mozart himself and is believed to be a copy made around 1780.
The piece was performed by a string trio at the launch of Köchel's new catalogue in Salzburg, Austria, on Thursday.
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The work will have its German premiere at the Leipzig Opera on Saturday.
According to the Leipzig Library, the piece is called “Ganz kleine Nachtmusik” (Serenade) in the new Köchel catalogue.
The manuscript is written in dark brown ink on white handmade paper, and each part is individually bound.
“This piece was written before Mozart's first visit to Italy.”
According to the city library, the Köchel catalogue explains that the piece “is preserved in a single source and, based on the authorship, appears to have been written before Mozart's first trip to Italy.”
Ulrich Reisinger of the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg said in a statement that the young Mozart had previously been known to researchers “primarily as a composer of piano pieces, arias and symphonies”.
The list compiled by Mozart's father alerted scholars to “many other chamber works” by the young Mozart, all of which had been thought to be lost until the string trio, Reisinger said.
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“The inspiration for this piece seems to have come from Mozart's sister, so it's tempting to imagine that she kept it as a keepsake of her brother,” Reisinger said.
– Creator: © Agence France-Presse