Previously Unknown Music by Mozart Found in German Library

Researchers at the Leipzig Municipal Library have reported that they have discovered a previously unknown piece of music, probably written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in his teens.

This was reported by The Guardian.

The work, dating from the mid- to late 1760s, consists of seven miniature movements for string trio, with a total duration of approximately 12 minutes.

Mozart was born in 1756 and began composing music at a very early age under the guidance of his father. The researchers came across the piece in the city's music library while preparing a new edition of the Köchel Catalogue, the official archive of Mozart's music.

The discovered manuscript was not written by Mozart himself, but, according to the researchers, is believed to be a copy made around 1780. On 20 September, this piece of music was performed by a string trio during the presentation of Köchel's new catalogue in Salzburg, Austria. The work will have its German premiere at the Leipzig Opera on 21 September.

The catalogue mentions this work under the title Ganz kleine Nachtmusik, the Leipzig library noted. The manuscript is written in dark brown ink on off-white handmade paper, and the individual parts are individually bound.

Köchel's catalogue describes the work as ‘preserved in a single source, where the author's attribution indicates that the work was written before Mozart's first trip to Italy’.