Unknown Mozart music discovered in German library

A previously unknown piece of music, probably composed by a teenager Mozart singer was recently discovered in a library in Germany.

The piece, which dates from the mid-to-late 1760s, consists of seven miniature movements for a string trio and lasts about 12 minutes, researchers from the Leipzig City Libraries said in a statement.

Researchers discovered the work in the city’s music library while compiling the latest edition of the so-called Koechel catalogue, the definitive archive of Mozart’s musical works.

According to the Leipzig libraries, the piece is referred to in Koechel’s new catalogue as “Ganz kleine Nachtmusik”.

According to the municipal libraries, the piece is described in Koechel’s catalogue as “preserved in a single source, with the author’s attribution suggesting that the work was written before Mozart’s first trip to Italy”.

The newly discovered manuscript, which is written in dark brown ink on medium-thick handmade paper, was not written by Mozart himself but is likely a copy made around 1780, the researchers said.

Until now, the young Mozart had been “known to researchers primarily as a composer of piano music, arias and symphonies,” Ulrich Leisinger of the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg said in a statement.

A list by Mozart’s father had alerted academics to the existence of “many other chamber music compositions” by the young artist, all of which were thought to have been lost until the string trio came into being, Leisinger said.

“Since the inspiration for this apparently came from Mozart’s sister, it is tempting to assume that she kept the work as a memento of her brother,” Leisinger said.

Mozart was born in 1756 and was a child prodigy. He began composing at a very young age under the guidance of his father.

The piece was performed by a string trio on Thursday at the unveiling of the new Koechel catalogue in the Austrian city of Salzburg. It will have its German premiere on Saturday at the Leipzig Opera.