Previously Unknown Mozart Music Unearthed In German Library

Around here we’ve given more attention to Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix than Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, but more generally speaking, the 18th century composer’s work is among the most thoroughly examined in history. Turns out there’s at least one piece of music by Mozart that has not been studied and performed to death. As The Guardian reports, a previously unknown composition by Mozart has been discovered in a German library.

Born in 1756, Mozart was a child prodigy who began composing music at an early age under the guidance of his father, composer Leopold Mozart. Researchers compiling the latest edition of the Köchel catalogue, the definitive archive of Mozart’s musical works, recently discovered the previously unknown composition at one of Leipzig’s municipal libraries.

The work, which is being called Ganz kleine Nachtmusik, comprises seven miniature movements for a string trio lasting about 12 minutes. Experts estimate that the composition dates to the mid to late 1760s, when Mozart was in his early teens (the painting above is from 1766, when he was 11). The document discovered in Leipzig was a copy produced by someone else in about 1780. According to the Köchel catalogue, it was “preserved in a single source, in which the attribution of the author suggests that the work was written before Mozart’s first trip to Italy.”

Ganz kleine Nachtmusik was performed live for the first time in Salzburg, Austria today along with the unveiling of the new Köchel catalogue; I’m not sure whether it was intentional or not that the Mozart biopic Amadeus was released 40 years ago today. The piece will have its German debut Saturday at the Leipzig Opera.