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New Mozart Score Surfaces in France

Melodic sketch was part of a collection given to a Nantes library in early 1800s

By Harry Kimball, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 18, 2008 5:52 PM CDT

(Newser) – A single-page musical score located in a French library has been confirmed as a Mozart original, the Telegraph reports. “Mozart's handwriting is clearly identifiable,” an expert said. “There's no doubt that this is an original piece handwritten by Mozart.” The notation is for a melody only, with no orchestrations, but “one can really get a feeling of what Mozart meant,” he said.

Though the score has just been rediscovered, it had previously been authenticated, as evidenced by an annotation. “Authenticity of this present handwriting of W.A. Mozart is confirmed,” a collector wrote in 1839, some 50 years after the composer died. The score, part of a collection, was donated to a library in the western city of Nantes in the 19th century.

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A previously unknown piece of music by Mozart. (AP Photo)

Nantes vice-mayor Jean-Louis Jossic displays a previously unknown piece of music by Mozart, discovered in a library as staff were going through its archives. (AP Photo)

Nantes vice-mayor Jean-Louis Jossic displays a previously unknown piece of music by Mozart, found by a library as staff were going through its archives. (AP Photo)

An undated portrait of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. (AP Photo)

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The tune is complete. It's only one part and not the whole score with eight or twelve parts. One can really get a feeling of what Mozart meant, although we don't know how he would have orchestrated it. - Ulrich Leisinger, head of research at the International Mozarteum Foundation

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New Mozart Score Surfaces in France