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Newfound Mozart Works Written in Sister's Book
By Drew Nelles
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Posted Aug 2, 09 1:27 PM CDT
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(Newser)
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Two pieces by a 7- or 8-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart went undiscovered for more than a century because they were written in his father Leopold’s hand, the New York Times reports. Austrian researchers have disclosed new details about the works after announcing the finding in July: The music consists of parts of a piano prelude and a concerto, and was hastily scrawled in the back of Mozart’s sister’s practice book.
“This is nothing you would use to teach your children,” a researcher says, noting the complexity of the music. That was the giveaway: The pieces are demanding and sometimes convoluted, a marked difference from Leopold’s compositions. The many corrections also indicate that Leopold was transcribing from Mozart’s instructions, rather than copying the music out.