Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed over 600 works during his lifetime. Despite this astounding number, new works by the Austrian musician continue to be unearthed. Recently, researchers at a library in Germany found a previously unknown piece of music composed by a young Mozart.
Dating back to the mid to late 1760s, the work is believed to have been composed by Mozart when the musical prodigy was in his early teens. Born in 1756, Mozart showed his musical prowess at a very young age, and began composing at the age of five under the guidance of his father, Leopold, who was a composer and instructor.
The work was discovered at Leipzig's music library while compiling the latest edition of the Köchel Catalogue, considered the definitive archive of Mozart’s musical works. It consists of seven miniature movements for a string trio lasting about 12 minutes. According to the Leipzig libraries, the piece is referred to as Ganz kleine Nachtmusik (“Very little night music”).
The manuscript was not written by Mozart himself, as it is believed to be a copy made in about 1780. It was written in dark brown ink on medium-white handmade paper, and the parts are individually bound. The Köchel Catalogue describes the piece as “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,” which took place in December 1769 when the child prodigy was just 13 years old.
In celebration of the discovery, the piece was performed by a string trio at the unveiling of the new Köchel Catalogue in Salzburg, and had its German premiere at the Leipzig Opera a few days later.
A new composition by Mozart, written when he was a teenager, was recently discovered in Leipzig.
Titled Ganz kleine Nachtmusik (“Very little night music”), it was recently publicly performed for the first time by members of the Leipzig Music School.
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h/t: [The Guardian]
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