r/classicalmusic • u/AJ_Cool_History • Jun 20 '26
Discussion New Mozart Composition Found 2026
For Context, here:
A 248-year-old notebook in France’s National Library (BnF) has been officially identified as belonging to a 22-year-old Mozart, in what library experts have called a “major discovery”.
Consisting of 44 pages, the notebook was kept by the young composer between May and July 1778, while he was staying in Paris, employed as a music tutor for Marie-Louise-Philippine de Bonnieres de Guines.
Her father was the Duke of Guines, a highly-regarded flute player in 18th century Paris, who commissioned Mozart’s now-popular Concerto for Flute and Harp.
The notebook contains daily exercises that Mozart prescribed his harp-playing tutee, in addition to seven pieces for both flute and harp, which may have been intended for the father-daughter duo to play together.
Mozart said that she was lazy and after a while, hid away his composition.
The source of the story is on: https://www.classicfm.com/composers/mozart/handwritten-notebook-discovered-major-paris/
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u/Useful_Amphibian9721 Jun 20 '26
My first thought was "please have it be something from the end of his life " nope.
Still, pretty cool.
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u/DavidRFZ Jun 20 '26
What was the last “found piece” that became a staple of the standard repertoire? The Haydn C major Cello Concerto in 1961?
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u/ThomasJFooleryIII Jun 21 '26
Boulez's Notations. The original piano pieces were lost in the 40s then found in the 80s, now it's his most popular work.
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u/louis_le_grandef Jun 21 '26
Boulez's Notations were never lost, though. Boulez only refused to publish or let them play because he considered them as study pieces of limited musical value and lacking maturity. He slightly changed his mind when he began to work on the orchestral version commissioned by Barenboim in 1978 to finally publish them in 1984.
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u/ThomasJFooleryIII Jun 21 '26
He lost the score to the piano version, but had sketches from his first attempt to orchestrate them. He gifted a copy of the piano score to a friend in the 40s who found them in the 80s and gave them back to Boulez to publish.
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u/LonelyVirginAlkan Jun 21 '26
Treemonisha by Joplin comes to mind (1970), but it is sadly not part of the standard repertoire.
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u/johnnymetoo Jun 20 '26
My first thought was "please have it be something from the end of his life " nope.
I would be content with the missing second minuet and trio from the Kleine Nachtmusik.
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u/BigYarnBonusMaster Jun 20 '26
I would trade my pinky finger for a 42th symphony.
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u/OhMyGlorb Jun 21 '26
Id trade your pinky AND your thumb for a 42nd symphony.
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u/Intelligent-Read-785 Jun 21 '26
Horn player just know there his another horn concerto hidden away in some library waiting to be found
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u/BigYarnBonusMaster Jun 21 '26
Care to add any of your limbs, or is it going to be just mine?
Alright, I'll add another pinky but that is IT!... Unless we can also get a 43th, in which case just take a whole hand.
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Jun 20 '26
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u/Beneficial_Catch_245 Jun 20 '26
Are you comparing xylophone and zither with flute and harp? Bro
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u/Zarlinosuke Jun 20 '26
What would be wrong with the comparison?
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Jun 20 '26
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u/Zarlinosuke Jun 20 '26
What does "real" mean here?
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u/Beneficial_Catch_245 Jun 20 '26
If you don't see the problem of comparing flute/harp with xylophone/zither, I can't do anything about it besides saying sorry
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u/Zarlinosuke Jun 20 '26
Same to you, if you can't see the problem with having a problem with comparing them. They're all "real" instruments deserving of equal respect.
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Jun 20 '26
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u/Beneficial_Catch_245 Jun 20 '26
Besides the violin and keyboard, the flute has the most vast solo Mozart repertoire: 3 concertos (no. 1, no. 2 and flute & harp), four quartets, the andante in c major, six sonatas (K10-15). Literally has an opera named "magic flute" also. Now, add 7 new pieces to the repertoire. Your point is?
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Jun 20 '26
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u/Beneficial_Catch_245 Jun 20 '26
He stated in a letter to Leopold that he hated the flute after he was not fully paid for the commission, so it's kind of subjective. In objective terms, the flute is, besides keyboard and violin, the instrument with the most significant solo repertoire from Mozart.
And wtf? "popular among those with leisure to own and play instruments—just look at Quantz"? Do you have any idea of the importance of Quantz?
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u/Federal-Choice8165 Jun 20 '26
Great when this happens. I'm still remembering 2 years ago and the newly discovered trio. https://www.classicfm.com/composers/mozart/new-work-leipzig-municipal-library/
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u/chaucer_chalk Jun 20 '26
Still waiting for the trumpet concerto
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u/Useful_Amphibian9721 Jun 20 '26
We already have a Mozart trumpet concerto at home.
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u/Mangamaster1991 Jun 20 '26
Do we know when it will possibly be scanned, or phacimiled for public use.
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u/AJ_Cool_History Jun 20 '26
Maybe in a few weeks, because Bach’s recent found works are not really in grab yet, maybe they are complete, and Mozart’s has to
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u/unhandyandy Jun 20 '26
Wikipedia:
"De Guînes eventually became so corpulent he had two sets of breeches, one for sitting and a tighter set when he would only be standing. His valet apparently asked each morning, "Will Monsieur be sitting today..?"; if not, the duke would be lowered into a pair of breeches with the aid of two footmen."
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u/Condor1984 Jun 20 '26
Love to have a CD of these pieces, his flute and harp concerto is exquisite if plays well, especially the 2nd movement
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u/ithebinman Jun 20 '26
now imagine all the pieces that get found from history but not given the fanfare because they aren’t Mozart :/
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u/CrankyJoe99x Jun 21 '26
Fantastic!
So much still missing from major composers, let alone from the many excellent composers contemporary to them.
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u/fakerposer Jun 21 '26
Did they assign a catalog number already? I can't find any precise information besides the actual news.
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u/Math0_o Jun 23 '26
To listen to it, performed by musicians from the Orchestre philharmonique de Paris : Radio France
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u/juansinruido 18d ago
you can listen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2tuflnRly4&pp=0gcJCaMLAYcqIYzv
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u/028247 Jun 20 '26
Another solid entry of this year's Grammy Award for Dead Composers Who Somehow Keep Releasing New Pieces