composition

Wolfgang A. Mozart died more than two centuries ago at the age of 35, but neither the time that has passed since his death nor his youth have prevented his talent from continuing to surprise us in 2026. Literally. Although few musicians have been as scrutinized as the Austrian genius, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BnF) just discovered an unpublished notebook from 1778 with scores from Mozart’s hand. The 44-page work contains seven pieces for flute and harp. Beyond the artistic value, the discovery sheds new clues about his life. The date: 02/02/2026. Sometimes chance is capricious. Coincidentally, that day, a week after the 270th anniversary of Mozart’s birth, one of the BnF conservators was rummaging through old manuscripts in the archive when he came across a piece that caught his attention. “I opened it and saw staves full of deletions, corrections and additions,” relates the BcN employee, François-Pierre Goy, responsible for the collections prior to 1800. “I recognized Mozart’s handwriting, his way of drawing the brackets, the rounded treble clefs leaning forward, the double final bars with fermatas above and below,” explained Goy to Le Monde. If it is not common to find an unpublished work by Mozart, that specific discovery was even more exceptional: the notebook dates from the end of the 18th century, but it is not signed and the BnF stored it among twenty manuscripts that were in the process of being recataloged. Following the trail. Goy had a hunch (one based on his extensive knowledge of the Austrian composer), but that is not enough to attribute an anonymous notebook to Mozart. To confirm his suspicions he went to Laurence Decoberthead of the Iconography and Documentation Service of the Department of Performing Arts of the BnF and a good connoisseur of the Austrian composer. In fact, he participated in the exhibition ‘Mozart, a French passion’, in 2017. Their analysis must also have pointed to Mozart’s authorship because Goy and his colleague decided to turn to a third specialist. Just a few months ago, in April, there was a knock on the door of Armin Brinzingthe director of the Mozart Library at the Mozarteum University of Salzburg. The expert did not have many doubts either: he confirmed the attribution and, above all, highlighted the historical importance of the work. “It is Mozart’s most important discovery in decades,” claims. What does the notebook contain? The document contains 44 handwritten folios with seven short works for flute and harp, as well as composition exercises, nothing strange if we take into account the context in which the experts place it: the BnF believes that it collects the composition lessons that Mozart gave to Marie-Louise-Philippine de Bonnières de Guînesan aristocrat three years younger than the Austrian and who is remembered above all for her skill as a harpist. “The use of French paper in the manuscript and its content (composition exercises and seven pieces for flute and harp) suggest that it bears witness to the lessons that Mozart gave directly from May to July 1778, during his last stay in Paris, to de Guînes,” explains the French organization. The young harpist, who was 19 years old at the time, was the eldest daughter of Adrien-Louis de Bonnières de SouastreDuke of Guînes and great lover of music. In fact, the duke himself was reputed to be a virtuoso flutist. By hiring Mozart as a composition teacher, he hoped that his daughter would create “great sonatas” for the instruments they both played: she the harp; he the flute. “I’ve tried everything”. The notebook located between the shelves of the BnF completes an episode in Mozart’s life that we already knew in part. Through a letter that Wolfgang wrote in May 1778 to his father, Leopold, who remained in Salzburg, we know, for example, that his young pupil may have been a skilled harpist, but she did not seem to have the makings of a composer. “She has no ideas, nothing comes of it. I’ve tried everything with her,” recognized Mozart frustrated. In general, his stay in Paris was not as profitable as he expected. He did not receive the recognition he desired and Goy explains that the duke never paid the Austrian for a flute, harp and orchestra concert that he commissioned. “We don’t even know if the Guînes family ever performed the pieces.” Why is it important? Locating a lost Mozart manuscript is always good news, even more so if (as in this case) it includes several unknown pieces. The notebook found by Goy, however, presents a series of peculiarities that make it even more interesting on a historical level. For example, the works are intended for a flute that the duke had bought in London, an instrument “rare, if not unique in Paris”, clarify from the BnF. Furthermore, Mozart did not devote the same attention to the flute or harp that he did to other instruments for which he created more repertoire, such as the clarinet. The new BnF work is also completed with annotations that seem 100% taken by the student and six blank final pages, without annotations. The big question. The manuscript is fascinating, but the truth is that experts seem to have few doubts about its origin. The BnF believes that it is one of the pieces “confiscated” in the mansion of the Duke of Guînes in mid-1794, during the Terror period of the French Revolution. Goy himself remembers that in the National Archives of France there is an inventory that cites “two bundles of sheet music” bound books taken from the aristocrat’s house in May 1794, after he sought refuge in England. The truth is that in recent years music lovers have enjoyed the discovery of various works unknown by Mozart, including pieces from his adolescence. “One of the most important”. Whoever wants to enjoy the short pieces for flute and harp that have just been resurfaced from the BnF archives can do so now in a performance made June 21 in the Ovale room of … Read more