By: Katie Kirkland
A composition, once thought lost to history, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) has been rediscovered in the archives of the Leipzip Municipal Libraries in Germany. The discovery was made by researchers while compiling the 2024 edition of the Köchel catalog, a comprehensive archive of Mozart’s work.
The 12-minute-long composition, entitled Serenade in C, consists of seven miniature movements for a string trio (a cello and two violins). The attribution on the newly-rediscovered manuscript is to “Wo[l]fgang Mozart” which suggests it was written before 1769 when he started adding “Amadeo” to his name. This fact, along with the style of the composition, indicates the piece was written in the 1760s. Mozart, a child prodigy, was likely between the ages of 10 and 13 when he wrote it.
Mozart composed over 600 works before his death at the age of 35. According to Ulrich Leisinger - head of research at the International Mozarteum Foundation - Mozart’s father recorded a list of his young son’s chamber works, but all of them were believed to be lost.
“Until now the young Mozart has been familiar to us chiefly as a composer of keyboard music and of arias and sinfonias but we know from a list drawn up by Leopold Mozart that he wrote many other chamber works in his youth, all of them unfortunately lost. It looks as if – thanks to a series of favourable circumstances – a complete string trio has survived in Leipzig. The source was evidently Mozart’s sister, and so it is tempting to think that she preserved the work as a memento of her brother. Perhaps he wrote the Trio specially for her and for her name day.” Source
The manuscript attributes the piece to Mozart, but is not in his handwriting, leading researchers to believe it is a copy that was made circa 1780.
The composition has been renamed to Ganz kleine Nachtmusik (Quite [or Very] Little Night Music) for the Köchel catalog. The piece was played and recorded for modern audiences for the first time on September 19, 2024 by Haruna Shinoyama and Neža Klinar (violin), Philipp Comploi (cello), and Florian Birsak (harpsichord). Listen here.
With this new discovery, one wonders how many more compositions, thought lost to the annals of history, are simply waiting to be rediscovered.
Original Smithsonian article.
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