"It is a sobering thought that when Mozart was my age, he had been dead for two years."
Tom Lehrer.
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gcanyon
> the Duke failed to pay Mozart for his work
You stiffed Mozart!? A curse on your ghost!
MyHonestOpinon
While interesting. Is it a 'Major discovery' ?
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wvbdmp
Apparently this was an exercise book he made for a parisian tutee, who later fled the french revolution, leading to the confiscation of the notebook by the revolutionaries.
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mpfect
Turns out "technical debt" also applies to national archives.
I’m hoping that a full scan appears in the archive linked at the bottom of the page. I’m a composer and still hand-notate in a notebook. It’s so cool to the penmanship of someone writing in notebooks so quickly yet cleanly. In case you didn’t read, the contents are primarily exercises in composition where Mozart began a passage, the student continued, and Mozart corrected / guided the students work where needed. So there’s a higher percentage of Mozart in the pieces here than not. Like Brundlefly.
There is not a single citation in this article, even though it uses quotations.
Here is a more reputable article for this news story: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/22/arts/music/mozart-music-f...
If you like a discovered manuscript story, you should see "In the Hands of Dante", great movie.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1333644/
This review doesn't spoil the movie https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jun/19/in-the-hand-of-...
Side note, imdb's per country rating histograms are mesmerizing https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1333644/ratings/ how different the Iranian ratings are vs the UK.
"It is a sobering thought that when Mozart was my age, he had been dead for two years."
Tom Lehrer.
> the Duke failed to pay Mozart for his work
You stiffed Mozart!? A curse on your ghost!
While interesting. Is it a 'Major discovery' ?
Apparently this was an exercise book he made for a parisian tutee, who later fled the french revolution, leading to the confiscation of the notebook by the revolutionaries.
Turns out "technical debt" also applies to national archives.
seems like more of a minor discovery to me
The library where the discovery was made:
https://www.bnf.fr/en/actualitesEN/discovery-unpublished-aut...
I’m hoping that a full scan appears in the archive linked at the bottom of the page. I’m a composer and still hand-notate in a notebook. It’s so cool to the penmanship of someone writing in notebooks so quickly yet cleanly. In case you didn’t read, the contents are primarily exercises in composition where Mozart began a passage, the student continued, and Mozart corrected / guided the students work where needed. So there’s a higher percentage of Mozart in the pieces here than not. Like Brundlefly.
Hear perhaps here:
https://youtu.be/wk-sIeh7BcI?si=188fGFMD_f3DrkXP
I love his handwriting style. I wonder if it was the first draft or a copy [1]
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkqfpkTTy2w
I hope we get to hear his new/old music. That would be amazing
Let's hope it is more authentic than the Hitler Diaries[1]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler_Diaries
Anyone remember the Hitler diaries?