New Mozart Score Surfaces in France

A single-page musical score located in a French library has been confirmed as a Mozart original, the Telegraph reports. “Mozart's handwriting is clearly identifiable,” an expert said. “There's no doubt that this is an original piece handwritten by Mozart.” The notation is for a melody only, with no orchestrations, but “one can really get a feeling of what Mozart meant,” he said.

Though the score has just been rediscovered, it had previously been authenticated, as evidenced by an annotation. “Authenticity of this present handwriting of W.A. Mozart is confirmed,” a collector wrote in 1839, some 50 years after the composer died. The score, part of a collection, was donated to a library in the western city of Nantes in the 19th century. (More Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart stories.)