Lost, and Found

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Sometimes when a beloved band disbands or a musician dies, there is still unreleased music. Last year, for example, fans of the iconic rock band, the Beatles, were able to listen to an unreleased song, “Now and Then” with the help of artificial intelligence.

It’s not too often, though, that classical music fans get the same opportunity.

Last week, however, a crowd gathered outside the Leipzig Opera to hear a piece by the legendary composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, that was recently discovered in the Leipzig Municipal Library in Germany.

“Mozart dropped a new single,” wrote one listener on YouTube. “It’s an honor to be one of the first humans to hear this song in hundreds of years,” said another.

The 12-minute piece, “Serenade in C,” was believed to be composed by Mozart in the mid to late 1760s for a string trio and has seven movements. It’s now been renamed, “Ganz kleine Nachtmusik.”

Its first modern performance took place in the Austrian city of Salzburg – where Mozart was born in 1756 – late last September, Sky News reported.

Researchers discovered the manuscript in the Leipzig Music Library while compiling the latest edition of the Köchel catalog, Mozart’s musical works archive, ClassicFM wrote. The manuscript is unsigned by Mozart, and believed to be a copy made around 1780.

Mozart is considered one of the greatest composers in history. A child prodigy, he began creating scores at the age of five, composing more than 800 works before his death aged just 35.

The newly discovered piece is said to have been composed when Mozart was somewhere between 10 and 13 years old, based on the compositional characteristics of Mozart’s early work.

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