Forgotten Mozart sheet music found in France

A lost Mozart score, penned in the famous composer's own hand, was found in a library in Nantes, France, during a re-cataloguing project in the library's archives, reports the BBC.

Thought to be for a "Credo in D major," the score originally belonged to 19th-century collector Pierre-Antoine Laboucheroe, who donated his collection to the city of Nantes.

The library called in Ulrich Leisinger, head of research at the International Mozarteum Foundation in the composer's native Austria, to authenticate the sheet music. "His handwriting is absolutely clearly identifiable," Leisinger told the BBC. "There's no doubt that this is an original piece handwritten by Mozart."

Leisinger says that the sheet is a draft piece for a score that Mozart didn't finish for some reason. "It's a melody sketch so what's missing is the harmony and the instrumentation, but you can make sense out of it," Leisinger told the BBC. "The tune is complete. It's only one part, and not the whole score with eight or twelve parts."

As one of only 10 such Mozart pieces found within the last half-century, the sheet is estimated to bring in $100,000 at auction.

Related links:
International Mozarteum Foundation
Mozart on Wikipedia
Telegraph's article on the discovery

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