Overview
- France's National Library announced on June 19 that an anonymous marbled-paper notebook found in its holdings in February has been authenticated as Mozart's by specialists.
- The Mozarteum Salzburg confirmed the attribution after paleographic and paper analysis highlighted features like Mozart's clef shapes and notation.
- The notebook pairs teacher and student hands and contains compositional exercises plus seven short pieces for flute and harp that total about 20 minutes, with the final exercise left unfinished and six blank pages.
- Scholars trace the item's chain of custody to the Guînes family and report it was taken during the French Revolution, and research into its provenance and notation is ongoing.
- The BnF will present the newly identified pieces at a concert on June 21 and France Musique will broadcast them, giving the public access while researchers study what the notebook reveals about Mozart's lessons and compositional process.