Unknown Mozart Notebook Found in Paris Library

Overview

• BnF conservator François‑Pierre Goy uncovered the marbled‑paper notebook in February while reviewing the library's holdings and noted handwriting and clef features that suggested Mozart's hand.
• The manuscript has 44 pages of composition exercises and seven short works for flute and harp that total about 20 minutes of music and are linked to lessons Mozart gave in Paris in 1778.
• The Mozarteum in Salzburg has confirmed the attribution after handwriting and paper comparisons, and specialists say the book contains both teacher and pupil hands with Mozart increasingly dominant.
• The notebook shows an unfinished final exercise and six blank pages and carries a provenance record that it was seized from the Duke of Guînes during the French Revolution.
• The pieces were prepared for a public performance at the BnF on 21 June with a France Musique broadcast and scholars are still studying revisions in the book that illuminate Mozart's teaching and working process.