Throughout his life, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed over six hundred pieces. These include Requiem in D Minor and the Jupiter Symphony—and a recently discovered Serenade in C. This piece was found in Leipzig, Germany, and performed for possibly the first time in centuries on Thursday, September 19.
Serenade in C has seven small movements for a trio of two violins and a bass. In total, it lasts about twelve minutes. Allegedly, it is because of Mozart’s sister that the work was found. “It looks as if—thanks to a series of favorable circumstances—a complete string trio has survived in Leipzig,” Ulrich Leisinger, head of research at the Salzburg-based nonprofit International Mozarteum Foundation, said. “The source was evidently Mozart’s sister, and so it is tempting to think that she preserved the work as a memento of her brother. Perhaps he wrote the trio specially for her.”
Researchers encountered the piece in Germany’s Leipzig Municipal Libraries. This is approximately 280 miles north of where Mozart was born in 1756 in Salzburg, Austria. When he was only five years old, Mozart had already become a prodigy who toured Europe to perform for royals and aristocrats. He established his reputation as a composer in his teen years, living in Salzburg and Vienna prior to moving to Italy. Mozart became sick and died when he was only thirty-five. Even so, he composed a myriad of works in his lifetime, many of which are believed to have been lost. Luckily, Serenade in C has been uncovered once more.
It is believed that Mozart composed the newly discovered piece in the mid to late 1760s, according to the Leipzig Municipal Libraries. There, researchers had been compiling an edition of the Köchel catalog, a complete collection of Mozart’s work, when they encountered the bound manuscript including a composition written by hand. Mozart composed the piece, but the handwriting was not his own. This suggests it was a copy of the original composition, likely made around 1780.
Researchers report that the style of the music is similar to other works from the 1760s, when Mozart was between ten and thirteen years old. Additionally, the attribution to “Wo[l]fgang Mozart” shows that it was written when the composer was young. He only began including “Amadeus” in his name later on around 1769. In Mozart’s early years, he composed a plethora of works similar to Serenade in C. His father recorded these works in a list of pieces, although some of these have been lost. Serenade in C has been renamed Ganz kleine Nachtmusik in the Köchel catalog. This new title roughly translates to “Quite Little Night Music,” undoubtedly alluding to Mozart’s famous Eine kleine Nachtmusik.
The new catalog was unveiled on September 19 in Salzburg, and a string trio performed Serenade in C for the first time since its rediscovery. The composition was also performed at the Leipzig Opera on September 21.
