Mozart’s 22-Year-Old Composition Lesson Notebook Discovered — Seven New Works for Flute and Harp
Creatrip Team
a month ago
The Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) has authenticated a 44-page manuscript believed to be Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s handwritten composition lesson notebook from 1778, when the 22-year-old composer was in Paris. The notebook, long listed in BnF holdings as anonymous, contains composition exercises and seven newly identified pieces for flute and harp (six of them complete). Scholars think Mozart used it while teaching Marie-Louise-Philippine de Genière de Bonnier de Gines (a noblewoman) between May and July 1778; the lessons ended when she married on July 26. The manuscript likely entered the library after being seized in 1794 from the Gines family home during the French Revolution. BnF curators say the find is one of the most important Mozart discoveries in recent decades because it reveals how the young Mozart taught and worked with students. Excerpts will receive their first public performance at the Richelieu reading room on April 21 (local), with broadcasts of portions on Radio France’s France Musique the next morning and full airing in the afternoon.
