PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN MUSIC FROM MOZART DISCOVERED FROM HIS TEENAGE YEARS

Throughout his life, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote over 600 compositions. Despite this astounding number, new works by the Austrian musician continue to be unearthed. Recently, a previously undiscovered composition by a young Mozart was discovered by researchers at a German library.

The piece, which dates to the middle to late 1760s, was reportedly written by Mozart when the musical genius was just a young adolescent. Mozart, who was born in 1756, demonstrated his musical ability at an early age. He started writing music at the age of five with the help of his father Leopold, a composer and teacher.

While assembling the most recent version of the Köchel Catalogue—which is regarded as the definitive collection of Mozart's musical compositions—the piece was found in Leipzig's music library. For a string trio, it consists of seven little movements that last for roughly 12 minutes. The work is referred to as Ganz kleine Nachtmusik, or "Very little night music," according to the Leipzig libraries.

Since the manuscript is thought to be a copy created in or around 1780, it was not written by Mozart himself. Each section is individually bound, and it was written in dark brown ink on handmade medium-white paper. 

The work is "preserved in a single source, in which the attribution of the author suggests that the work was written before Mozart's first trip to Italy," according to the Köchel Catalogue. Mozart's first trip to Italy occurred in December 1769, when the young prodigy was just 13 years old.

The composition was premiered in Germany a few days later at Leipzig Opera, following its performance by a string trio at the new Köchel Catalogue's unveiling in Salzburg as a celebration of the discovery.