A curator at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York has found an unknown waltz by Polish composer Frédéric Chopin in a collection of cultural relics.
The New York Times writes about it.
Robinson McClellan found the manuscript deep in the vault in the spring of this year, among postcards and letters from famous artists and composers. Item #147 was a musical recording – faint and small, with the title “Waltz” and a small signature “Chopin” at the top.
McClellan is a composer but did not recognize this work as Chopin’s. He photographed the manuscript and played the waltz on his digital piano at home. The waltz he found was “explosive”-it began with quiet, dissonant notes that spilled over into sharp chords. So McClellan sent a photograph of the music to Jeffrey Kallberg, a leading Chopin scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, who said he had never seen the piece.
After checking the manuscript’s paper and ink, analyzing the handwriting and musical style, and consulting with external experts, the specialists agreed that this work is most likely an unknown waltz by Frédéric Chopin. He probably wrote it between 1830 and 1835, at the age of 20-25.