You can listen to a lost Chopin waltz that hasn’t been heard for almost two centuries

Chopin manuscript

Experts have found that the manuscript’s paper and ink are consistent with the materials Chopin used at the time.
Carmen González Fraile, 2024

A curator in New York City has one lost waltz by Frédéric Chopin, with which the famous 19th century composer discovered music for the first time since the 1930s.

Robinson McClellancurator at the Morgan Library & Museumnoticed the manuscript while cataloging items from a newly donated collection in 2019. The waltz was on a small piece of paper — about the size of an index card — with the name “Chopin” written across the top. However, when McClellan could not match it with any of Chopin’s works, he became increasingly perplexed.

“I thought: what is going on here? What could this be?’” he tells the New York Times‘ Javier C. Hernández. “I didn’t recognize the music.”

Chopin is believed to have written dozens of waltzes, but only about 17 were published. The rest has been lost to history.

McClellan sent a photo of the manuscript to Jeffrey Kallberga Chopin scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. Kallberg was shocked when he received the image.

“My jaw dropped,” he tells the newspaper Times. “I knew I had never seen this before.”

Chopin – Waltz in A minor (discovered in 2024) – played by Lang Lang

McClellan and Kallberg began working on authenticating the piece, enlisting the help of Chopin experts and paper conservators, according to a statement of the museum. They encountered a number of obstacles along the way.

Although the document mentions Chopin’s name, the musician had not signed it himself. Handwriting analysis showed that the name was written by someone else. Moreover, the piece only lasts about a minute. Chopin is known for his brevity, but the newly discovered waltz is shorter than his others. The structure is also quite striking.

Chopin

The new piece is Chopin’s shortest known waltz.

General Photo Agency / Getty Images

“Several moody, dissonant bars culminate in a loud outburst, before a melancholic melody begins,” the museum said. “None of his well-known waltzes begin this way, which makes this one even more intriguing.”

Yet none of these qualities disqualifies the composition as a Chopin. It dates from around 1830, when the composer was in his twenties, and experts say he may have experimented more in these early years.

The music “provides a glimpse into Chopin’s creative process,” says a museum spokesperson CNNIt’s Jack Guy. “We can see Chopin trying things that would become characteristic of his style.”

Chopin was born in Poland in 1810 and was a prodigy who started composing at a young age and subsequently studied at the Warsaw Conservatory. He died when he was only 39, but even though his career was cut short, he is considered one of them the greatest composers in history for the piano.

During the authentication process, paper conservators confirmed that the paper and ink were consistent with what Chopin would have used at the time. The handwriting also corresponds to other manuscripts by the composer. Based on this research, the museum concludes that there is a “high probability” that Chopin wrote the piece.

“I’m 98 percent sure,” McClellan says BBC News’ George Wright. “Many people who have heard it already feel in their gut that this sounds like Chopin.”

Although the waltz is short, experts do not think it is unfinished. Chopin sometimes gave small pieces like these to friends. However, he usually signed these works, “suggesting that he had a change of heart and withheld the newly discovered composition,” the museum said.

Thanks to McClellan’s discovery, the music that had been hidden for almost 200 years is finally seeing the light of day.

“This newly discovered waltz expands our understanding of Chopin as a composer and opens new questions for scholars to consider when he wrote the waltz and for whom it was intended,” McClellan said in the statement. “Hearing this work for the first time will be an exciting moment for everyone in the world of classical piano.”

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