Mozart at the castle

This fragment of the world’s music heritage was displayed together with two letters, one from Mozart, the other from his father. A short film told the story of its discovery.

At the end of the 19^th century, Pierre-Antoine Labouchere donated his treasure of archives to the City of Nantes. These roughly 5000 autographed documents are conserved  at the Municipal Library. Simply described as “a composition,” this sheet music did not attract much attention. During a trip to Nantes, as part of his research on Mozart, Ulrich Leisinger, director of the Musicology Department at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, authenticated it as being written by the composer himself. The 16 x 29 cm (6 x 3.5 in.) piece of paper was suddenly of unexpected importance.
The written music [Vienna, circa 1787] is “the melodic draft of a composition for voice in D minor, most likely for the Kyrie of a mass, and the beginning of a Credo in D major.”