New York museum finds rare waltz scores written by Chopin nearly 200 years ago

Curators at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City have discovered a musical manuscript believed to be by Polish pianist and composer Frédéric Chopin in the museum’s collection.

The work measures between 4 and 5 inches, similar to other Chopin manuscripts, and is believed to have originally been intended as a gift, according to the Morgan Library & Museum press release.

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Robinson McClellan, associate curator of Musical Manuscripts and Printed Music at the Morgan Library & Museum, told Fox News Digital via email that this is the first discovery of a new Chopin work from the 1930s.

A rare manuscript of a waltz believed to have been composed by Frédéric Chopin has been discovered at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York. (Morgan Library and Museum)

“Chopin left it unsigned and unpublished, perhaps a sign that he felt some ambivalence about it, but added performance cues such as fingerings and piano dynamics, showing that he intended it to be performed,” McClellan said.

Library curators investigated the music with Chopin experts, who say the manuscript “is a significant discovery in the world classical piano music”.

The score was discovered almost 200 years after Chopin’s death. It was believed to have been written sometime between 1810-1849. Chopin died in 1849.

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“The beginning of the piece is most remarkable: several whimsical, dissonant measures culminate in a powerful explosion, before a melancholic melody begins. None of his known waltzes begin in this way, making this one even more intriguing.” says the press release.

The piece is believed to have been composed between 1810 and 1849. (General Photo Agency/Getty Images)

Chopin is said to write music in “small forms”, but that rare piece it takes about a minute.

“This newly discovered waltz expands our understanding of Chopin as a composer and opens up new questions that scholars may consider when he wrote it and for whom it was intended,” McClellan said in the release.

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Morgan Library and Museum it houses more than 350,000 objects, rare books, manuscripts, drawings, prints and other works of art.

Chopin wrote in “small forms”, but this rare piece of music lasts about a minute. (Morgan Library and Museum)

The piece discovered by Chopin will join the Morgan Collection and be made available to visitors for study.

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“We see this announcement as the beginning of the process, not the end. We hope that music lovers, pianists and scholars will study it, absorb it and form their own opinions,” said McClellan.