Unknown Mozart manuscript with seven flute and harp pieces discovered in Paris library, set for debut on Sunday

Discovery

On 2 February 2026, François-Pierre Goy, a curator in the music department of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, was sorting a bundle of anonymous manuscripts before his retirement. He opened a small, untitled notebook bound in marbled paper. "I was far from imagining what I was going to find," he later told AFP. Among the 44 pages, he recognised handwriting traits characteristic of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: rounded treble clefs slightly inclined forward, bass clefs drawn opposite to the French custom, and the way Mozart shaped brackets. Goy had recently been studying Mozart's pedagogical manuscripts, which sharpened his eye.

The manuscript's contents

The notebook, dated 1778, contains about a dozen composition lessons given daily from May to July 1778 to Marie-Louise-Philippine de Bonnières de Guînes, daughter of the Duke of Guînes. The Duke was a renowned flautist and his daughter an excellent harpist. The lessons include seven short pieces for flute and harp, a combination for which Mozart wrote almost nothing else. The last piece is unfinished, and the final six pages are blank, suggesting the lessons ended abruptly, perhaps with Mademoiselle de Guînes's wedding on 26 July 1778.

Authentication

Goy shared his suspicion with colleagues and the Mozarteum in Salzburg. The Bibliotheca Mozartiana examined the manuscript and, at the end of April 2026, confirmed the attribution. BnF president Gilles Pécout called it "a major discovery recognized by specialists," adding that it documents "the last Parisian stay" of Mozart and reveals him as a young teacher. "According to specialists, this discovery is undoubtedly one of the most important in recent decades," Pécout said.

First performance

The seven pieces will be performed publicly for the first time on Sunday 21 June, as part of the annual Fête de la Musique, at an invitation-only event at the BnF. Flutist Mathilde Calderini and harpist Nicolas Tulliez of the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra rehearsed in secret in a windowless studio, having received the score only a week earlier. "This is something we will never experience again," Tulliez said. The 20-minute suite was recorded this week and will be broadcast on France Musique on Monday 22 June at 15:00.

Historical provenance

The manuscript was confiscated from the Duke of Guînes's Paris residence in 1794 during the French Revolution and entered the BnF shortly after, but was never catalogued or stamped, which kept it hidden for over two centuries. Goy noted that the pieces always start from an idea proposed by Mozart, but then "the hands of the master and the pupil" mix in varying proportions. It offers a rare glimpse into Mozart as a teacher and the collaborative composition process with his first known composition pupil.