A previously unknown work of music written by European master Frederic Chopin appears to have been found at the Morgan Library and Museum in Manhattan.

The untitled and unsigned piece will be displayed this month in the lavishly appointed institution that was once the private library of financier JPMorgan.

Robinson McClellan, the museum curator who uncovered the manuscript, said it is the first new work attributed to a Romantic era composer to be discovered in nearly a century.

But McClellan admits that it will never be known whether it is an original Chopin work or simply written in his own hand.

The piece, set in the key of A minor, stands out for its “very stormy, contemplative opening section” before transitioning into Chopin’s more characteristic melancholy melody, McClellan explained.

“That’s his style. This is his essence,” he said during a recent visit to the museum. “It really sounds like him.”

McClellan said he came across the work in May when he was looking through the collection of the late Arthur Seitz, former president of the New York School of Interior Design. Seitz called it A. Sherrill Whitton Jr., an avid autograph collector, who was the school’s director.

McClellan then worked with experts to verify its authenticity.

According to the museum, the paper was found to be consistent with what Chopin preferred for manuscripts, and the ink matched the type used in the early 19th century, when Chopin lived. But handwriting analysis revealed that the name “Chopin” written at the top of the sheet was written by someone else.

Born in Poland, Chopin was considered a musical genius from an early age. He lived in Warsaw and Vienna before settling in Paris, where he died of tuberculosis in 1849 at the age of 39.

He is buried among a group of artists in the city’s famous Père Lachaise cemetery, but his heart, pickled in a jar of wine, is kept in a church in Warsaw, in keeping with his wish that his organ Come back to the motherland.

Artur Szkleiner, director of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in the Polish capital Warsaw, where the composer grew up, agreed that the document was consistent with the type of ink and paper used by Chopin during his early years in Paris.

Musically, the piece highlights the “brilliant style” that made Chopin a celebrity in his time, but it also has features unusual for his compositions, Szklener said.

“First of all, it is not a complete work, but a definite musical gesture, a theme consisting of simple piano tricks while hinting towards a virtuoso style,” Szklener explained in a lengthy statement released after the document was revealed last month. Is.”

He and other experts speculate that the piece may be a work in progress. It may also be a copy of someone else’s work, or co-written with someone else, perhaps a student for music practice.

Jeffrey Cullberg, a University of Pennsylvania music professor and Chopin expert who helped authenticate the document, called the piece a “little gem” that Chopin probably intended as a gift for a friend or wealthy acquaintance.

“Many of the things he gave as gifts were small – like ‘appetizers’ for a full-blown work,” Culberg said in an email. “And we don’t know for sure whether he intended the piece to see the light of day because he often wrote the same waltz more than once as a gift.”

David Ludwig, dean of music at The Juilliard School, a performing arts conservatory in Manhattan, agreed that the piece has many characteristics of the composer’s style.

Ludwig, who was not involved in authenticating the document, said, “Chopin’s character in this is very lyrical and there’s a little bit of darkness to it.”

But Ludwig said that, if it is authentic, the tightly composed score would be one of Chopin’s shortest known pieces. The waltz is meant to last less than a minute when played on the piano, as was the intention of many of Chopin’s works.

“In terms of its authenticity, in a way it doesn’t matter because it sparks our imaginations,” Ludwig said. “Discoveries like this highlight the fact that classical music is a living art form.”

Chopin’s revelation comes after the Leipzig Municipal Libraries in Germany announced in September that it had uncovered a previously unknown piece composed by a young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in its collection.

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Associated Press video journalist John Minchillo in New York contributed to this story.

Follow Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo.

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