A new piece of music believed to be penned by Frédéric Chopin has been discovered in the vault of a New York museum nearly 200 years after it was first written.
The unknown waltz was found in the Morgan Library and Museum — which dates the music to between 1830 and 1835 — on a card bearing the Polish composer’s name, according to the New York Times.
It was found by curator Robinson McClellan while he was cataloguing new collections, he told the newspaper. McClellan told the BBC he was initially unsure if the piece was actually Chopin’s after photographing the score and playing it himself on his keyboard at home.
McClellan then worked with a leading Chopin expert from the University of Pennsylvania to authenticate the score.
It is not signed by Chopin but the penmanship matched the famous composer’s, including his distinctive bass clef as well as his doodling characteristic.
“What we’re most certain about is it is written in the hand of Chopin, paper that he wrote on himself in his own hand,” McClellan told the BBC.
“What’s not entirely sure is that it’s music that he composed,” he said. “I feel about 98% sure, and many people who have heard it already feel in their gut this sounds like Chopin.”
Lang Lang, a world-renowned Chinese pianist who recorded the waltz for the New York Times, said, “it sounds very much like Chopin, with a very dramatic darkness turning into a positive thing. It’s beautiful.”
“This is not the most complicated music by Chopin but it is one of the most authentic Chopin styles that you can imagine,” Lang Lang told the newspaper.
Chopin, who wrote mostly piano solos, was born to a French father and Polish mother near Warsaw in 1810.
The museum believes that the manuscript was written when he was in his early 20s.
According to the New York Times, experts say Chopin is believed to have written around 28 waltzes before he died aged 39 in France in 1849.
Despite this, only eight waltzes were published in his lifetime, and another nine after his death with the remaining believed to be lost or destroyed.