An unknown waltz by Chopin, written nearly 200 years ago, has been discovered in the vault of the Morgan Library and Museum in New York.  The New York Times reported that the score, a pockmarked manuscript the size of an index card bearing Chopin’s hand-written name, was found by a curator in the spring.

The curator, Robinson McClellan, told the paper: ‘I thought, “What’s going on here? What could this be?” I didn’t recognise the music.’ He conferred with a leading Chopin scholar, Professor Jeffrey Kallberg at the University of Pennsylvania, who was shocked by the discovery. They tested the ink and paper, and after finding the penmanship to be a match with Chopin’s, including the reproduction of a stylised bass clef symbol as well as doodling characteristic of the composer, the museum concluded that the work is indeed a previously unknown waltz by the great Polish composer. McClellan told the New York Times they have total confidence in their conclusion.

The museum believes that the music is from between 1830 and 1835, when Chopin was in his early 20s. Discoveries of unknown works by Chopin are rare, and this is the first of its kind for more than half a century.