Unknown Chopin waltz is uncovered after almost 200 years

Music scholars thought they knew every work by the virtuoso pianist/composer Frédéric Chopin — every mazurka, etude, nocturne, polonaise and waltz.

But wait! A librarian at Manhattan’s Morgan Library & Museum recently unearthed a tiny scrap of music, no bigger than an index card, labeled in faded script “Valse” (“Waltz”) and “Chopin.”

Robinson McClellan, who also is a composer, told the New York Times that he thought, ”‘What’s going on here? What could this be?’ I didn’t recognize the music.”

He sent a snapshot to Jeffrey Kallberg, a Chopin scholar at the University of Pennsylvania.

“My jaw dropped,” he told the Times. “I knew I had never seen this before.”

Testing of the paper, ink and handwriting confirmed the piece was a previously unknown work by the composer, who died at 39 in 1849. Although it has several anomalies compared with other Chopin compositions (it is quite short and has unusual dynamics, including a triple forte at the start), the Morgan is confident it is genuine.

Indeed, pianist Lang Lang, who recorded the waltz for the New York Times, said it felt like the composer.

“This is not the most complicated music by Chopin,” he said. “But it is one of the most authentic Chopin styles that you can imagine.”

Hear it for yourself, interpreted by the star pianist for the New York Times.