It's a forgotten melody, sketched in black ink in a swift but sure hand.
The single manuscript page, long hidden in a provincial French library, has been verified as the work of Mozart, the apparent underpinnings for a Mass he never composed.
The previously undocumented music fragment gives insight into Mozart's evolving composition style and provides a clue about the role religion may have played for the composer as his life neared its turbulent end, one prominent Mozart expert says.
A library in Nantes, western France, has had the fragment in its collection since the 19th century, but it had never been authenticated until now, partly because it does not bear Mozart's signature.
Ulrich Leisinger, head of research at the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, Austria, said Thursday that there is no doubt that the single sheet, the top third of which has been cut off, was written by the composer.
"His handwriting is absolutely clearly identifiable," he added. "There's no doubt that this is an original piece handwritten by Mozart."Leisinger said the work had been "entirely forgotten."
Such a find is rare: The last time unknown music in Mozart's handwriting came to light was in 1996, when a portion of an aria was sold at Christie's, Leisinger said.
The library does not plan to sell, but if it did, the single sheet would likely be worth around $100,000, the expert said.
In all, only about 100 such examples of musical drafts by Mozart are known.
There have been up to 10 Mozart discoveries of such importance over the past 50 years, Leisinger said.
The sheet was bequeathed to Nantes' library by a collector in the 19th century, along with one letter from Mozart as well as one from his father.
Both the letters were published in Mozart's complete correspondence, said Agnes Marcetteau, director of Nantes' municipal library.
In an annotation dated Aug. 18, 1839, Aloys Fuchs, a well-respected autograph hunter who collected works from more than 1,500 musicians, authenticated that the handwriting was that of "W.A. Mozart."
But strangely, the work never attracted much attention, partly because it did not bear Mozart's signature and partly because the catalog notation about it was extremely brief and bland, Leisinger said.
The library contacted Leisinger to authenticate the work last year.
Some of the first part of the fragment is in D minor, while the second is in D major and marked "Credo" - a major clue that the work is a sketch for a Mass, which typically includes such a movement, said Robert D. Levin, a professor at Harvard University who is well-known for completing unfinished works by Mozart.
Circumstantial evidence, including the type of paper, suggests Mozart did not write the material before 1787, said Leisinger.
Mozart died in 1791 at the age of 35.
"What this sketch leaf confirms in a most vivid way is Mozart's true interest in writing church music toward the end of his life," Levin said.
Mozart had planned to become the choir and music director of Vienna's main cathedral, although he died before he could take up the post.
But because Mozart had become a Freemason, some have questioned the sincerity of his interest in religious composition at that period of his life, Leisinger said.
Mozart's famous Requiem, unfinished at his death, was commissioned by a mysterious benefactor.
But the rediscovered fragment likely stemmed from inspiration alone and suggests "to a certain degree that being a Freemason and a Roman Catholic was not a real contradiction" in Mozart's eyes, Leisinger said.
For anyone who wants to try sight-reading the fragment, a bit of detective work is required. Musicians must work out the key signature and clef based on other clues in the music. The tempo is also mysterious.
And there is no orchestration.
"It's a melody sketch, so what's missing is the harmony and the instrumentation, but you can make sense out of it," Leisinger said. "The tune is complete."
Philip Gossett, a music historian and a professor in music at the University of Chicago, urged caution about interpreting the fragment.
"It is certainly not something that can just be scored up and played as Mozart's," he said.
Nonetheless, modern-day composers are going to take a crack at an orchestration.
And in January of next year, the Nantes library says, Mozart's 18th century Mass is expected to have its first performance.
The use of causal reasoning to solve problems was previously thought to be something only humans can do. But new research suggests that crows are capable of it too. University of Auckland cognitive scientist Alex Taylor and his colleagues devised an experiment to test New Caledonian crows' causal reasoning. Turns out, they were able to succeed where even chimps fail. I, for one, welcome our new feathered overlords. 
Saturday September 20, 2008 is Picklefest 2008!
Above is a striking photo of a triplefin reef fluorescing red. According to new research, many reef animals glow red but that capacity is usually overlooked scientists because most of that wavelength of sunlight is absorbed out as you go more than 10 meters down into the ocean. As a result, most animals from that zone see blue and green best. But University of Tübingen evolution ecologist Nico Michiels and his colleagues suggest that the red-glowing fish carry an untold biological story about the spectrum of the sea.
Scientists have dubbed this newly-discovered ant Martialis heureka, implying that it's so odd it could have come from Mars. Found in the Brazliian rainforest, it has no eyes, and its "mouth" is like a pair of long forceps. According to University of Texas at Austin evolutionary biologist Christian Rabeling, Martialis heureka is from the oldest ant lineage still living.
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