Reproduction of an article printed in 'The Indepenent' 8/10/99:

   A PREVIOUSLY unknown piece of music by Ludwig van Beethoven, which
   was discovered among a collection of books, was played for the first
   time yesterday.  The manuscript, performed by the internationally
   renowned Eroica String Quartet, is expected to fetch 200,000 when
   it is auctioned on 8 December.

   The 45-second piece of music, entitled Allegretto in B Minor, was
   found in a house in Cornwall and is in the composer's own hand.  It
   was written for a string quartet in 1817 and given to Richard Ford,
   a celebrated 19th-century traveller, critic and writer.  Ford wrote
   on the piece: "This quartet was composed for me in my presence by
   Ludwig van Beethoven at Vienna Friday 28 November 1817, Richard Ford."
   He then gave it to his wife, Mary Molesworth, who pasted it into an
   album at the family home near Bodmin, north Cornwall, where it has
   remained ever since.

   Stephen Roe, a manuscript specialist at Sotheby's, unearthed the
   piece when he was asked to value a collection of papers and autographs
   for the Molesworth St Aubyn family.  It was played at the London
   auction house yesterday.  "The discovery of any new, previously
   unknown work by

   Beethoven is extraordinary," he said.  "The family knew it was there,
   but they did not realise its significance.  When I saw it i was
   immediately intrigued because I could see it was in Beethoven's own
   hand."

   The piece was composed 10 years before Beethoven's death, a period
   regarded by scholars as a turning point and when he composed some
   of his most important work.  Barry Cooper, of Manchester University,
   who has written several books on the composer, said: "The unearthing
   of a new Beethoven work is extremely unusual.  I can't remember when
   it last happened."

Bob Draper
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