Chopin’s hidden waltz unearthed by School of Music alum

Known for his delicate and magical waltzes, Frédéric Chopin’s stormier sensibilities are reflected in a newly identified waltz in A minor. In October, news broke that Yale School of Music alum Robinson McClellan '06MM, '07MMA, '11DMA, had found and authenticated a yet unknown piece of Chopin’s at The Morgan Library & Museum in a stack of materials donated to the museum in 2019.

"The best way to describe the feeling when I first saw the manuscript is 'cautious excitement,'" McClellan recalled. "Discovering a new, unknown work by any major composer is unlikely, and my first thought was that it was probably not going to turn out to be what it appeared to be. I did allow myself to enjoy the moment when I printed out a copy and brought it home to play at the piano. It was fun to think that I might be one of the first people in modern times to hear this tune, lost for almost 200 years."

Although inscribed with Chopin’s name, the tune begins moodier and more dissonantly than the Polish composer’s other waltzes, which made the discovery even more intriguing. After first finding the manuscript in May, McClellan enlisted the expertise of Jeffrey Kallberg, a leading Chopin authority at the University of Pennsylvania, who noticed several distinctive features characteristic of Chopin's handwriting.

"Chopin's distinctive bass clef is one of many details that tell us this is his handwriting," McClellan explained. "He writes his '4' in the time signature a certain way, and he puts the down stems on the wrong side of the note heads. I have studied many other Chopin manuscripts in the Morgan's collections, including some of his best-loved works like the Op. 53 Polonaise. Kallberg, the real Chopin expert, has seen nearly every manuscript Chopin ever wrote. This waltz manuscript has all the hallmarks."

Written on a piece of paper the size of an index card, it’s speculated that the waltz is an unfinished work written in the early 1830s when the composer was in his 20s, characteristic of pieces he would often give as gifts to friends. 

Although there is ongoing debate about whether the music itself was composed by the Romantic-era composer, McClellan notes that many have embraced the discovery of Chopin’s work. "The big response I'm seeing, all over the internet, from pianists everywhere, has been 'this feels like the real Chopin, on a gut level, and it's a beautiful piece of music.'"

"This is an exciting discovery," said Yale School of Music piano professor Wei-Yi Yang after playing the piece.  "Even in this diminutive form, I found a wealth of interpretive possibilities - for instance, I was able to play with some interesting voice-leading and dynamic shaping inside this tiny page of fleeting inspiration."

A composer himself, McClellan began working at the Morgan Library while pursuing his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Yale School of Music, helping to digitize its vast collection of music manuscripts beginning in 2008. "It was a temporary position, but I loved the work," he said. After spending time teaching and working in music technology, McClellan returned to the Morgan in 2019 as a curator.

"Being a curator is the perfect joining of creative and scholarly pursuits," he said. In his current role, McClellan has curated notable exhibitions, including one last summer on the Ballets Russes featuring manuscripts by Stravinsky, Debussy, and Ravel. He is also working on two exciting music exhibitions slated for 2026, details of which will be announced soon.

For now, McClellan's discovery of Chopin’s hidden waltz is a poignant reminder of the enduring mysteries still waiting to be uncovered in classical music.