Listeners in the U.K. got to hear a song by German composer Felix Mendelssohn for the first time on Tuesday- 140 years after it disappeared.
Mendelssohn wrote the song, titled "The Heart of Man is Like a Mine," in 1842 as part of a private commission for a friend, the BBC reported. But the song was never published and remained missing for over a century until the original manuscript was found among the documents of a private U.S. collector. The song was finally played by a singer and pianist from the Royal College of Music in an exclusive performance for the BBC's Radio 4 Today.
"This is a very exciting rediscovery: the song was only ever a private commission and we know that even in Mendelssohn's lifetime he deliberately prevented its circulation," Thomas Venning, senior specialist from Christie's, where the manuscript will be auctioned later on this month, said according to the BBC.
Even if the song was never lost, the public most likely would not have heard it because it was a private commission.
"The manuscript has been lost for 140 years, so it seems likely that we have here music by one of the great composers that no living person has ever heard. It is quite a simple, short song with a catchy, lilting melody," Venning said.
Mendelssohn, best known for his "String Octet" and his overture to "A Midsummer Night's Dream," wrote the song for Johann Valentin Teichmann, the manager of the Court Theatre in Berlin, the BBC reported. The song praises the power of the human heart by comparing it to a mine that can produce gold and silver. But the heart will produce only what it contains.
The manuscript was sold at auction in 1862 and 1872. After that the manuscript's whereabouts were unknown until the current owner found it among his grandfather's papers, the BBC reported. It is not known how the manuscript ended up in the U.S.
The manuscript, which contains the composer's signature on the bottom, is expected to sell for at least 15,000 pounds, or $25,000.
