I just read that one page of a Mozart manuscript was just found in a library in France.

Now you would think that music libraries would have an inventory of all of the music inside the library, but apparantly many do not. There have been 10 findings of Mozart “charts” found in libaries in Europe over the past 50 years.

They estimate this one page of scribble to be worth over $100,000.

I sometimes wonder if sketch manuscripts, jazz charts and even finale files of our great jazz composers of the 20th century will be worth huge amounts of money in a couple hundred years.

I have a hard time thinking that a one page scribble of a Duke Ellington or Bob Mintzer chart would fetch 100K in 200 years, but I guess you never know.

Too bad these composers can’t get paid for this stuff while they are alive. Sure would make it easier. Then again, Mozart had to teach snot-nosed kids piano during his short lifetime just to make ends meet.

Nature can be cruel, real cruel.