Original score by Beethoven is found in Bodmin

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.

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 didn't 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."