The notebook presents to the reader extracts from Mozart’s rich and varied corpus, in his own handwriting. Entries include major masterpieces like The Magic Flute, The Marriage of Figaro, Eine kleine nachtmusik, quartets written for his friend Haydn, as well as many of his more minor works such as his “musical joke” (Ein musikalischer Spass), pieces for beginners, piano variations, sonatas and arias... The pieces represented in this notebook also vary in form and in length: entries include compositions scored for voice, chamber orchestras and string instruments, piano alone, duets, as well as operas, concertos, cantatas etc. The scores as written out in these notebooks sometimes vary from the form in which we know them today, or the official notation —Mozart often reworked his partitions, famously changing details in his compositions up until the very last minute.

Of particular interest among these entries are several “lost compositions”: compositions that have otherwise been lost and for which no other traces subsist. There also exists gaps in this catalogue: entries of known works that are left out here, but referenced for instance in the Köchelverzeichnis (the 19th century chronological catalogue of Mozart’s compositions, realized by the Austrian musicologist Ludwig von Köchel). Exactly why Mozart left out certain compositions remains somewhat of a mystery today — did Mozart deem them not important enough to be included? Or perhaps never truly finished?

It is also worth noting that Mozart only entered completed works, which explains why the notebook holds no mention to his most acclaimed (but famously unfinished) work — his Requiem in D minor.