It was an unsolved mystery of classical music. An “Easter” sonata, sometimes attributed to the 19th-century composer Felix Mendelssohn, had largely disappeared from history. Scholars suspected the work was actually by the celebrated composer’s sister, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel. But the manuscript seemed lost, so how could they prove it?

Duke University announced this week that a 28-year-old Ph.D. student in musicology, Angela R. Mace, had unraveled the riddle, demonstrating that the 1828 sonata was Hensel’s work. How Ms. Mace did it is a story of archival digging and sheer luck that culminated in a trembling moment of excitement as she held the missing manuscript in the Paris office of its private owner.

The discovery helps shed light on a composer who wrote during an era when a musical career was impossible for such a high-status “lady of leisure.” Hensel lived in “a golden cage”…

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