New Bach Work Discovered

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VirginiaHuguenot

Puritanboard Librarian
Previously unknown Bach work discovered

By STEPHEN GRAHAM, Associated Press Writer

Thu Aug 31, 2006

BERLIN (AP) - A previously unknown work by Johann Sebastian Bach has turned up in a crate of 18th-century birthday cards removed from a German library shortly before it was devastated by fire last year, researchers said Wednesday.

Experts say the work for soprano and string or keyboard accompaniment, composed for a German duke's birthday, is the first new music from the renowned composer to surface in 30 years.

Researcher Michael Maul from the Bach Archiv foundation found the composition, dated October 1713, in May in the eastern city of Weimar. The Leipzig-based foundation said there was no doubt about the authenticity of the handwritten, two-page score.

"It is no major composition but an occasional work in the form of an exquisite and highly refined strophic aria, Bach's only contribution to a musical genre popular in late 17th-century Germany," said Christoph Wolff, the foundation's director and a professor at Harvard University.

Wolff said the work, written when Bach was 28, was among documents taken from the Duchess Anna Amalia library in Weimar for restoration before September's devastating fire.

"Otherwise the work would have been consumed by the flames and we would never have known of its existence," Wolff said.

Maul, who has been combing church and government archives in eastern Germany since 2002 for clues about Bach's life and work, said he was stunned to discover the work in the last of five crates of documents which had been in a room completely gutted by the fire.

He said the two pages were among several hundreds of poems and greetings written by officials and clerics to honor the 52nd birthday of the duke of Saxony-Weimar, who Bach served as a court organist.

"If I hadn't decided to go through them systematically, I would never have thought to look there," Maul said.

Maul said it was the first Bach work to come to light since 1975, when a copy of the "Goldberg Variations" in a private collection was found to contain extra canons for piano in the composer's own handwriting.

The last previously unknown vocal work by Bach to surface was in 1935, when the single-movement cantata fragment "Bekennen will ich seinen Namen" was discovered, the foundation said.

Bach composed the work for a solo soprano, to be accompanied by strings or a harpsichord, to mark the 52nd birthday of Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Saxony-Weimar, whom Bach then served as court organist, the foundation said.

The soprano was to sing a 12-stanza poem beginning with the duke's motto "Everything with God and nothing without him" written by the theologian Johann Anton Mylius.

The work was Bach's only known strophic aria, in which several stanzas are set to the same music, and the precise date made it valuable to researchers studying the development of the German composer's style, the foundation said.

It was not clear if it was played at the time, but the foundation said English conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner is preparing to record it.

Gardiner last month received a medal in recognition of his performance of Bach music from the Saxony city of Leipzig, where Bach was cantor of St. Thomas Church for 27 years.

Maul said there were hopes the aria would be performed in Leipzig or Weimar to mark the first anniversary of the fire from which it had such a narrow escape.

The blaze destroyed about 50,000 historic books and damaged another 62,000. Restoration costs are estimated at between $61-$73 million.

The 16th-century rococo palace that houses the library reopened in February.

Germany's Baerenreiter publishing house plans to publish the composition in the fall.

Maul said the foundation would exhibit the score once copyright issued have been cleared up.
 
Composed for the Duke's birthday? Hmmmmm, it's well known that Satanists make a big deal out of birthdays.

"An exquisite and highly refined strophic aria"? What a bunch of hifalutin gobbledegook. Shouldn't he have been out soul winning instead?

Does this piece proclaim the gospel? If not, cast it into the flames! ;)
 
Brandenburg Concerto No. 7

A concert of the Brandenburg Concertos was given some time back.

Following the last piece, it was announced that the 7th Brandenburg Concerto would be played. Everybody's like, "7th Brandenburg???" "There are only 6 Brandenburgs" "Who ever heard".

The orchestra proceeded to play a piece that sounded like it could have been written by Bach, kind of like one of those "If Bach had written ..."

As the piece continued to play it became clearer to the conductor that the orchestra was really playing "Happy Birthday" - and it was his birthday.

True story.

[size=-2]Another thread bites the dust ... another thread bites the dust ... another thread bites ... another thread bites ...[/size]
 
Originally posted by Pilgrim
Composed for the Duke's birthday? Hmmmmm, it's well known that Satanists make a big deal out of birthdays.

"An exquisite and highly refined strophic aria"? What a bunch of hifalutin gobbledegook. Shouldn't he have been out soul winning instead?

Does this piece proclaim the gospel? If not, cast it into the flames! ;)

Bach was a certified Christian. R. C. Sproul says so. It's okay to like his music. Nihil Obstat from the great Sproul!!
 
Meg, you must put it a little more strongly than that. It is NOT ok to NOT like his music.
 
Originally posted by py3ak
Meg, you must put it a little more strongly than that. It is NOT ok to NOT like his music.

It does show a distinct lack of sanctification not to like Bach!

That better?
 
Originally posted by turmeric
Originally posted by py3ak
Meg, you must put it a little more strongly than that. It is NOT ok to NOT like his music.

It does show a distinct lack of sanctification not to like Bach!

That better?

I love Bach. Haven't listened to much in a long while.

Here's something on Bach as Lutheran Theologian. I also remember a book coming out several years ago on that topic.

[Edited on 9-1-2006 by Pilgrim]

[Edited on 9-1-2006 by Pilgrim]
 
Originally posted by py3ak
Meg, you must put it a little more strongly than that. It is NOT ok to NOT like his music.

Yes, i agree. I'm sitting here looking at his complete organ works sitting on my organ bench. I'm only 1/4 of the way through learning how to play them. I need to get back to work.
 
Originally posted by Puritanhead
Originally posted by Pilgrim
Composed for the Duke's birthday? Hmmmmm, it's well known that Satanists make a big deal out of birthdays.

"An exquisite and highly refined strophic aria"? What a bunch of hifalutin gobbledegook. Shouldn't he have been out soul winning instead?

Does this piece proclaim the gospel? If not, cast it into the flames! ;)
Are you sure you're not in the SBC? :p

Shhh. I'm deep undercover in the OPC on a top secret mission to purge it of the Federal Vision, winebibbers and those who partake in ungodly entertainment. The other posts you've seen from me here lately that seem to suggest otherwise are merely designed to build up credibility and curry favor with the unsuspecting.
 
Originally posted by Pilgrim
Originally posted by Puritanhead
Originally posted by Pilgrim
Composed for the Duke's birthday? Hmmmmm, it's well known that Satanists make a big deal out of birthdays.

"An exquisite and highly refined strophic aria"? What a bunch of hifalutin gobbledegook. Shouldn't he have been out soul winning instead?

Does this piece proclaim the gospel? If not, cast it into the flames! ;)
Are you sure you're not in the SBC? :p

Shhh. I'm deep undercover in the OPC on a top secret mission to purge it of the Federal Vision, winebibbers and those who partake in ungodly entertainment. The other posts you've seen from me here lately that seem to suggest otherwise are merely designed to build up credibility and curry favor with the unsuspecting.

Ah-ha! A fellow spy! Join the club! ;)
 
I have no strong feelings about Bach, but all of my music major friends in college absolutely hated him! Not sure if that's a slam or a compliment.
 
Originally posted by bradofshaw
I have no strong feelings about Bach, but all of my music major friends in college absolutely hated him! Not sure if that's a slam or a compliment.

Wow, almost 30 years ago I was a music major, and the great majority of my classmates loved Bach. It seems times have changed.
 
Originally posted by VirginiaHuguenot
For a little historical-theological background on the Brandenburg Concertos, see here.

Back in 1994 we attended a benefit concert of the 6 Brandenburgs - put on by the Britt Music Festival. (Not the concert I referred to in the story above). It was awesome.

It was held at The Old Church in Portland, OR; the current venue of Intown Presbyterian (Meg's church).
 
Didn't know you ever lived in Portland, Jay! The Old Church just bought a new Steinway grand which we get to enjoy each week - along with a real pipe organ!
 
Originally posted by turmeric
Didn't know you ever lived in Portland, Jay! The Old Church just bought a new Steinway grand which we get to enjoy each week - along with a real pipe organ!

We lived just over the Columbia in Vancouver, WA, from 1986-2000. I worked in Portland, for Fred Meyer, then for Oregon Cutting Systems (Milwaukie, actually), and lastly for Menlo Logistics.

I would certainly enjoy hearing those instruments in a concert, but not in church!
 
Meg, that is much better. Bach is a touchstone of orthodoxy. My biggest objection to Lloyd-Jones is that he didn't appreciate Bach.

I have no strong feelings about Bach, but all of my music major friends in college absolutely hated him! Not sure if that's a slam or a compliment.

That may be due to the difficulty of performance. If otherwise, I would take it as a compliment to the great Johann Sebastian.
 
Originally posted by jaybird0827
Originally posted by turmeric
Didn't know you ever lived in Portland, Jay! The Old Church just bought a new Steinway grand which we get to enjoy each week - along with a real pipe organ!

We lived just over the Columbia in Vancouver, WA, from 1986-2000. I worked in Portland, for Fred Meyer, then for Oregon Cutting Systems (Milwaukie, actually), and lastly for Menlo Logistics.

I would certainly enjoy hearing those instruments in a concert, but not in church!

I missed meeting you. Very cool that you know the Northwest. Didn't mean to scandalize you w/instruments in church.:handshake:
 
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