New Bach Composition Discovered!

[Tuckerfan]

Tres, cool, IMHO.

Experts have discovered a previously unknown work by Johann Sebastian Bach in a German library, a research foundation devoted to the composer said Wednesday.

Historians found the aria in May in the Anna Amalia Library in the eastern city of Weimar, the Bach Archiv foundation said on its Web site.

There was no doubt about the authenticity of the handwritten, two-page score, dated October 1713, Leipzig-based the foundation said. It was the first unknown vocal work by Bach to surface since the discovery of the single-movement cantata fragment “Bekennen will ich seinen Namen” (BWV 200) in 1935, the foundation said.

“The find is a well-rounded composition - not a major work, but a casual piece of superior quality,” the foundation said.

[Hoops]

You can hear some of it here.

[Jackmannii]

And if we could get all those Leipzigers to clean out their attics, who knows what we’d find?

[Sophistry_and_Illusion]

I just shelled out $$$ for a 60-CD set of Bach’s cantatas–and in one fell swoop, it is rendered incomplete. Curses! (At least, I am getting the impression from news reports that it is a cantata, or part of one. Correct or incorrect?)

[CalMeacham]

Does the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople know about this?

[dropzone]

@Sophistry and Illusion

(At least, I am getting the impression from news reports that it is a cantata, or part of one. Correct or incorrect?)

An aria setting of part of a poem also found among the birthday greetings so your cantata collection is safe. It was a real lucky break: the box they were in was removed from the library shortly before the library was gutted by fire, all because somebody wanted to sort out the duke’s birthday cards!

[panache45]

@CalMeacham

Does the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople know about this?

Yes, they found out about it PDQ.