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More Early Bach Manuscripts Turn Up in GermanyResearchers from the Bach-Archiv in Leipzig, Germany, have uncovered what may be the earliest known handwritten manuscripts ever inked by composer Johann Sebastian Bach. The two documents, transcriptions of organ music composed by Dietrich Buxtehude and Johann Adam Reinken, were discovered in the archives of the Anna Amalia Library in Weimar, where a previously unknown Bach aria turned up in 2005. One of the works is dated 1700 when Bach was only 15 years old and the other is thought to be even older.“We have until now not had anything dated before 1700,” Bach-Archiv Director Christoph Wolff said in an August 31 Reuters report, “and what is particularly important is that these are not just manuscripts but musical arrangements which are particularly demanding.” Wolff added that a note attached to the Reinken manuscript confirmed that Bach had studied in Lüneburg with the North German organist Georg Böhm. The Amalia Library’s collections were badly damaged by a devastating fire in September 2004, but the Bach manuscripts survived because they had been stored in the building’s vault. Posted September 1, 2006. |
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