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Posted on 04/24/2006 8:01:14 AM PDT by sitetest
Famous works attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach were not penned by the great composer but by his second wife, researchers believe.
A study by an academic who has spent more than 30 years looking at Bach's work claims that Anna Magdalena Bach, traditionally believed to be Bach's musical copyist, actually wrote some of his best-loved works, including his Six Cello Suites.
Martin Jarvis, a professor at Charles Darwin University School of Music in Darwin and the conductor of the city's symphony orchestra, said that "a number of books would need to be rewritten" after presenting his findings to a Bach symposium last week.
The findings have been described as "highly important" by Bach scholars and will be published in a doctorate, later this year.
Prof Jarvis, who is originally from Wales, used police forensic science techniques to scrutinise manuscripts he believed to be written by Anna Magdalena.
According to Prof Jarvis, Anna Magdalena appeared in the German composer's life earlier than widely believed, which was late in 1720 or in 1721. Prof Jarvis said he had found handwriting that showed she was in Bach's household in early 1720, and perhaps even as early as 1713.
"This raised an interesting question," he said. "What was Anna Magdalena doing in Bach's life when she wasn't supposed to be there?
"I also discovered that the only complete manuscript from the time for the Cello Suites was a manuscript in the hand of Anna Magdalena, and that the original manuscript in the hand of Johann Sebastian had vanished."
Prof Jarvis claims that there is musical evidence to prove that the Cello Suites - whose exact date of composition has never been established - were not written by Bach.
He points to what he regards as the uniquely symmetrical nature of the work, and to the fact that the manuscripts included many corrections and adjustments, suggesting that they were original composing scores.
"When you examine Bach's other music there is no structural symmetry present in that sense," he said.
Prof Jarvis believes that Anna Magdalena also had a hand in composing the aria from the Goldberg Variations, and said it was highly likely that she composed the first prelude of the Well-tempered Klavier Book I.
Yo Tomita, a Bach scholar based at Queen's University in Belfast, described the findings as "highly important".
Stephen Rose, a lecturer in music at Royal Holloway, University of London, said: "It is plausible that she corrected, refined and revised many of his compositions, although there is not enough evidence to show that she single-handedly composed the Cello Suites."
Cellists who have performed the Suites extensively remained sceptical. Julian Lloyd Webber insisted that the compositions were "stylistically totally Bach" and that "many composers had appalling handwriting, which meant better copies would naturally have been made, with the originals then discarded".
Steven Isserlis, the cellist, who is working on a recording of the Suites, said: "We can't say that it is definitely not true, in the same way that we can't prove that Anne Hathaway did not write some of Shakespeare's work, but I don't believe this to be a serious theory."
"Ahhhh Bach!"
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Nonsense. Everyone knows that Charlie Sheen wrote this stuff.
Is there anything a second wife can't do????
* groan *
;-)
Another revisionist retard.
ROTFLMAO!!
tolja! ; )
Bach was a virtuoso performer, an improviser, the bebop expert of his day. What he performed, others transcribed.
Dear Pondman88,
It depends on whether or not you're asking the first wife. ;-)
sitetest
Yes -- I know it's irrelevant. I just always think of that joke when I see an article about him!
You mean he didn't write all those Skid Row tunes, I'll never hear "18 and Life" the same way ever again.
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The Second Cello Suite has the essence of music.
if it worked for Radar O'reiley I am sure it woudl work for me.
Yikes! What a way to ruin a thread!! ;-)
I'm partial to the fugue, myself.
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