I've read that the great majority of Bach's work didn't survive long after his death.
His kids used a lot of his manuscripts for mulch.
Very little music from anyone survived the composer in those days. I'm baffled how J.S. Bach wrote so much music. To even copy out of his complete corpus working a 40 hour work week would take about 70 years.
"His kids used a lot of his manuscripts for mulch."
Well, Bach did end up "De-Composing" for a while there after his death...
*RIMSHOT* Thank you, I'll be here all week! Try the Buffet! It's fabulous!
Actually, this is pretty cool if true. :)