Bach missing score found

[brownie]

More music from Heaven.

From AFP:

TOKYO (AFP) - A missing musical score composed by Johann Sebastian Bach was found in Japan, scholars said, calling it an invaluable discovery for musicians and researchers around the worlld.

The 1728 composition, called "Wedding Cantata BWV 216," was found among the possessions of Japanese pianist Chieko Hara, who died in Japan in 2001 at the age of 86.

"This is invaluable material that will lead to greater understanding of Bach," Tadashi Isoyama, a professor at Kunitachi College of Music, told reporters.

Isoyama led a team of scholars who since December have been examining the authenticity of the eight-page score, which has been missing for 80 years.

The score was hand-written under Bach's supervision for the 1728 wedding of the daughter of a customs official in Leipzig, Germany.

The documents contain soprano and alto parts with German lyrics.

It was not clear how Hara came to acquire the score, the last known owner of which was a descendant of German composer Felix Mendelssohn, Isoyama said.

Researchers believe Hara, who spent much of her career in Europe, might have received it from her Spanish husband and cellist Gaspar Cassado, who knew Mendelssohn's descendant.

Isoyama's college purchased the work and is considering releasing copies of the score for further research and performance.

[DTMX]

They'd have found it sooner, but it was "Haydn".

[JSngry]

It needs to go bach to Germany p.d.q. so it can be added to the liszt.

[rachel]

Boy, they sure Handel'd that situation!

[Matthew]

I see where everyone is "Chopin at the bit" to get their puns in on this one.

[DTMX]

I'll think of another one in a minuet.

[rachel]

I'll think of another one in a minuet.

[JSngry]

Sonata priority.

[mikeweil]

This is one of the few cases where we know the exact date and even the time of day of a Bach performance. The daughter in case was Susanna Regina Hempel, of a "Akzisekommisar" (don't ask me to translate that) from Zittau, a neat city in Saxonia, the bridegroom was Johann Heinrich Wolff, a merchant in Leipzig. The wedding took place at high noon on February 5, 1728, in the "Schellhaferische Haus", Klostergasse, Leipzig, with the celebratory music performed probably immediately afterwards.

The Mendelssohns in question were Robert and Paul von Mendelssohn, it was reported as being in their collection in 1926. There was no trace of the score afterwards.

I'm looking forward to hear this, as Bachs secular cantatas were among the works he took the most pains with, to impress the VIPs in town and to show his music could be just as attractive as Dresden operas. He recycled many parts of these secular works for his church music, as it was no problem to perform music that had already been premiered there, whereas honorary persons always required new compositions.

Just in case anybody might be interested ...

Edited April 4, 2004 by mikeweil