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Posted June 10, 2005.
Unknown Bach Composition Discovered in German Library
A musical scholar has discovered a previously unknown aria by Johann Sebastian Bach in the collections of the Anna Amalia Library in Weimar, Germany. Researcher Michael Maul found the score in the process of conducting a systematic survey of all central German church, communal, and state archival collections, the Leipzig-based Bach-Archiv foundation announced June 7.
Bach-Archiv Director Christoph Wolff told the Associated Press that the 12-stanza aria, composed in October 1713 for the Duke of Saxe-Weimar when Bach was 28, was among manuscripts taken from the library for restoration before the disastrous September 2004 fire. “Otherwise the work would have been consumed by the flames and we would never have known of its existence,” Wolff said.
The library, housed in a 16th-century palace, reopened in February.
Posted June 10, 2005.
