No. 14 Spring 2011 BACH NOTES THE NEWSLETTER OF THE AMERICAN BACH SOCIETY A NEWLY EXPANDED RESEARCH LIBRARY RENOVATIONS AT THE BACH-ARCHIV LEIPZIG has grown steadily. The primary emphasis on books and scores is supplemented by numerous special collections, including recordings, images, sculptures, posters, programs, coins, and medals, for a total of more than fifty thousand items. The constant growth of the collection over the past few decades eventually led to a lack of space. This problem was temporarily solved by removing certain materials to repositories outside After two years of renovations, the of documents and materials IN THIS ISSUE: Bach-Archiv Leipzig has moved pertaining to the life and works of PAGE back into the Bosehaus on the Johann Sebastian Bach and other 1. A Newly Expanded Research Library Thomaskirchhof. The house was musicians of his family. The core by Kristina Funk-Kunath originally built in the 16th century of the holdings consist of valuable and renovated in 1711 by J.S. manuscripts and early prints of the 2. The Bach-Jahrbuch 2010 Bach’s neighbor, Georg Heinrich 18th and 19th centuries, including by Peter Wollny Bose, who lived there with his wife the original performing materials 3. Raymond Erickson’s The Worlds of and their many musically inclined for the cycle of chorale cantatas Johann Sebastian Bach children. The renovations, which Bach composed during his second by Jason B. Grant took place under the auspices of the year in Leipzig (1724-25). Bach-Archiv’s Director, Christoph Initially conceived as an aid for 5. Markus Rathey’s book on C. P. E. Bach’s Bürgerkapitänsmusik Wolff, brought particularly dramatic resident researchers, the library by Reginald L. Sanders improvements to the museum and today serves a much broader the library. The following article public. Musicologists, music 6. The New Facsimile Edition of BWV 33 was written by the Bach-Archiv’s lovers, students, musicians, and by Melvin Unger Head Librarian, Kristina Funk- Bach enthusiasts from all over the 8. News from Members; Kunath, and appeared in the Bach world visit to conduct research and Officers, Advisory Board, & Magazine 15 (2010). examine the vast collection of music Membership Information and literature. Since the library’s © 2011 The library of the Bach-Archiv holdings were made searchable The American Bach Society Leipzig possesses a unique collection online in 2004, the number of users 2 the Bach-Archiv. But the constricted working area, meters of shelf space), the total capacity of the library lack of air conditioning and, above all, the shortage of has nearly doubled. room for new acquisitions made it ever more difficult The optimization of our library has been worth the many to maintain adequate preservation standards for the years of careful planning it required. With the creation valuable manuscripts and visual images. of a large and well-lit reading room and information With the decision to completely renovate the Bosehaus center, the Bach-Archiv Leipzig stands open for all the came a unique opportunity to restructure the library as world to use, and we would be very pleased to welcome well. From the beginning our goal was to substantially you and your students. improve the reading and working conditions for future visitors and to create the best possible conservation Kristina Funk-Kunath circumstances for the entire collection. Specifically, Bach-Archiv Leipzig this required us to greatly increase the size of the (Translated by Andrew Talle) existing reading rooms (pictured on page 1), and to add supplementary reading and meeting areas as well. In doing so, we were careful to ensure we would have A REPORT ON THE BACH JAHRBUCH 2010 the best security and climate controls available. In the interest of longterm conservation, it was essential to The Bach-Jahrbuch remains the premiere journal for expand the closed stacks and add the most modern Bach studies worldwide. Because its articles are in air conditioning technology. We consider ourselves German, however, many Americans have limited access particularly fortunate now to be able to preserve the to the valuable findings and analyses they present. In valuable manuscripts and other rare items in a climate- hopes of making the journal more accessible to all ABS controlled vault. members, Peter Wollny, the Bach-Jahrbuch’s editor, has The renovation plans included the construction of a kindly allowed Bach Notes to publish this summary of welcoming information center for guiding visitors in the most recent issue’s contents in English. the reading rooms. We also decided to make the entire collection of music-related literature easily accessible The Bach-Jahrbuch 2010 includes ten long essays and in open stacks. The realization of this plan required four shorter contributions by internationally regarded us to adopt a completely new cataloging system (the researchers from Germany, Russia, the Netherlands, Regensburger Verbundsklassifikation) organized by England, Italy, and the United States. Werner Breig topic, which has also increased transparency and made offers an analysis of the contructive principles behind it easier for users to browse in their particular areas of the cantus-firmus canons in Bach’s chorale-based organ interest. works. George B. Stauffer introduces a previously Visitors today have easy access to over 9,000 volumes unacknowledged original print of the Clavier-Übung of specialized research materials as well as current III to which Bach himself made numerous additions periodicals. There are eight work stations outfitted with and emendations in red ink. On the basis of this the most modern technical conveniences. Visitors have discovery Stauffer develops a new theory for evaluating access to two research computers and wireless internet Bach’s personal prints (Handexemplare) of his own service. One of the work stations has also been outfitted publications. Anatoly P. Milka attempts on the basis of with a light table for examining watermarks. In order to handwriting analysis to more precisely date Bach’s last make optimal use of daylight, the work stations were two works, the B-minor Mass and the Art of the Fugue. set up against the windows at the front of the building. He comes to the conclusion that Bach put the final As a result, visitors also have a direct view of the touches on the Art of the Fugue immediately before the historic Thomaskirche and Carl Seffner’s famous Bach eye surgery which caused his death. monument. Two armchairs allow visitors to comfortably Hans-Joachim Schulze devotes an essay to three vocal listen to recordings from the library’s collection. For works (BWV 150, BWV 36c and BWV 209), the texts those who wish use the library over several days, weeks, of which offer previously unrecognized clues as to or months, the Bach-Archiv offers storage capabilities the occasions for their composition. The astonishing for computers, books, and other materials. results illuminate the still rather dark realm of Bach’s The limited space problem has been addressed not only commissioning patrons and lead to far-reaching by expanding the library but also by introducing a more investigations into personal and family histories. modern shelving system. At 185 square meters (ca. 300 Tatjana Schabalina presents new findings on the genesis No. 14 BACH • NOTES 3 of the cantatas BWV 34 and 34a. Building on the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, and Matteo Messori discovery of a text print from 1727 presented in the investigates a pedal harpsichord built by Zacharias Bach-Jahrbuch 2008, she discusses the original sources Hildebrandt, which he argues may have been used by for the two compositions, finding numerous clues to Bach’s Collegium musicum. their complex early histories. Peter Wollny reports on the discovery of two Bach Peter Wollny manuscripts in the Kantoreiarchiv of the little town of Bach-Archiv Leipzig Mügeln in Saxony. The sources—a J.S. Bach autograph (Translated by Andrew Talle) of a work by an anonymous composer and a C.P.E. Bach autograph of a cantata which represents the earliest BOOK REVIEWS surviving vocal work in his hand—throw new light on the music in Leipzig’s churches in the 1730s and offer insights into the mysterious Picander-Jahrgang. Raymond Erickson (editor). The Worlds of Johann Se- On the basis of numerous previously unknown bastian Bach. New York: Amadeus Press, 2009. documents, Michael Maul is able to elucidate the background of Johann Adolph Scheibe’s famous criticism In 1985, Raymond Erickson conceived and directed a of J. S. Bach. The key to his successful investigation cross-disciplinary Academy sponsored by the Aston proves to be an exemplar of Scheibe’s criticism once Magna Foundation for Music and the Humanities which in the possession of Bach’s cousin, Johann Gottfried celebrated Bach’s 300th birthday with a broad array of Walther, who added in the margins the names of all of events designed to explore the environment that gave rise the other musicians Scheibe anonymously criticized. to Bach’s music. In the spirit of the Aston Magna Acad- Konrad Küster presents a Bach document relating to emies, Erickson’s The Worlds of Johann Sebastian Bach Lorenz Christoph Mizler’s “Society of the Musical is conceived as a cross-disciplinary effort undertaken by Sciences.” It appears in a recitative in a wedding experts in various fi elds (including architecture, history, cantata performed in 1751 by the Kiel cantor, Christian theater, literature, and, of course, music) to provide ba- Friedrich Fischer, which presents a history of German sic information to a Bach-loving, English-speaking au- music and its leading protagonists. dience about a composer who inhabited a place and time Pieter Dirksen devotes his essay to investigating the very different from our own. authenticity of keyboard works by Johann Christoph The book is meant to appeal broadly to performers, mu- Bach (1642–1703).