Early Bach Manuscripts

Posted by Sarah Canice Funke Sep 2, 2006

Though several thousand books were destroyed in the fire that ravaged the Duchess Anna Amalia library in Weimar, Germany, the Bach manuscripts in the vault survived. Of these preserved manuscripts, two are especially important as the earliest known examples of Bach's work. These two manuscripts, dating from Bach's teenage years, are hand-written copies of works by Buxtehude and Reinken. Besides being significant records of Bach's growing repertoire, the manuscripts also contained a note indicating that Bach was then studying under organist Georg Boehm. Though researchers have known of these manuscripts since 2002, only recently have they regarded them as important documentations of Bach's musical development.