Johann Sebastian Bach was the Cantor at the St. Thomas school in Leipzig. This meant that as a teacher, he was responsible for the musical education of the pupils and had other pedagogical obligations (see “Johann Sebastian and Anna Magdalena Bach – a Working Couple: Official Engagements (Part I)”). But he was also the music director of the city and so was, among other duties, responsible for providing “music in both main churches of this city, to the best of his ability, in good faith”, according to his contract. The two main churches were St. Thomas and St. Nicholas. The church music was performed by boarders of the St. Thomas school and musicians employed by the city, complemented by others such as students. Bach’s predecessor, Johann Kuhnau, reported that he was present from “the start of the service at 7 a.m. […] on all Sundays for four hours in the morning and the required time for vespers”. However, Johann Sebastian Bach’s contract also allowed him to be deputized by “another able subject”.
During his first years Johann Sebastian Bach composed cantatas for five years of church services. One-year needs about 53 cantatas. These five years would have been a kind of basis needed by a music director for his work. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, who became music director in Hamburg in 1768, wrote in 1771 that he had copies written out of six years’ worth of cantatas.
Other composers wrote a lot more cantatas. Georg Philipp Telemann, who was music director in Hamburg from 1721 until 1767, wrote more than 1,700. In his later years Johann Sebastian Bach performed his own works repeatedly and used cantatas by other composers.
After he had completed a score, the individual parts had to be written out from it. The later Cantor of the St. Thomas school, Johann Friedrich Doles, reported in 1778: “It is based on experience that the pupils of all my predecessors were drawn on at any time to copy scores. As to whether the earlier cantors also took the liberty of having them copy secular music, I can be less sure, except that I can assure you that during the time of the late Bach they were burdened more often with copying scores than during my time.” But it can be proved that his wife Anna Magdalena Bach was also involved in this copying work. Since over half of the cantatas are lost and many individual parts are missing, we cannot be sure exactly how large her part in this was. The collection of documents about Anna Magdalena Bach published by Maria Hübner lists eleven church cantatas in which his wife was involved. For these she only wrote out individual parts. An impression of the procedure can be gained from the 44 original parts of choral cantatas, owned today by the St. Thomas school in Leipzig. The main copyists of these parts were Johann Andreas Kuhnau and Christian Gottlob Meißner, both pupils at St. Thomas school. Anna Magdalena Bach only wrote out individual parts for five cantatas. Here the material for the Cantata “Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig” (“Ah, how fleeting, ah, how transitory”, BWV 26) is particularly interesting. Johann Andreas Kuhnau copied several voice parts which were then completed by Anna Magdalena Bach (see figure).
Anna Magdalena Bach was demonstrably capable of organising cantata performances. This is shown by the council records of the order for the cantata for the council elections from the city music director
So Anna Magdalena Bach was not the main copyist for her husband, but helped out when necessary. Her experience enabled her above all to supervise copying work.
Anna Magdalena Bach was demonstrably capable of organising cantata performances. This is shown by the council records of the order for the cantata for the council elections from the city music director. This was performed on the Monday after St. Bartholomew’s day (August 24th). After Johann Sebastian Bach’s death, before his successor had taken up the post, it was recorded in 1750: “Ordered the church music from the porter of the late cantor Mr. Bach’s widow for the upcoming change of council in 8 days from today”. This entry gives no information as to exactly how she organised the performance or how it proceeded. This was the responsibility of “the late cantor Mr. Bach’s widow”.
Against this background, statements from a letter of August 1741 appear in a different light. At this time Johann Sebastian Bach was staying in Berlin. His second cousin Johann Elias Bach wrote to him requesting his return to Leipzig as soon as possible: “We wish to see the latter fulfilled soon, because our dear mother has been very unwell for eight days already and we don’t know if a chronic fever or other dire consequences may result from the flushes. Apart from this, St. Bartholomew’s day is coming and then in a few weeks the council election here, and we don’t know what to do in the absence of your honourable self.” It was already clear before Johann Sebastian Bach’s departure to Berlin that the council elections would take place on August 28th in that year. The only circumstance that had changed was Anna Magdalena Bach’s state of health. It did not seem possible for any other person present to take over her duties.
Unfortunately, there are very few documents that contain information about Anna Magdalena Bach’s life, and so many of her activities remain in the dark. But it is astonishing that even from these few sources, clues can be found that show that for official duties she formed a working couple with her husband. (See “Johann Sebastian and Anna Magdalena Bach – a Working Couple: Unofficial Performances” for more on this term) The small number of records does not prove that she was not active to a greater extent in this respect. She was qualified for rehearsals with individual boarders who sang solos in Sunday church services, as well as other tasks. But there are regrettably no documents that conclusively confirm such activities. But that does not mean that she certainly did not perform them. There are clues to her cooperating with her husband in other areas, and these will be treated in the next installment.
Translated from German to English by Alan Shepherd.
All images are credited to the author.
