Klarinet Archive - Posting 000305.txt from 2006/04

From: "dnleeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Some interesting and perhaps very important history
Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2006 16:07:44 -0400

Though not clarinet related, and the subject wrote NO clarinet
music, the piece in today's London telegraph is fascinating, if
true.

http://tinyurl.com/fe7yt

The Telegraph, London
By Barbie Dutter in Sydney and Roya Nikkhah
(Filed: 23/04/2006)

Famous works attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach were not penned
by the
great composer but by his second wife, researchers believe.

A study by an academic who has spent more than 30 years looking
at Bach's
work claims that Anna Magdalena Bach, traditionally believed to
be Bach's
musical copyist, actually wrote some of his best-loved works,
including
his Six Cello Suites.

Martin Jarvis, a professor at Charles Darwin University School of
Music in
Darwin and the conductor of the city's symphony orchestra, said
that "a
number of books would need to be rewritten" after presenting his
findings
to a Bach symposium last week.

The findings have been described as "highly important" by Bach
scholars
and will be published in a doctorate, later this year.

Prof Jarvis, who is originally from Wales, used police forensic
science
techniques to scrutinise manuscripts he believed to be written by
Anna
Magdalena.

According to Prof Jarvis, Anna Magdalena appeared in the German
composer's
life earlier than widely believed, which was late in 1720 or in
1721. Prof
Jarvis said he had found handwriting that showed she was in
Bach's
household in early 1720, and perhaps even as early as 1713.

"This raised an interesting question," he said. "What was Anna
Magdalena
doing in Bach's life when she wasn't supposed to be there?

"I also discovered that the only complete manuscript from the
time for the
Cello Suites was a manuscript in the hand of Anna Magdalena, and
that the
original manuscript in the hand of Johann Sebastian had
vanished."

Prof Jarvis claims that there is musical evidence to prove that
the Cello
Suites - whose exact date of composition has never been
established - were
not written by Bach.

He points to what he regards as the uniquely symmetrical nature
of the
work, and to the fact that the manuscripts included many
corrections and
adjustments, suggesting that they were original composing scores.

"When you examine Bach's other music there is no structural
symmetry
present in that sense," he said.

Prof Jarvis believes that Anna Magdalena also had a hand in
composing the
aria from the Goldberg Variations, and said it was highly likely
that she
composed the first prelude of the Well-tempered Klavier Book I.

Yo Tomita, a Bach scholar based at Queen's University in Belfast,
described the findings as "highly important".

Stephen Rose, a lecturer in music at Royal Holloway, University
of London,
said: "It is plausible that she corrected, refined and revised
many of his
compositions, although there is not enough evidence to show that
she
single-handedly composed the Cello Suites."

Cellists who have performed the Suites extensively remained
sceptical.
Julian Lloyd Webber insisted that the compositions were
"stylistically
totally Bach" and that "many composers had appalling handwriting,
which
meant better copies would naturally have been made, with the
originals
then discarded".

Steven Isserlis, the cellist, who is working on a recording of
the Suites,
said: "We can't say that it is definitely not true, in the same
way that
we can't prove that Anne Hathaway did not write some of
Shakespeare's
work, but I don't believe this to be a serious theory."

Dan Leeson
DNLeeson@-----.net

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