Two newly attributed organ works added to Bach Catalogue

The official catalogue of works by Johann Sebastian Bach, the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV) held in Leipzig, Germany, has expanded with the addition of two organ works newly attributed to the composer. The announcement was made at Leipzig’s Thomaskirche, where Bach himself worked, during a live-streamed event attended by State Minister for Culture, Wolfram Weimer, and Leipzig Mayor, Burkhard Jung.

The pieces – Ciacona in D minor (BWV 1178) and Ciacona in G minor (BWV 1179) – were identified by Peter Wollny, Director of the Leipzig Bach Archive. He has also led the BACH Research Portal since 2023, which aims to open up all the available archive sources concerning the entire Bach family of musicians, and make them publicly accessible in digital form. Although the new additions to Bach's catalogue have long been known to scholars, they circulated without a confirmed author. Wollny first encountered the manuscripts more than three decades ago in the Royal Library of Belgium, where they are filed as Ms II 3911 Mus (Fétis 2013).

The new attribution has resulted from the identification of the manuscripts’ scribe, whose identity has finally been revealed after a decades-long detective story. While researching manuscripts in a Thuringian church archive, Wollny’s colleague Dr Bernd Koska found a job application letter, dated 1729. In it, an organist until then completely unknown to Bach researchers, by the name of Salomon Günther John, claimed to have been Bach’s pupil in Arnstadt. From then on, John’s life story was easy to reconstruct: from 1705 to 1707 he took lessons from Bach in Arnstadt, and in later years turned up once again in Bach’s entourage, in Weimar. Wollny searched for documents and finally found early writings by John with which he was able to determine, once and for all, that John was the copyist he was looking for.

The additions mark a rare expansion of Bach’s known organ output, and their announcement in Leipzig was followed by what is believed to be the first performance of the two works in approximately 320 years. Breitkopf & Härtel has issued newly-prepared editions, and the original manuscripts remain accessible at the Royal Library of Belgium.

To view the announcement in Leipzig and to hear the newly-attributed works played on the organ of the Thomaskirche, visit:

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