Peter Volney has known Ciaccona in D minor and Ciaccona in G minor for over 30 years – ever since he discovered the organ works in the Royal Library of Belgium. The handwritten manuscripts were by an unknown author – undated and unsigned.
Yet Peter Volney, now director of the Bach Archive in Leipzig, realized that his discovery might actually be a hidden treasure, composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. His careful search for clues began. “To confirm the identity of the pieces, I searched for the missing piece of the puzzle for a long time,” he commented at the official ceremony of the newly discovered works. “Now, we have the full picture.”
Performance of new Bach pieces
Two secular organ works have now been performed for the first time in 320 years.
They were performed at the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig – where Bach was cantor for 27 years, from 1723 until his death in 1750 – by the renowned organist and conductor Ton Koopman. The president of the Bach Archive said he was proud to perform. “These pieces appeared out of nowhere, and who else but Bach could be their composer?”
Stylistically, many musical allusions point to Bach. For example, melodic accompaniment in the bass, which suddenly jumps into an upper register, or sweeping fugues.
Musicologist Peter Wollny considers these stylistic characteristics to be unique to Bach. While working on a project on Bach’s family for the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities he was able to uncover even more clues. He found a letter that helped him identify the author who had copied the works. Upon closer examination of the handwriting it was immediately confirmed that it was Salomon Günther John – one of Bach’s pupils.
75th anniversary of the Bach Archive
It is rare to find new compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach. Wolfram Weimer, Commissioner for Culture and Media of the Federal Government of Germany, called the discovery a gift: “It is a wonderful combination of excellence, scholarship and passion for music.”
While the new works will remain in the Royal Library of Belgium, Peter Volney tells DW that there are even more treasures in the Bach Archive. “I am very proud to say that after the Berlin State Library, we have the second largest collection of Bach manuscripts in the world.”
The collection’s most treasured possessions are the original scores of Bach’s chorale cantata for the Choir of St. Thomas. Manuscripts from other collections and publishers are also housed in the collection. For example, loans from the Breitkopf & Hertel music publishing house, who have also released recently discovered sheet music.
“Some people say we’re living in an ivory tower in the Bach Archive,” said Peter Volney. “If that’s true, it’s an ivory tower with two windows,” one of them is the museum’s interactive public collection, the other is Leipzig’s annual Bachfest, which attracts some 70,000 visitors from around the world.
Every discovery is a success
One of the most important projects of the Bach Archive is the New Bach Edition, developed together with the Bach Institute in Göttingen. From 1951 to 2007, researchers from around the world worked on more than 100 collections of sheet music. A historical and critical edition of Bach’s complete works was accompanied by additional texts going into the history of the pieces, as well as research sources. Heinrich Rucker, who organized an exhibition on Bach research, says, “It set a new standard for many other collected works, which were based on the Bach collection.”
Another success came from the New Bach Edition project: the dating of Bach’s famous Leipzig cantatas. The manuscripts were left undated by Bach, but by examining watermarks in the sheet music and his letters from the time, researchers were able to determine when the pieces were composed. He discovered that Bach had written all of his famous cantatas in the first four years of his time in Leipzig. After the discovery, entire biographies had to be rewritten. “He composed a new cantata and two Passions every week, which is an incredible achievement,” Rucker told DW.
‘Berliner Singakademie’ in Kyiv
After World War II, much of Bach’s sheet music dispersed around the world, or disappeared entirely.
Since the 1990s, some sheet music and collections have found their way to Leipzig – such as the “Sing-Akademie zu Berlin” collection, which was rediscovered in Kyiv in 1999. Russian forces took the pieces back to the Soviet Union.
“For 40 years, no one knew where the sheet music was,” explained Heinrich Rucker. The collection includes pieces by Bach’s family – notably his son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach – which had until then been left unfinished. “And that took research on Bach’s family to a new level,” Rucker said. The manuscripts have now been used by Bach’s eldest son to piece together an edition of the complete works.
Kulukundi’s collection is worth $10 million
When it comes to uncovering new treasures, good relationships are also beneficial. Musicologist Peter Volney has maintained a long-standing relationship with New York-based collector Elias Kulukundis. At one time a shipping company owner and music expert, he specialized in works from the transition period from the 18th to the 19th century.
The collection had already been given on a 10-year loan to the Bach Archive. For the anniversary of the founding, Ilias Kulukundis officially signed it as a gift.
His collection, valued at approximately $10 million, is the most valuable gift the Bach Archive has ever received. “This is a unique collection of letters, autographs, prints and other documents relating to the life and work of the four Bach sons,” Walley said. These include the opera “Zanaida” by Bach’s son, Johann Christian Bach, which was thought to be lost.
unsolved bach mystery
Many mysteries related to the work of Johann Sebastian Bach remain unsolved. Many of his librettists remain unknown to this day. Not all of the copyists who wrote Bach’s sheet music have been identified. That said, with this new discovery, another imitator has been discovered: Salomon Gunther John.
For a long time, little was known about the women in Bach’s family either. In 2024, the Bach Museum addressed the history of women in the Bach dynasty, as they also made significant contributions to the family’s rich musical heritage.
Many important manuscripts were destroyed in World War II which have never been recovered till date. “A lot has been found again – as was the case in the Kiev discovery,” said Peter Volny. Other documents were found in other former Soviet storage sites. Many public and university libraries only retrieved their inventories of manuscripts in the 1990s.
There is one discovery that would really excite Volney: “It would be such a sensation on the scale of the discovery in Kiev, if the library of the old St. Thomas School could be found again. If it still exists. Then, a similar flood of new discoveries may await us.”
Volney’s detective skills may one day lead him to this.
This article was originally written in German.