Mitteilungsblatt (Information Leaflet)

Since the middle of the 1970s the necessity was felt for a possibility to convey interesting information to the members in shorter intervals than the annual meetings. That is how the Information Leaflet (Mitteilungsblatt) came into being. After the political turn-around in Germany it became possible to considerably enhance the Leaflet. Apart from a letter from the chairman, the following rubrics are regularly included: Personalia, From the Head Office, Minutes of the last General Meeting, Reports and Information of general interest. A literary quote with regard to Johann Sebastian Bach appears at the beginning of each issue of the Leaflet.

The Neue Bachgesellschaft is at present only capable of publishing a shortened version on the web site. Detailed information can be seen on the German web site.

The next Members’ Assembly of the NBG will take place in Wetzlar in connection with the 86th Bach Festival of the NBG, specifically on September 24th, 2011, at 9 A.M., Lower City Church (Untere Stadtkirche) on the Schiller Square..

FROM THE ACTIVITIES OF THE ADMINISTRATION AND BOARD

Did you know what Karl Gutzkow (1811-1878) has written about Bach?

Meyerbeer was also by chance in Berlin, and Mendelssohn had just come from London. There was a solemn bonding feast. All three maestri sat down together at a monster dinner. There was no love lost between Mendelssohn and Meyeber; but we are children of civilisation. I had them both in my immediate vicinity. They didn’t converse about counterpoint, or Bach and Haendel, but rather about the oddities of the London cuisine. Mendelssohn amused himself by repressing his displeasure with the celebrated Frenchman, whenever he felt it, through lively accounts of his souvenirs of London. The international host plagued me – I use a carefully weighed expression – to propose a toast to both antagonists simultaneously, as Adam had already shined at the top rank. How I managed to give each his own due I no longer know. I liked Meyerbeer, and for years I had felt bound to him, as the good Giacomo to me; Mendelssohn belonged to the genteel, distinguished-businessmen’s, assimilated Jewish clique, and for him I was, as a writer, an object of disapproval. But probably I left them both to take root in their Berlin soil, I left the one in the great Friedrichstrasse, and the other to shoot marbles in the Jaegerstrasse, and I saw them flying a kite in front of the Silesian Gate. One I probably turned over to German Romanticism, to the blue flower, to the fables and the beautiful Loreley, and the other to French, and equally blue, Romanticism, only more of a devil’s Romanticism; in short, both musical Berlin children, highly famous in the world, were not dissatisfied with this coupling, at least in the chaos of glasses that sought tempestuously to clink together.

Karl Gutzkow, Selected Works in twelve volumes. Henrich Hubert Houben, ed. Volume Eleven, Leipzig (1908), p. 274.

Letter from the President

Ladies and gentlemen, honourable members,

Recalling Karl Ferdinand Gutzkow (1811-1878) should not be anything unusual in the year of the 200th anniversary of his birth (March 17th). Spiritual and artistic greats are, however, remembered in all sorts of places, whereas in Gutzkow’s case nothing is to be learned in recent times. His writings enjoyed great popularity during his lifetime and until the first decades of the 20th century. He is often referred to as an essential exponent of “Young Germany”, a literary movement from 1815 to the Revolution of 1848 and against political reaction and convention from a bourgeois-liberal standpoint that also felt strongly committed to everyday public affairs. It is for this reason that the GDR literary scene tried briefly to use Gutzkow – as it did with other literati of the same period – for its purposes, an attempt which, however, failed.

The extract selected stems from various writings of Gutzkow’s that were subsequently assembled as his life’s memoirs, and reflects a situation in Berlin in the spring of 1840. The “three maestri”, who met within an even larger group of musicians, painters and writers, are Adolphe Adam (1803-1856), Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864) and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809-1847). Adam was highly sought after and decorated by the Prussian Court since the advent of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, as was much that came from France at the time. Meyerbeer, a native Berliner, spent more time abroad than in Berlin, and enjoyed great success since the original performance of his opera Les Huguenots in 1836, also performed under various other names. Mendelssohn was working at that time on his symphonic cantata Lobgesang (Song of Praise) op. 52, which was dedicated to the invention of book printing on the occasion of the latter’s 400th anniversary. Gutzkow noted explicitly that they “didn’t talk about the counterpoint, nor about Bach and Haendel” which reveals that these were the real topics at the time, whenever musical personalities met with Mendelssohn; that the topic of conversation also provoked Gutzkow’s irony shows, too, how quickly interesting and new topics could reach saturation point even at this time. In addition, it is clear that what Gutzkow is about is spreading existing animosities between Adolphe Adam and Felix Mendelssohn, whilst at the same time noting that Mendelssohn rejected him as a writer, a feeling based on reciprocity. From this we can explain the discriminatory anti-semitic assertion concerning Mendelssohn, to which he adds a series of further resentments: Mendelssohn belongs to a clique of “pretentiously genteel, distinguished-businessmen’s, assimilated” contemporaries. The toast to both musicians, Mendelssohn and Meyerbeer, coaxed from him by the host, further amounts to portraying both of them as “musical Berlin children” with their various tendencies to German and French romanticism, and to leave it at that.

Just ahead of us is the 86th Bach Festival of our Society, to be held this year from the 20th to the 25th of September in Wetzlar. I was recently asked why have the members of the NBG so strangely held back from the ticket pre-sale in Wetzlar? For my part I have reacted to it with caution, as I know only too well that, as a rule, such decisions are reached on short notice. In addition, several members of the NBG, whom I have met recently at the Zurich Bach Days, at the Leipzig City Bach Festival, and at the Greifswald Bach Week, have assured me that they were looking forward to Wetzlar. This, however, inspires me to extend once again a cordial invitation to Wetzlar. I am very impressed by the way in which Church Music Director Joachim Eichhorn and Dr. Andreas Bomba have pursued and mastered the preparations for the Festival. From the circle of the Board it was again Mr. Reimar Bluth who has assisted the entire process in an expert and advisory role. Wetzlar will offer us a wonderful programme with interesting interpreters, and with a surprising selection of Bach’s works. In addition, the combination of themes with the local genius Johann Wolfgang von Goethe promises to create a unique ambiance. So, if anybody is still undecided, may he or she be persuaded by these lines to try and book hotels and admission tickets as soon as possible. Detailed information can be found on p. 7 ff of this Newsletter. Especially important for all of us is the Members’ Assembly scheduled to take place at 9 AM on Sept. 24th in the Lower City Church (Untere Stadtkirche) in Wetzlar. There you will be confronted in detail with a whole series of changes that flow from the last session of the Board.

At the Assembly, you the members will provide for the new election and confirmation of the members of the Board. Please consult the details in the invitation to the Members’ Assembly. I am very pleased that the important work of the Board steadily receives support and undergoes renewal through the commitment of participating personalities. The most recent session also saw the renewal of the Administration which, according to the statutes, is elected by the Board. I am pleased and grateful that Cantor (of the Kreuzkirche) Roderich Kreile of Dresden has been elected as my Deputy, and similarly that Mr. Gerd Strauss from Leipzig was chosen as Business Manager within the Administration. From this you can see that the Administration has been partially changed. At the same time, I wish to thank my outgoing deputy Dr. Dirk Hewig (Ministerial Counselor, ret.) from Munich and the outgoing Business Manager of the Administration Mr. Eberhard Lorenz of Leipzig, both of whom have resigned, at their request, from the Administration.

Dr. Hewig has been active for many years on the Board, in the Administration and as Vice-President. I look back on this time with fondness, as with him in the Adminstration we had an exceptionally thoughtful and attentive friend and colleague who performed many important tasks, be it in the first years after the peaceful reunification, when it was a matter of renewing the statutes of the NBG, or during the recently ended decade when we had to find a sustainable solution for our Bach House in Eisenach. In his quiet, careful and reserved way he has contributed substantially to the objective assessment of many a difficult situation, for which I offer him my personal thanks. Thanks to his various connections to musical institutions – I am thinking primarily of the German Musical Council and of the Mozart Society – and to public and state organizations he has provided shortcuts and unspectacular resolutions which cannot be appreciated enough.

Mr. Lorenz had been elected as Board member responsible for Business Affairs as a successor to Mr. Rosenthal. He devoted himself with great sensitivity and application particularly to two spheres – which does not mean that his other responsibilities were neglected! – the business office and the finances. This reflected the type of activities that marked the early decades of his professional life. We as a Society have greatly profited from that. In ancient times, whenever an emperor expanded the territory of the empire, it was customary to add to his name the moniker “Augustus”, which means the “Enlarger”. Given the current finances of the NBG and the now established Johann Sebastian Bach Foundation, Mr. Lorenz has indeed been an “Augustus”. He has kept an eye on the finances with meticulousness and far-sightedness, and he has kept us, with regard to the financial crisis, not only from a crash but has managed to produce the opposite. The business office and Mr. Schmidt owe him steady assistance and the resolution of many an internal issue.
Considering that these tasks were guided and executed on a voluntary basis, then all the more reason for thanking and acknowledging both gentlemen. We are pleased that Dr. Hewig will continue to collaborate on the Board, und Mr. Lorenz on the Supervisory Council of the Bach House in Eisenach as well as on the board of the Johann-Sebastian-Bach Foundation.

The main subject that has occupied us in the Administration in recent weeks has been the establishment of our Johann-Sebastian-Bach Foundation. This has now been finally completed through the signatures that had to be apposed before a notary. The groundwork was laid by Messrs. Lorenz and Hansen Sr. in part by means of endless clarification sessions with the relevant financial and foundation/regulatory authorities. In the autumn the Society’s Administration and the Foundation’s curators will meet for the first time. The capital is still of limited size, so that statutory services will be performed initially not so much as from the interest yield but much more from additional amounts to be raised. We are pursuing fund-raising, and thus I was especially pleased by the news that reached me recently to the effect that Mrs. Friedrike Christiane Koch, NBG member from Hamburg, had arranged in her will for a substantial sum to go to the Johann-Sebastian-Bach Foundation upon the execution of the will. Mrs. Koch died at the end of March in Hamburg, and we shall remember her at the Members’ Assembly. Concerning the Foundation we are pleased to announce that with Prof. Ludwig Guettler of Dresden, Intendant (ret.) Andreas Keller of Stuttgart, Michael Rosenthal of Leipzig, and Dieter Strass of Stuttgart/Wolfsburg the curatorship has been constituted. The administration of the Foundation, which is statutorily presided over by the NBG’s President, also consists of Messrs. Franz Otto Hansen, attorney-at-law, and Eberhard Lorenz. The Johann-Sebastian-Bach Foundation has, according to its statutes, the task, among others, to support projects of the NBG.

I wish to call attention explicitly to the appeal for funds in support of the Bach House Collection. We as Members are proud of the Collection, and yet it is important constantly to raise its profile. Dr. Hansen is focused on this task, for which I wish to express my gratitude.

In conclusion, please allow me to say a few words on a personal matter: on my 65th birthday I was amply regaled with good wishes and many valuable objects. Various personalities of the guiding organs of the NBG made the extra trip to offer their congratulations on behalf of all members. All of this was most gratifying, especially as through it I came to sense the wonderful community we share, and which is extraordinarily important to me. I should be very grateful to all members of the NBG who offered their good wishes if they could accept herewith – unless I have already contacted them via a personal message – my deeply-felt gratitude. I also feel the need to do this in case I have inadvertently overlooked someone. If there is such a case, I can assure you it was not intentional.

Yours cordially from Leipzig,

Prof. Dr. Martin Petzoldt
President

Off to Wetzlar! The 86th Bach Festival of the NBG will take place in Wetzlar on September 20th to 25th 2011

…What are you waiting for? Off we go then to Wetzlar! – thus urged Sabine Naeher at the end of her informative article on the 2011 Wetzlar Bach Festival that appeared in the Winter Newsletter (no. 67, pp. 4-6), a re-reading of which we strongly recommend to all Members, coupled with a cordial plea to sign up as soon as possible for this year’s Bach Festival of the NBG in Wetzlar – in case this has not happened yet.

May I call your attention to the following important information:

1. Following the opening concert of the Bach Festival on Tuesday, September 20th, the members of the NBG are cordially invited to a reception (by the City of Wetzlar) in the Wetzlar City Hall, 2 Brühlsbachstrasse

2. The Members’ Assembly on Saturday, 24th September, at 9 A.M. will take place – contrary to what appears in the Festival brochure – in the Lower City Church (Untere Stadtkirche) on the Schiller Square (Schillerplatz).

3. The rehearsal for the Bach Cantata intended for participatory singing at the closing church service (“Wer Dank opfert, der preiset mich”, He who gives thanks praises me, BWV 17) will take place on Saturday,September 24th, at 4:30 P.M in the Community Hall of the Hospitalkirche (Church and Deacon’s House) at the Haarplatz/3 Langgasse.
It will be the processional chorale before the church service on Sunday, 25th September, at 9 A.M. in the cathedral. Anyone with choir experience and who wants to participate in the cantata should procure his or her own sheet music, and arrive prepared at the rehearsal: there is a lot to this cantata, which is demanding! Please register with: Dietrich Bräutigam, 13 Hirschgraben, D-35578 Wetzlar; tel. 0 64 41 / 2 10 26 70; e-mail: dietrichbraetigam@evangelisch-in-wetzlar.de

Further information and complete programme:
Tourist-Information Wetzlar, Domplatz 8, D-35573 Wetzlar;
Tel. 0 64 41 / 99 77 55, fax 0 64 41 / 99 77 59; e-mail: tourist-info@wetzlar.de
Internet: www.wetzlar-tourismus.de, www.bachfest2011.de

Martin Petzoldt on his 65th birthday

A large congregation met on April 13th 2011 before the Pauline Altar of the St. Thomas Church for a dedicated service on the occasion of the 65th birthday of the NBG’s President Prof. Dr. Martin Petzoldt. The celebration opened with Bach’s choral prelude Nun danket alle Gott/Now thank we all our Lord, BWV 657, played by the University Organist Daniel Beilschmidt, and, before the benediction, the congregation joined the chorale in order to give thanks for God’s guidance “from mother’s womb and from infant legs”. The St. Thomas Choir under the direction of Gotthold Schwarz sang at the end Lobet dem Herrn in seine Taten/Praise the Lord and His deeds (from BWV 225). The University Chaplain Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Lux chose the theme of his address from Isaiah (62:2b): “thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name”, and thus made the connection to the baptismal address by Martin Petzoldt’s father in the first post-war year of 1946.

For guests, who from afar cannot follow in detail Martin Petzoldt’s daily life in all its facets, the subsequent reception in the Congregation’s Hall of the St. Thomas Church brought many a surprise, as well-wishers reported from the diverse fields of activity of the person being celebrated, fields which are not fully listed here. In the congratulatory addresses, good wishes, expectations and hopes for many more years were expressed.

Martin Petzoldt devotes a great deal of care to keeping the Society’s members informed through his contributions to the Newsletter that appears twice a year. In order to make Bach’s legacy more accessible in terms that are meaningful to the expectations and life styles of young people, the Board has recently constituted a working group to this end.

His 65th birthday is an occasion to thank Martin Petzoldt for his wide-ranging activities within the New Bach Society, and to express to him, his wife and his family in the name of the leadership and all members of the NBG our best wishes and blessings, to wish for fulfillment, health and success for many more years to come, trusting the Lord who grants us goodness “from mother’s womb and infant legs”.

Excerpt from the homage paid by Johann Trummer

Personal notes

Round-figure birthdays were also celebrated so far this year by

Our Business Manager within the Administration from 2002 to 2011, Member of the Supervisory Council of the Bach House Eisenach Ltd. and of the Administration of the J.S. Bach Foundation, Eberhard Lorenz; in Leipzig, on 7th February, 75th birthday;

Our Member of the Board Ingeborg Danz; in Frechen, 21st April; 50th birthday;

Our Business Manager within the Administration from 1990 to 2002, Board Member and Member of the Curatorship of the J.S.Bach Foundation, Michael Rosenthal; in Leipzig, 27th June, 70th birthday;

Our Board Member and Pubisher of the Bach Year Book, Dr. Peter Wollny, 29th June, 50th birthday.

To all of them we extend our best wishes and blessings.

Martin Petzoldt

Bach Festival Leipzig 2012: “.... a new song” - 800 years Thomana

From the meeting of Johann Sebastian Bach with the schola thomana a music historic impuls resulted, which makes an impact far beyond the present day: not only the 800 years lasting tradition of the Thomaner choir, not only the creation and working of Johann Sebastian Bach and not only the reception history Bach’s bloomed, but everything together leeds to the fascination, that sends out rays from the Thomaskirchhof in Leipzig into the whole world. As a higlight in the legislation of Bach and connected to the new in the belief, in the music and in the education the motete “Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied” symbolizes this favorable constellation.

The Bach festival 2012 illuminates the mandate of Bach from the most diverse historic perspectives, in which center the work of Bach is placed. Starting with Georg Rau (Thomaskantor 1580-1520) to Georg Christoph Biller (Thomaskantor since 1992) lasts the traditional work of the Thomas cantors, that we have put together in the programm of the Bach Festival. Among this is not only a world premiere of the acting Thomaskantor, but you also find new edited and for the first time ever represented works of Johann Schelle and Johann Adam Hiller. World-famous interpreters like Masaaki Suzuki, Marcus Creed, Ton Koopman or The English Concert take you with them in their historic Leipzig performance sites on an discovery tour according to the current “latest song” in an 800 year music tradition.

For the first time ever we introduce our new children-, youth- and family programm “b@ch for us” at the Bach Festival 2012. In the middle there are two concerts of our youth orchestra, members of the music school “Johann Sebastian Bach” Leipzig and the Conservatorio Bologna. A voluminous, playful, instructive but as well amusing program widens the Bach Festival Leipzig to a family event of the very special style.

The advance sale for the Bach Festival Leipzig 2012 starts on October 14th 2011, members of the Neue Bachgesellschaft e.V. may start to purchase tickets already from September 30th 2011. Please contact the office of the NBG.

Anniversary season 2011/2012 - 800 years of THOMANA

Prof. Dr. Martin Petzold and Dr. Stefan Altner will publish the representative festival celebration publication 800 years THOMANA. This publication will be completed by the catalog of the year exhibition Jauchzet - Frohlocket! in the Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig. For the celebration publication prominent authors could be excited, who spend time on the several themes of the Trias Thomaskirche - Thomanerchor - Thomasschule.

As well the concert season 2011/12 of the Thomanerchor is all about the anniversary. Guest performances with Bach’s Weihnachts-Oratorium together with solists and the Gewandhaus Orchestra head via Essen, Frankfurt/Main, Dortmund and Baden-Baden in December 2011. The second part of the anniversary tour with the Matthäus Passion goes to Japan, Korea and Great Britain in February/March 2012.

With a festival from March 19th until March 25th 2012, international guests and numerous events the Thomaners celebrate their 800 year ceremony. Shortly before that there will be the world premiere of the film The Thomaners from Paul Smaczny and Günter Atteln (Production: Accentus Music).

In the calender year 2012 on the high church festive days the Thomanerchor will perform five specially ordered works of contemporaray composers as a world premiere (Epiphanias - Sofia Gubaidulina; Easter - Georg Christoph Biller; Pentecost - Hans Werner Henze; Reformation Day - Heinz Hollinger; Christmas - Brett Dean).

The festival week of the Thomasschool is taking place from September 17th until 23rd, and the Thomaskirche celebrates the 800 year anniversary from October 31st until November 4th 2012. Active information go www.thomana2012.de
Uta-Maria Thiele

The 86th Bach Festival of the New Bach Society will take place in Wetzlar
from 20th to 25th of September 2011

In May 1772, a young articling clerk (U.S.: legal intern) assumed his duties at the Imperial Supreme Court in Wetzlar, although he was drawn much more to the fine arts than to jurisprudence. He had graduated from his studies in Leipzig and Strassbourg reluctantly, and then only at the urging of his father, who now pressured him to accept the unloved position in the city on the Lahn River. The barely 22-year old articling clerk has, however, literary ambitions; he has just completed the first version of the “Goetz von Berlichingen”, a play in five acts. The Wetzlar sojourn will not enter legal history, but rather much more literary history, as it was there that Johann Wolfgang von Goethe created a literary monument to his ill-starred love for Charlotte Buff with the sensational epistolary novel “The sorrows of the young Werther”. The city reciprocated, in that here each and everything refers to the Prince of Poets – including the 86th Bach Festival of the NBG that, from the 20th to the 25th of September, intends to open a long-neglected chapter of musical and literary history under the motto of “Bach and Goethe”.

Joachim Eichhorn, who has a been a church musician since 1979 and Church Music Director in Wetzlar since 1996, acted from 1972 until 1978 as the assistant to Helmuth Rilling in Stuttgart, and has long entertained the dream of “ once bringing the famous Bach Festival to Goethe’s city”. Points in common between the two “central personalities of German cultural and spiritual life” are, not only the common places of activity of Weimar and Leipzig, but also and especially Goethe’s “enthusiasm for Bach”. It was his friend Carl Friedrich Zelter, the director of the Berlin Singing Academy and who represented for Goethe the irrevocable authority on musical matters, as well as the mayor and organist of Bad Berka, Heinrich Friedrich Schuetz, who had brought Goethe close to the work of the great St. Thomas cantor. The poet’s word on the unequaled greatness of Bach’s music is famous: “It is as though the eternal harmony converses with itself, somewhat as may have occurred in God’s breast, shortly before the creation of the world”.

In accordance with the NBG’s predisposition for mobilising local assets as well as for attracting a few external greats, by now the Bach Festival’s programme indeed offers its very own and successful mixture, which should makes a visit to Wetzlar absolutely worthwhile.

Besides the indispensable concerts with Bach’s key works such as the B-minor Mass, various cantatas, chamber music works and great organ pieces, there will programmes specifically assembled for this occasion, such as “In Carl Friedrich Zelter’s Singing Academy” or “Cantatas from Hessian Bach sources”. That the spoken word should, for once, be presented on an equal footing as the music is only fitting, given the Festival’s motto. Consequently, even the opening concert will include a keynote lecture given by no less a personage as the literary and theatre scholar Dieter Borchmeyer, president of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts. Readings from the correspondence between Goethe, Zelter and Mendelssohn, as well as another lecture by the Goethe specialist Hartmut Schmidt, will round out the offerings.

The performance venues have also been well chosen. For the big events, the cathedral easily accommodates 800 guests. Thanks to its architectural diversity, the cathedral is an impressive mirror of Wetzlar’s history. Its organ was built in 1953-1955 by the Hamburg organ builders Rudolf von Beckerath. It was a gift from the industrialist Leitz family to the city and to the Protestant as well as the Catholic communities, which have shared the use of the cathedral since the Reformation. This circumstance is also taken into account by the oecumenical closing church service, which, in addition, includes a Bach cantata for join-in singing. Besides the opening and closing concerts, the cathedral will also house the daily performance “Bach at noon”, which draws not only on various organ virtuosi but again on the audience as well, as it will offer choral movements for participatory singing. Making music with the community is an important concern of Eichhorn’s: “I learned this in Stuttgart! When the listeners are enveloped in sound – the organ from above, the choir and the orchestra from the front, and the community is inbetween – then they cannot do anything but join in with the singing…” The organists of the noon concerts come, incidentally, from the partner city of Ilmenau and from the partner municipality of Erfurt, which constitutes yet another reference to Bach and Goethe, as well as from the Frankfurt Conservatory, where Eichhorn has been teaching since 1993.

A musical start to each Festival day is provided at 10 A.M. by selected chamber music in the Lower City Church (“Untere Stadtkirche”). The well-lit choir of the former Franciscan church, which can hold an audience of about 150, “our most beautiful and intimate space” as Eichhorn enthuses, offers an ideal setting for this event. Early in the afternoon there is an embarrassment of choices, as to whether explore Wetzlar with various (costumed!) city tours and wander on the traces of Lotte and Werther, or whether to join an excursion to Limburg or to Altenberg. Each day at 7:15 P.M. there will be an introduction to the evening concerts. Their venues are the Hospital Church, which merits attention as the only Baroque church in Wetzlar, and the modern Cross Church (“Kreuzkirche”) which is located outside the historic centre and which can be reached via a bus transfer. And whoever still has reserves of strength can experience a “night guided tour” through Wetzlar at 10 P.M. on Thursday, and on Friday at about 10 P.M. he or she can either listen to a night concert with the dream-inducing Goldberg Variations, or be aroused to renewed liveliness by the State Youth Jazz Orchestra. The members of the NBG should not, however, night-owl for too long because, as early as 9 A.M. Saturday morning, they are invited to the Members’ General Assembly.

With this well-thought-through programmatic fullness, care has been taken to insure that no one will be bored in Wetzlar. In addition, several museums such as the Lotte and Jerusalem Houses, the Museum of the Imperial Supreme Court, or the “Viseum”, which as the House of Optics and Fine Mechanics teaches about the city’s industrial history, also provide rewarding visits. And last but not least it is, of course, the charming Old City of Wetzlar itself, with its narrow lanes, the tall half-timbered houses, and the Lahn River that flows around it, that the visitor should explore and enjoy. Let us Joachim Eichhorn enthuse once again: “What is nice about Wetzlar is its intimate scale, and the pedestrian accessibility of all our performance venues. Wetzlar is a small city with charm and history, which in September at the Bach Festival will show its most welcoming side!”
What are you waiting for? Off we go to Wetzlar…

Excerpt from a report by Sabine Naeher

Further information and the programme can be obtained from:
Tourist Information Wetzlar, Domplatz (“Cathedral Square”) 8, D-35573 Wetzlar
Tel. 0 64 41 / 99 77 55, Fax 0 64 41 / 99 77 59; e-mail: tourist-info@wetzlar.de
Internet: www.wetzlar-tourismus.de; www.bachfest2011.de

Anniversary season 2011/2012 - 800 years of THOMANA

Uta-Maria Thiele

NEWS FROM THE BACH ARCHIVES IN LEIPZIG

Unknown Bach autographs discovered in Leipzig

Three Bach manuscripts, dating from 1743, 1745 and 1748, were recently discovered in the University archives by Dr. Andreas Glöckner of the Bach Archives, Leipzig, in the course of research on the musical practice at the St. Pauli University Church. The documents inquestion are certificates that J.S. Bach had issued in his own hand for three of his prefects. Since November the Bach Archives are an associated institute of the University of Leipzig.

Stephan Blaut and Michael Pacholke, musicologists at the University of Halle, have discovered an organ piece by Johann Sebastian Bach. Until now only the first five bars of the fantasia on the chorale “Wo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns haelt” (“Where God the Lord stands with us not”) were known. Wolfgang Schmieder cited it in the BWV under the number Annex II 71; however, he had no source available. Now a transcript by the St. Thomas cantor Wilhelm Rust from the year 1877 has been found in a manuscript bundle acquired by the University and Land Library of Halle (ULB). After analysis and investigation of Rust’s original and consultation with Prof. Hans-Joachim Schulze and Dr. Peter Wolny from the Bach Archives, Leipzig, the fantasia could be identified with certainty as a Bach work and dated to 1705-1710. The newly discovered organ chorale has now received the BWV number of 1128. The piece was first heard on June 10th at the Haendel Festival in Halle, and on June 13th in the St. Thomas Church, Leipzig, at the opening concert of the city’s Bach Festival.

Earliest J.S. Bach manuscripts found

The two earliest known musical manuscripts by Johann Sebastian Bach have been discovered by researchers from the Bach Archives, Leipzig, in the Duchess Anna Amalia Library in Weimar. In the course of a systematic inspection of Middle German archives and libraries conducted since 2002 by the Bach Archives, Drs. Michael Maul and Peter Wollny came across two significant manuscripts from the time of Bach’s youth. The autographs in question are copies of organ works by the composers Dietrich Buxtehude and Johann Adam Reinken, and were produced in 1700 or shortly before and must rank as the very earliest written evidence of Bach’s work. As a result they are important sources for the study of the composer’s musical evolution.

The manuscripts, the significance of which is only now fully realised, are actually copies of the chorale preludes or fantasies “Nun freut euch lieben Christen gmein” by Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707) (BuxWV 210) and “An Wasserfluessen Babylon” by Johann Adam Reinken (1643-1722) that the barely 15-year old Latin pupil Bach produced in Ohrdruf and in Lueneburg. The original, dated Reinken copy contains the first documentary evidence that Bach was a pupil of the Lueneburg organist Georg Boehm (1661-1733), as indicated by the additional note “a Dom.Georg:Boehme/descriptum ao. 1700/Lunaburgi:”

Both autographs are written as organ tablatures using letter notation. Together with them, two additional handwritten chorale fantasies on “An Wasserfluessen Babylon” and on “Kyrie Gott Vater in Ewigkeit” have been handed down to us; they amount to two hitherto unknown works by Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706). These two organ tablatures are copies by Bach’s pupil Johann Martin Schubart (1690-1721), and were presumably prepared according to a pattern written by Bach. In 1717 Schubart became his teacher’s successor as the Weimar court organist, and eventually the two tablatures made their unknown way from his legacy to the Duchess Anna Amalia Library.

The significance of the discovery of these sources can hardly be overestimated. In view of the high technical demands posed by the three works, the sources testify to the virtuoso competence reached early by the young Bach, as well as to his striving to master the best and most demanding in the field of organ music. It becomes moreover clear that the young Bach was orientated towards North German organ art even before 1700. Evidently his way from Ohrdruf to Lueneburg was essentially determined by his aim to learn more about the important repertoires of the old Hamburg and Luebeck masters, and to gain access to the great Hanseatic instruments.

Modern technology casts Bach’s B minor Mass in a new light

In March 2008, collaborators of the Leipzig Bach Archives as well as of the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing submitted J.S. Bach’s original manuscript of the B minor Mass held in the City Library of Berlin to a Roentgen fluorescence analysis. About 600 sites in the “Credo” were investigated, and in particular contentious passages were measured.

Thus to be discovered were those parts of the manuscript (which is severely damaged by ink corrosion) written by Johann Sebastian and those by his son Carl Philipp Emanuel. The method, which has been applied for the first time to a Bach manuscript, has yielded
new research perspectives for scholars. After Bach’s death his second-oldest son had substantially interfered with the score, primarily in the “Credo”. Test investigations in September 2007 revealed different compositions of the inks used by J.S. Bach and C.P.E. Bach, so that it was highly probable that the two could be identified separately. Uwe Wolf (Bach Archives, Leipzig) expects from the analysis a new appreciation of the son’s contribution to today’s extant work structure. The investigations were prompted by the planned needition of the B minor Mass for the first volume of the revised New Bach Edition, due to be released in 2009.

Jennifer Broecher

Auskunft über den Glauben (Information about faith)
Serial Publications of the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart, vol. 6

A selection of almost 90 sermons which the former dean of Stuttgart, Peter Kreyssig, delivered during Cantata Services in the Stuttgart memorial church, or during services at the Sommerakademien “Johann Sebastian Bach“ (since 1979) and “Europäische Musikfeste“ (since 1985).
The majority of the sermons in this publication are interpretations of the text of vocal compositions primarily by Bach, but also of works by Heinrich Schütz, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johannes Brahms, Franz Schubert and others.

It seems amazing and gratifying that an idea which Helmuth Rilling as cantor and Peter Kreyssig as preacher put into practise for the first time in 1965, can until today be applied effectively in an almost unchanged structure.

Preferential price for members of the NBG: 10,-- € plus forwarding expenses. Order from: Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart, Presse- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit, Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Platz, 70178 Stuttgart, Tel. 07 11 / 6 19 21 17, Fax 07 11 / 6 19 21 51, e-mail:office@bachakademie.de

Information about New Publications

Hans-Eberhard Dentler: Johann Sebastian Bachs “Kunst der Fuge“. Ein pythagoreisches Werk und seine Verwirklichung. Mainz 2003 (Schott-Verlag). ISBN 3-7957-04901-1, 170 pp., € 39,80.
The author tackles the enigmatic riddle around the compositorial process and structural plan of J. S. Bach’s “Art of Fugue“. With his discovery that the work came into being on the basis of Pythagoreic ideas, he discloses new insight into interpretation and instrumentation of this masterwork.

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FROM THE ACTIVITIES OF THE ADMINISTRATION AND BOARD

Did you know what Karl Gutzkow (1811-1878) has written about Bach?

Letter from the President

Off to Wetzlar! The 86th Bach Festival of the NBG will take place in Wetzlar on September 20th to 25th 2011

Martin Petzoldt on his 65th birthday

Personal notes

Bach Festival Leipzig 2012: “.... a new song” - 800 years Thomana

Anniversary season 2011/2012 - 800 years of THOMANA

The 86th Bach Festival of the New Bach Society will take place in Wetzlar from 20th to 25th of September 2011

Anniversary season 2011/2012 - 800 years of THOMANA

NEWS FROM THE BACH ARCHIVES IN LEIPZIG

Unknown Bach autographs discovered in Leipzig

Information about New Publications

The 86th Bach Festival of the New Bach Society will take place in Wetzlar
from 20th to 25th of September 2011