Keeping it in the family: Bach is one of the great composers - but did he take credit where it wasn't due?
Credit: Elias Gottlob Haussmann
The analysis suggests Anna Magdalena may have played a role in composing violin sonatas and partitas and the cello suites. The violin sonatas are known from three manuscripts, one signed by Bach, dated 1720, and two others, one written by Anna and one by German organist and Bach copyist Johann Peter Kellner.
“My theory is that even though we have an autographed copy by Johan Sebastian dated 1720, [the sonatas] couldn’t have been complete in 1720,” said Jarvis, suggesting that the version written by Anna was a stage prior to the finished manuscript.
No credit for female composers
“For many reasons, I think it is distinctly possible that Anna Magdalena also played a role in the composition of the cello suites, not least of which is the fact that the initial owner of the manuscript has indicated in French that [the copy] was ‘written’ by Mrs Bach,” said Jarvis.
The find is possibly explained by the fact that “in the early 18th century women were not allowed to take credit for composition,” he added.
Bryan Found, a handwriting expert at La Trobe University and the Victoria Police Forensic Services Department, both in Melbourne, commented that the research was a “tremendously interesting project”.
He said that “while the probity value [of handwriting analysis] isn’t as high as DNA evidence, it does however form a body of material from which conclusions can be reliably drawn.”
