🔗 Share this article

Newly discovered musical pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach have been revealed and performed in Germany for the premiere performance in 320 years.

The country's Cultural Affairs Minister the government representative described the finding of the two pieces a "significant occasion for the musical community".

They initially attracted notice of a musical scholar in the early nineties when he was documenting the composer's papers at the Belgian royal collection.

The musical compositions - the Chaconne in D minor and Chaconne in G minor - were undated and anonymous. Mr Wollny spent the subsequent thirty years working to verify the origin of the pieces.

Historic Performance

They were performed at the Thomas Church in the eastern German municipality, where the composer is interred and where he worked as a church musician for twenty-seven years.

The pair of works were played by Dutch organist Ton Koopman, who said he was proud to be able to play them for the premiere in three hundred twenty years.

He said the compositions were "of a very high quality" and would be "an important addition for contemporary organ players, as they are also appropriate for more compact instruments".

Historical Significance

They are considered to have been composed early in Bach's career, when he was working as an music instructor in the municipality of the German town in Thuringia.

The scholar, who is now the head of the musical archive in the municipality, said they exhibited several characteristics distinctive to the composer.

"In terms of style, the pieces also include aspects that can be observed in Bach's compositions from that time, but not in those of other musicians," he said.

They are thought to have been recorded in 1705 by Bach's apprentice, Salomon Günther John.

At a revealing of the compositions, the researcher said he was "99.99% sure that the composer had created the two compositions" and they have now been included into the authoritative listing of his works.