LONDON, October 27. /TASS/. Apparently, some of best-known works of the outstanding German composer and musician, Johann Sebastian Bach, were created by his second wife, Anna Magdalena.
According to the Sunday Times, this sensational statement was made by Martin Jarvis, professor and lecturer of music at Charles Darwin University, Australia.
The Sunday Times pointed out that the scientist proposed his theory for the first time in 2006, but the global scientific community didn’t take it seriously. However, the professor spent years compiling evidence to prove his statement.
A new analysis of Bach’s manuscripts shows that some of them could have been penned by his second wife, Anna Magdalena.
She made necessary modifications in the scores, enhancing the melody and elaborating the tempo. These assumptions were made in the course of the manuscripts study carried out by an American forensic scientist and handwriting experts, the Sunday Times reports.
It is known that Anna Magdalena had good musical education and was an accomplished singer. She also regularly worked as a copyist, transcribing music.
Martin Jarvis, along with other experts, believes that some of Bach’s best pieces were composed by his second wife.
Heidi Harralson, a forensic document examiner, said that hand motion pattern and the alterations prove that Anna Magdalena was not only transcribing her husband’s works but composing them.
Specialists also suspect that Anna Magdalena’s archive was destroyed by Bach’s family after her death.
A new documentary, based on the Jarvis’ research, will come out in the United Kingdom this week.