Listen & tracks

3 works · 52:44

Anna Magdalena NotebookJohann Sebastian Bach 10 movements21:40
1. 1 Warum Betrübst 1:33
2. 2 Recit 1:19
3. 3 Aria 5:39
4. 4 Schaff mit mir :47
5. 5 Minuet for solo harpsichord 1:13
6. 6 Aria di Giovanni 2:55
7. 7 Dir, Dir ist Jehovah 2:18
8. 8 Wie wohl ist mir 1:01
9. 9 Aria – Gedenke doch 1:16
10. 10 O Ewigkeit 3:39
11 Bist du bei mir Johann Sebastian Bach 2:12
Schemelli Gesang BuchJohann Sebastian Bach 10 movements28:52
1. 12 Advent 2:12
2. 13 An der Kripe 2:21
3. 14 In der Passionszeit 2:19
4. 15 An Karfreitage 3:47
5. 16 Gethsemane 3:30
6. 17 An Ostern 2:07
7. 18 An Pfingsten 2:29
8. 19 Der himmlische Freund 3:34
9. 20 Jesu, Jesu du bist mein 3:05
10. 21 Liebster Herr Jesu 3:28

The programme draws on the second notebook associated with Anna Magdalena Bach (c.1725), a household collection in which Bach and others entered sacred songs and keyboard pieces, and on Georg Christian Schemelli’s Musicalisches Gesang-Buch, the large hymn collection for which Bach supplied figured-bass chorales.

Melbourne choir Aspiration in Harmony, formed in 1998 under Andrew Blackburn, presents the selections with soprano Bente Lancaster. The mixed-voice ensemble of about twenty ranges from early sacred music to contemporary repertoire.

In the artist’s words

The life of Anna Magdalena Bach is somewhat vague in records kept before meeting Johann Sebastian Bach. Practically nothing is known of her early years.

It is not until 1721 that she makes her first formal appearance, where she and Bach first met at a baptism to both become Godparents of a child called Hahn.

In two of these records Anna is described as ‘court singer’ but in the third simply as ‘chamber musician’. There were originally stories that she was somewhat of a public figure, having sung at Cöthen, but these were later discredited. Anna Magdalena was said to have had a beautiful, clear soprano voice.

Born into a musical family (her father was a court trumpeter), she most probably first met the Bach family socially. By the time she was twenty, in 1721, she was well acquainted with Bach, who was aged thirty-six. Following the death of his first wife, she married him on December 3rd of the same year.

The notebook from which these recordings originate is thought to be the second of two, though some references suggest there were three. This book was beautifully bound, having gold lettering on the front, and was most probably given to Anna by Bach for her birthday in 1725. The book was specially ordered, with the intention that it was to be for her next series of compositions.

Within the book itself only one third of the works are confirmed to be in Anna Magdalena’s handwriting. Two thirds were written by Bach and others or the composer remains unknown or disputed. The work ‘Dir, Dir ist Jehovah’ was most definitely notated by JS Bach. If it had not been for this notebook the work would have been lost, for it has never been discovered elsewhere.

The Schemelli Gesang Buch is a collection of 950 selected sacred songs and arias in which Bach was clearly involved, providing 69 chorales with figured bass. The extent of Bach’s involvement with the rest is difficult to determine. How many he merely revised and how many he actually composed is still debatable. Bach’s stylistic stamp was marked indelibly on the most simple line.

— Leanne Smales

Artists

Aspiration in Harmony

choir

Andrew Blackburn

conductor

Andrew studied at Melbourne University where he gained a Master of Music degree. He won numerous prizes during his university degrees and continued his organ studies in England and in France with Jean Langlais.

Bente Lancaster

soprano

Johann Sebastian Bach

composer

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) was a German composer and organist of the late Baroque. His sacred and secular music for choir, orchestra, organ and solo instruments remains among the foundations of the Western concert and church repertory.