The search for lost works by J.S. Bach has a long tradition. Since the nineteenth century, Bach enthusiasts such as Mendelssohn have endeavoured to preserve and conserve these works, rescuing them from oblivion. However, when these pioneers attributed a piece to Bach, they often did so more by intuition than by rigorous analysis. Today, rigorous justification is indispensable.
Two works discovered in the Royal Library of Belgium
Peter Wollny, a Bach researcher based in Leipzig and director of the Bach Archive, knew for over thirty years that the two pieces recently identified as being by Bach : the Ciacona in D minor, BWV 1178, and the Ciacona in G minor, BWV 1179. He discovered them in the Royal Library of Belgium. From the outset, he was fascinated by these manuscripts and tried to unlock their secrets. Throughout his career, the musicologist gathered numerous clues, which, together with the final piece of the puzzle — identifying the copyist — now form a complete picture. With the help of copies and numerous visits to Brussels, Wollny studied the two manuscripts on several occasions, examining each note in minute detail.
Attributing a work to Bach is a delicate task: neither manuscript is in Johann Sebastian Bach’s handwriting, and neither is dated or signed. However, Peter Wollny was able to identify the initially anonymous copyist from other sources linked to Bach’s entourage, for example in another of Bach’s early works: a fugue on a theme by Albinoni. There are also other pieces from central Germany.
Identifying the copyist was like a real police investigation
The search for the copyist’s identity was like a detective novel spread over several decades. While working in the archives of a church in Thuringia, Wollny’s colleague, Dr Bernd Koska, discovered a job application dated 1729. This letter reveals an organist, Salomon Günther John, who was completely unknown to Bach specialists until then. He claims to have been a pupil of Bach in Arnstadt. It is now possible to piece together John’s life: he took lessons from Bach in Arnstadt between 1705 and 1707 and later reappeared in Bach’s entourage in Weimar. Wollny searched for other documents and eventually found some of John’s early writings, which definitively confirmed that he was the copyist he was looking for.
The style of Bach’s early works
The copies date from around 1705. Stylistically, the works display characteristics found in Bach at this time but not in any other composer. For example, there is a combination of variations and ostinatos with a developed fugue. There are also techniques that strongly resemble those of Georg Böhm, the Lüneburg organist who trained Bach between 1700 and 1702. Indeed, even in his Weimar period, Johann Sebastian Bach’s early compositions are imbued with these reminiscences of Böhm’s. There are also musical echoes of the Chaconne from the cantata BWV 150.
These two organ compositions add two new entries to the BWV catalogue and were officially presented on 17 November 2025 at a ceremony to mark the 75^(th) anniversary of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig. While there is no irrefutable proof of the authenticity of these two Chaconnes and doubt will always remain, this is the first discovery of new works by Bach in over twenty years.
The score of the ‘Chaconne und Fuge in d Moll BWV 1178′ was launched at the ’75th anniversary of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig’ ceremony. (video), featuring Ton Koopman performing the two Chaconnes on the Wöhl organ (2000) at St Thomas’s in Leipzig, is available to watch online.
