Forensic spotlight cast on Bach's music

Forensic spotlight cast on Bach's music
Friday, 3 October 2008 Anna Salleh

ABC

Debate surrounds how much Anna Magdalena contributed to her husband's music

The international forensic science community is set to examine the provocative theory that Johann Sebastian Bach's wife, Anna Magdalena, wrote some of the works attributed to the great composer.

Associate Professor Martin Jarvis of Charles Darwin University in Australia will present his research at the International Symposium on the Forensic Sciences in Melbourne next week.
"The scientific evidence says the way we understand the relationship between Johann Sebastian Bach and Anna Magdelena is not correct," says Jarvis.

He says Anna Magdalena is normally portrayed as a simple woman who was only good for having babies and accurately copying Bach's manuscripts.

"My conclusions may not be wholly accurate," he says. "But the way in which tradition has put Anna Magdalena into this pathetic role ... is rubbish."

Jarvis, who is artistic director of the Darwin Symphony Orchestra says ever since his student days at the Royal Academy of Music in London in the 1970s, he has thought the Bach Cello suites did not sound like Bach.

"Certainly in the first suite, the movements are short and very simple, in comparison with the first movement of the violin works," he says. "And I couldn't understand why."

Jarvis' interest was further piqued by the discovery of a note written on the cover of the cello suites manuscript, by its owner.

This is the first time that Jarvis is presenting his work to the forensic science community.
Dr Bryan Found of the The Australian and New Zealand Forensic Science Society has been assisting Jarvis with his analysis.

"On the surface of what I've seen it seems valid conclusions are being drawn," he says.

Found says Jarvis has uniquely linked forensics with musicology in his analysis and will have to get feedback and peer review by experts in both field.

Full news article: http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/10/03/2381722.htm?site=science&topic=latest