Long-lost Bach organ works played for first time in three centuries

Two long-lost organ pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach have been performed in Germany, roughly 320 years after the composer wrote them as a teenage music teacher.

- Philip Oltermann

Chaconne in D minor BWV 1178 and Chaconne in G minor BWV 1179 were added to the official catalogue of Bach's works yesterday and played in public for the first time in three centuries inside St Thomas church, Leipzig, where Bach is buried.

Researchers discovered the two anonymous and undated works in the Royal Library of Belgium in 1992, but it was not until recently that they were able to authenticate Bach as their composer.

Peter Wollny, the director of the Bach Archive in Leipzig, said that over three decades he had amassed about 20 “puzzle pieces” pointing to authorship by the composer.

Identifying the copyist who had written down the score, however, proved a challenge.