Bach's Wife Did the Composing?

How much of Bach's music was actually written by his second wife (Anna Magdalena Bach) It's a question that's been kicking around for some time. Now comes research that perhaps gets us a little closer to an answer.

Martin Jarvis says some of the works believed for centuries to have come from the hand of Bach were actually written by the composer's second wife...He named Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor - one of Bach's most famous pieces..."It was written by a wonderful lady called Anna Magdalena; she was Bach's second wife."

Link. And there's more

He claims that Magdalena, who helped copy some of Bach's compositions, almost certainly wrote the cello suites that had been attributed to her husband.

"When I first played the cello suites ... I was struck by the fact that I didn't think this music was written by the same person," he said. "So it's been a journey since 1971 until when I took this up seriously five years ago." Jarvis said she may have even "had a hand" in writing the first book of the Well-Tempered Clavier, Bach's famous keyboard collection of preludes and fugues.

Link.

And that's not at all. Next in the good professor cross-hairs: ""I have been curious about Mozart's sister Nannerl, and whether or not she was involved in any of the manuscripts of Mozart," Prof Jarvis said. " Link.

If that's got your attention, I recommend seeing the film "Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach". Check it out here.