Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach
The title Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach refers to either of two manuscript notebooks that the German Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach presented to his second wife, Anna Magdalena. Keyboard music makes up most of both notebooks, and a few pieces for voice are included.
Title page of the first (1722) Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach. Note the titles of the three Pfeiffer books written by Bach in the lower right corner.
Cover of the second (1725) Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach
Image: Gavotte from French suite n. 5
Image: Anna Magdalena Bach BWV513.42 1894
Anna Magdalena Bach, née Wilcke was a German professional singer and the second wife of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Bach, (Anna Magd.) Soprano, J.S. second wife. Painted in oil by Cristofori. 2 feet 1 inch high, 23 inches wide. In a gold frame. Entry in the Catalogue of the musical estate of the deceased music director Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714–1788), a stepson of Anna Magdalena Bach, printed in Hamburg in 1790. This painting is lost. Today, there is no portrait of her that can be regarded as authentic.
St. Thomas School in Leipzig (photo pre-1885). The Bach family apartment was on the right side, extended over four floors (three floors before the renovation in 1731/32), and was over 2200 square feet in size. The building was pulled down in 1902. (The first Bach monument in the world can be seen in front of the St. Thomas School. It was initiated by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy who donated it to the city in 1843. It still survives today.)
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Anna Magdalena Bach stayed in contact with her stepson until the end of her life.
