Anna Magdalena Bach

née Wilcke (1701-1760)

A blog for all those who would like
to learn more about
Johann Sebastian Bach’s second wife –
for reading and listening.

St. Thomas Square, Leipzig, 1749

The latest post:
 

Were there servants in the Bach family household? (Part II)
 

Here a preview:
 

The 1723 regulations of the St. Thomas school state that the principal and the cantor were provided with apartments in the school “designed to that in each one the household can be run separately and that they can accommodate their wife, children and servants”. (Ordnungen der Thomasschule 1987, pages 23 f.) It says “servants”, so it does not mean just one person but several. Therefore, it not only went with the status of the cantor of the Thomas school to have servants, but some also lived in. ...

Illustration from a cooking book, 1745

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How this blog started:
 

Anna Magdalena Bach is often seen as a woman who had once been a singer and copied scores for her husband Johann Sebastian, but whose life was mostly spent in caring for their many children, cooking the daily meals and cleaning. After many years of research I began to have doubts about this picture, and I talked about this with my family. My children casually mentioned that there were other ways to make this public than writing books. One of my sons set up this blog for me and my daughter promised to help with the design. With this kind support, I would like to illuminate certain aspects of the life of Anna Magdalena Bach née Wilcke in regular short articles (about 3 to 4 minutes reading time). I would be very pleased if you find them interesting.

The circumstances of her life are in many cases closely connected with those of her husband. So the subtitle of this blog could have been “Johann Sebastian Bach in Private”. Our ideas about him could also change. For example, do you see a difference between him asking his wife for a cup of coffee and him asking a maid who would convey his wish to a member of the kitchen staff?

My publications about Anna Magdalena Bach:

"Die Frau Capellmeisterin Anna Magdalena Bach. Ein Zeitbild" published in August 2021 by Verlag Klaus-Jürgen Kamprad, Altenburg, Germany

How this book came to be, and reviews

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My piece “Anna Magdalena Bach – Ehefrau und Geschäftspartnerin” gives some impressions of what this book is about. It was produced by the German cultural radio station Deutschlandfunk Kultur and broadcast on 30th March 2022.

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"Die verwitwete Frau Capellmeisterin Bach. Studie über die Verteilung des Nachlasses von Johannn Sebastian Bach" (Doctoral Thesis), published in March 2019 by Verlag Klaus-Jürgen Kamprad, Altenburg, Germany

How this book came to be, and reviews

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My piece "Die verwitwete Frau Capellmeisterin Bach als Musikalienhändlerin", produced by the German cultural radio station Deutschlandfunk Kultur and broadcast on 29th May 2019, contains extracts from my research results which I present in this book.

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I would like to thank Alan Shepherd for the English translation.