Rewriting Bach: Scholars claim his wife did some of the composing

They say that behind every great man is a great woman. And behind one of the greatest classical musicians of all time, Johann Sebastian Bach, was his wife—who, one academic claims, was the real creator of some of his finest work.

According to Martin Jarvis—Welsh-born conductor and professor of music at Charles Darwin University in Australia—forensic analysis of Bach’s best-loved works shows they might have actually been written by his second wife, Anna Magdalena Bach. While Jarvis does not claim to prove the theory, a new documentary based on his findings attempts to lift Anna Bach from historical obscurity.

Why bring such a theory to light? Jarvis told The Telegraph it is sexist to assume males were the sole composers of good music, and he hopes to restore Anna Bach to the history books as a way of counteracting that idea. Forensic document examiner Heidi Harralson said she concludes “within a reasonable degree of scientific certainty” that the composer of some of Bach’s major works, including the Cello Suites, was more likely his wife.

Presented by British composer Sally Beamish and screened at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in London last week, the documentary, Written by Mrs Bach, is the product of work by Beamish, Harralson, and Jarvis. Their argument draws from three tenants: first, the researchers say the pieces in question deviate from Bach’s other works in significant structural and technical respects; second, the manuscripts appear to be in the hand of Anna Bach, with one front page bearing the words “written by Mrs Bach” in French; third, actual proof that Bach himself composed the works is non-existent, apart from the potentially skewed assumption that the composer wrote everything attributed to him. To complicate matters, Bach left behind few personal papers that might help document his work.

Anna Bach is known to have transcribed for her husband in later years. Support for her contribution as a composer also comes from the researchers’ observation that, on her copy of the music, the speed of writing and the spacing between pen lifts is more suggestive of composing than labored copying. They also draw attention to multiple score corrections noted in her hand, implying she could have composed the music as she went along.

In Beamish’s view, the documentary raises vital questions about female composers and could significantly transform the confidence levels of young woman who aspire to succeed in the field today. Written by Mrs Bach argues that Anna wrote the Cello Suites, the aria from the Goldberg Variations, and even the first prelude of The Well-Tempered Clavier: Book I.

But one critic, Steven Isserlis, writing for The Guardian, says that while Jarvis is a “sincere man,” his theory is “pure rubbish” and unsubstantiated by any real evidence:

“Anna Magdalena Bach did not write the Bach suites, any more than Anne Hathaway wrote Shakespeare’s plays, George Henry Lewes wrote George Eliot’s novels, or Freddie Starr ate his friend’s hamster,” Isserlis wrote. “There are countless connections between the suites and many of his other works; but even more because the language is so clearly his—that perfection of utterance that is pure … Bach.”

Still, the researchers stand confidently behind their claim: “I think she is the author,” Harralson told The Telegraph. “The evidence is more in her favor than it is in Bach’s.”