Lot 8: BACH, JOHANN SEBASTIAN.

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MANUSCRIPT SCORE OF THE KYRIE AND GLORIA OF THE MASS IN B MINOR, BWV 232, DERIVED FROM AN EARLY COPY OF BACH'S AUTOGRAPH

the title-page inscribed "Nro: 1 Missa a 5 Voci. 2 Soprani. Alto. Tenore. Basso. 3 Trombe. Tamburi. 2 Traversi. 2 Oboi. 2 Violini. 1 Viola. e Continuo" (the composer not identified), the note "Manuscrit - Prix 36fr." apparently entered later on the title-page, the score written in a single scribal hand of evidently German provenance in brown ink on up to eighteen staves per page, the staves drawn by hand with a rastrum, with many corrections, cancellations and additions in another eighteenth-century hand in a lighter brown ink, some corrections also in pencil

84 leaves, folio (c.36 x 22.5cm), manuscript label to upper cover ("Messe Solemnelle Sans nom d'auteur un Partition") and spine ("Auteur anonim Messe Solennelle"), eighteenth-century pencil gathering numbers ('1' -'11'), contemporary paper-covered boards, no place or date [German, probably Berlin, provenance, c.1770 or shortly after], covers worn, some worming

NOTE

This is a new and unrecorded pre-publication source for one of Bach's greatest works, showing details evidently derived directly from the autograph manuscript .

This score predates the first edition by up to sixty years. It was copied from a known early source for the Mass, the Berlin manuscript Am. B. 3 (in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin), dated 1769, which was itself copied by Bach's pupil J. P. Kirnberger directly from the autograph score (then in the possession of C.P.E. Bach). Quite a number of details are absolutely identical between Am.B. 3 and the present manuscript. The B minor Mass was not published until 1833.

Some entries in the manuscript are of particular significance as they show a direct line of descent from Bach's autograph: namely, the marking 'Nro: 1' on the title-page and the alteration of the designation 'Traversi' to 'Traverso' at the beginning of the 'Domine Deus'. Moreover, as in Kirnberger's copy, the title page and head title in the present manuscript make no reference to the identity of the composer. The numerous textual corrections to the manuscript - affecting note pitches, rhythm, phrasing etc. - are an additionally intriguing feature, and merit further investigation.

The Kyrie and Gloria were composed by Bach as a self-contained Missa and presented, in the form of a set of parts, to the Elector Friedrich August II in Dresden in 1733. The addition of other movements, to form the mighty Mass in B minor, took place at the end of the following decade. This manuscript, which long predates Nägeli and Simrock's 1833 published score of the Kyrie and Gloria (see lot 6 in the sale in these rooms on 22 May 2003), is not listed by Schmieder among the manuscript sources for BWV 232.

The reception history of the B minor Mass is indeed little known and intriguing. Although the work did not appear in print until the 1830s, manuscript copies of it were in circulation among the increasingly large circle of admirers of Bach's music. Beethoven, for example, is known to have had a copy. Bach's original conception, as a two-movement mass for German Protestant consumption, is contained in this manuscript. It is particularly interesting that this German manuscript appears to have been sold in France at a later date, adding a whole new aspect to the Rezeptionsgeschichte of Bach's music.

We are most grateful for the kind assistance of Professor Christoph Wolff and Dr Peter Wollny in preparing our description of this lot.