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- There's no doubt about it.

It is the most superior form of music.

Love it or hate it.

When you get to the sheer meat and bones

of what classical music is
about, it's everything and more.

It pulls at every emotion you
could ever bring to the table.

It transcends everything.

- All the music for which Bach is famous

comes after he's met Anna Magdalena.

Either she was his inspiration
or she was involved.

- To have found traces of
her writing in documents

where it shouldn't be was very exciting.

Of course,
Anna Magdalena was a composer.

- I think the forensics are fantastic.

Martin has definitely succeeded

in putting Anna Magdalena Bach
at the scene of the crime.

- I've not seen anything
that would diminish

or detract from his findings.

- This opens the gates to a new look

at the whole history of music.

- They wanted to expunge Anna Magdalena

from the history books.

The genius of
Bach is not in doubt.

He wrote an extraordinary amount of music,

and some of his pieces have
been attributed to others.

But was his wife, Anna Magdalena,

not only his copyist, but a composer?

Using modern forensics, this film looks

into new and controversial concepts:

the reality of his working environment

and even the authenticity of manuscripts

autographed Johann Sebastian Bach.

Distinguished musician

and forensic anthro-musicologist,
Professor Martin Jarvis,

has spent 25 years
investigating his theory

that Anna Magdalena could
have been a composer.

But even though I write
music for a living,

I found this hard to accept.

Nevertheless, I was intrigued.

But surely not the Cello Suites?

Martin told me he'd found
17 musicological reasons

why they were not by Bach.

- My key motivation was really to try

to come to understand the music.

And it was impossible
to understand the music

when I thought it was by
Johann Sebastian Bach.

And, of course, the more things

that were thrown up in my way,

the more hurdles I had to climb,

the more I was challenged and the more,

intellectually, I wanted
to find a solution.

One vital challenge was

the actual calligraphy of music notation.

Normal handwriting has
specific characteristics.

But, does music calligraphy?

Martin discovered the answer in

a paper published in the USA in 1980

by Forensic Document
Examiner, Jack R. Calvert.

- No doubt about it.

Habits are there and they're established.

And once they're
established people writing

with a quill, or with a pen,

will write music
calligraphy in the same way.

You should be able to look
at one manuscript and say,

that's written by him or her, or whatever.

Once somebody learnt how to drive a quill

they wrote almost exactly the same

as they do with a normal pen.

The only difference being that, of course,

a quill has to be re-inked a lot

which means there are far more pen lifts

as the person has to re-dip the ink.

Anna Magdalena's role

has always been considered as a copyist.

So can we tell whether she is composing,

copying from her own drafts
or from her husband's?

- The curious thing about Anna
Magdalena's supposed copies

is that they don't exhibit
the kind of slowness

and heaviness that you
would normally attribute

with somebody who's trying to copy.

All of them look as if that has flowed

from somebody's brain
directly to the paper.

So what Martin's
claiming is that Anna

is making fair copies, but
she's also making changes.

That she's copying her own work.

At the Sydney Opera House,

he meets harpsichordist Elizabeth Anderson

to discuss the provenance
of another famous piece,

the C Major Prelude, which actually

bears a striking resemblance to

the first prelude of the cello suites.

Presenting scientific
evidence to musicians

like her just wouldn't be enough.

He had to convince Elizabeth that

his musical instincts were right.

A conundrum he hopes to solve is

the mystery of the five missing bars.

This involves a prelude,
handwritten in a date order

that Martin believes to
be incorrectly recorded.

- In the 1720 notebook, that first version

of the first prelude,
is in her handwriting.

It is not in Bach's handwriting,
it is in her handwriting.

And it is obviously
not a copy of something

because of the way it's laid out,

the fact that there are
corrections and adjustments to it.

So that's a working manuscript
which screams out to me

that this is in the hand of
the composer, Anna Magdalena.

The prelude
shows up in Anna's hand

in a music book dated 1725
with five bars missing.

But could this be work in progress?

- Okay, so the version as it appears

in the Anna Magdalena book of 1725?

- Correct.
- That's the one.

- That's the one we're gonna look at.

- That's the one I'm
going to play right now.

- It's curious, isn't it?
- Yes.

So for me, this
is the first draft of it.

An earlier version.

In the 1722
version the missing bars

are now in place, as
in the modern version.

So was the 1725 version an earlier draft?

If so, it looks to me
as if she's composing.

- Would you like to play it now

with those 5 bars that I added?

Yeah, that's lovely.

So the whole point about the mystery

of the missing 5 bars is, in my view,

they weren't missing at the time.

The perception that they were missing

was to say that Anna
Magdalena was incompetent

in some way or other
and she'd miscopied it.

- I think the forensics are fantastic.

Martin has definitely succeeded in putting

Anna Magdalena Bach at
the scene of the crime,

but we can't conclusively
prove that she did it.

We can see that it's likely that

one version of the C Major Prelude

was an earlier composition than another.

And we can see that, since they're both

in Anna Magdalena's handwriting,

that it's quite possible
that she was the composer

of both versions and
the fact that a version

in Bach's handwriting
doesn't exist supports that.

So we've got likely and
we've got quite possible.

But I wish we had
another piece of evidence

because I don't believe
that we've got proven.

- I'm sure that the only thing

that would convince most people

would be if I found a letter somewhere

that said, I wrote this piece of music,

signed Anna Magdalena Bach.

But cellist, Tilly Cernitori,

didn't need a signature
on a piece of paper.

She's 27 years old, half
Japanese, half Italian,

and regarded as one of the world's

most gifted young soloists.

She's won over 20 first prizes

in International Cello Competitions,

including the coveted Medal of

the President of the Republic in Rome.

She's currently training in
Vienna to be a conductor.

As a very successful musician,

she took quite a risk by releasing a CD

of the Cello Suites under
Anna Magdalena's name.

She's the first cellist
in the world to do so.

- Everyone was very much asking me,

are you sure you want to do this?

But you were completely sure?

- Yeah of course, I said, I'm not afraid

because if you do what you believe in

you're never gonna be wrong, you know.

Tilly first
performed the Cello Suites

as a tribute to Anna
Magdalena on Women's Day 2015.

And all proceeds from
the concert and the CD

go to a women's aid organization
in her hometown, Florence.

- I think this is a strong message

which is important to bring out.

It's a statement.

I did this because I think
there is a big parallel

between the physical
oppression of women today

and the oppression
which was more spiritual

and philosophical of women
composers through the centuries.

So it's like this thing of being

wiped out from history, you know.

However, support can turn up

in the most unlikely of places,

as evidenced by the Deputy Director

of RAM, Doctor Timothy Jones.

- I was fascinated by all
the work that he'd done

on the forensics of Bach documents.

There are some pieces by
Bach whose attributions

are being questioned very seriously.

And there are attributions
to other well-known,

even canonic composers down the years

where we might question
whether they wrote them or

whether female relatives or
women in their creative circle,

were responsible for some of the music.

The greatness of the
music doesn't diminish

if the attribution changes one jot.

So what's so
unsettling about Mrs. Bach?

Martin's colleague at
Charles Darwin University,

Historian Dr. Alan Powell, had one theory.

- There will always be those who find

themselves threatened
by any possible change.

And this one's particularly threatening

because it involves a woman.

Myleene Klass is a musician,

model and mother of two.

She understands the
challenges only too well.

- As a woman working in the
industry that I work in now

you have to be exceptionally versatile.

Every single thing that I do,

even if it doesn't look directly
related to classical music,

it's because I'm a classical musician

that I can do these things.

I learnt to diversify and that's
the key to classical music.

It's the key to surviving,

and that's Anna Magdalena
through and through.

You do what you have to do to get by.

And if that's what the mark for women is,

then yeah, that's your
woman, that's Anna Magdalena.

That's a little bit of all of us.

The Fraunhofer
Institute in Germany

is well known for
Digital Music Technology.

Martin Jarvis traveled there
to meet Christof Weiss,

a Digital Analyst who made comparisons

between the Cello Suites and
the violin and piano works

and got some fascinating results.

- The movements differ more than,

for example, do the movements
of the violin solos.

For example, the violin
pieces are matching so good

and the Cello Suites, at least
for some movements, do not.

In strictly technical
terms, Martin is right.

This is clear evidence
that the musical structure

of the Cello Suites is different
to other Bach compositions.

So what was it that led Tilly

to challenge the authorship of the Suites?

What made her suspect
that Anna's involvement

was more than originally thought?

- When I started to study the Bach Suites

I felt it was something different.

Of course, at the time I couldn't
say it was Anna Magdalena

because I had no idea about her,

but I had some kind of feeling.

The six suites are a kind of
large spectrum of emotions

and they're very different
from each other, you know.

Every suite for me has
a different character.

It's like meeting six different people.

And, yeah, I think this contrast

of feelings and emotion are very

much typical of a woman, also.

As a next step, I decided

to visit the famous viola soloist,

Bruno Giuranna, at his home near Venice.

He's performed with many of
the world's great musicians,

including Karajan and Barbarolli.

He was also a former professor

at the Hochschule fur Musik in Berlin,

and International Chair
at the Royal Academy

of Music in London.

Significantly, he's made a lifetime study

of the Cello Suites and is about

to bring out his second edition,

after more detailed study of
all available manuscripts.

So I'd like his opinion on how

they compare musically
to Bach's other Suites.

- The other pieces that I know well,

because I studied them, are
the Sonatas and Partitas.

I always felt that in the Cello Suites,

more interpretation is necessary

in order to produce a decent performance

than in the Sonatas and Partitas.

The music itself seems
to me to be more human.

They are fantastic music.

They are the greatest pieces of music

and they have this quality that allows you

to spend a whole life working on them

and always discovering something.

- I am talking actually about my instinct

because, of course, I can feel
this works more near to me.

And, as I'm a woman, I think that a work

by a woman can maybe talk more to me.

But, of course, it's also
a matter of sensitivity,

of musicality of the piece itself.

- I can sense the possibility that

some suites have been
written by Anna Magdalena,

especially with the distance of centuries.

From whom did God borrow
the hand for writing?

- She's only known because
she was the second wife

of him and she was a singer, period.

Maybe she didn't write many things,

but she was actually a composer, you know.

But that's something which also

happened to other women in history.

They were just wiped out
from the history books.

Martin's evaluation

needs scientific corroboration.

U.S. based Heidi Harralson
is a published author

and respected professor in
forensic document examination.

She authenticates important
historical documents,

works of art, graffiti
and symbolic script.

Recently, as an expert witness,

she re-examined Kurt
Cobain's suicide note.

Her unbiased opinion
of disputed manuscripts

will be crucial.

- I am not a music scholar.

I'm a document examiner.

So, from my perspective,

I don't care if Johann Sebastian Bach

wrote them or if his wife wrote them.

That's irrelevant to me.

The whole point is to
use scientific methods

to figure out who actually did
the writing on the document.

- I'm a full-time composer
and a mother of three

and I'm aware the lack of role models

has been an issue for me in the past.

In the history of music women
are pretty much invisible.

Could that have made me skeptical?

I was quite shocked at my initial reaction

which was, well, she
couldn't have written it.

And then I looked at that
reaction and I realized,

that was because, even for me,

that was because she was a woman.

And there is no canon of women composers

and there are no role models.

I started composing quite
naturally at the age of four

and I'm sure a little boy
would have done the same.

There's no gender difference.

There's something that
happens in perception

that tells little girls that this

isn't something that they can do.

These things go very deep.

- Is it really that hard
to believe or digest?

Absolutely not!

It's happening even now.

If you look at the ratio
of female composers

to male composers who
are working in the arena.

I'd say it's not far off
from what it was even then.

At Glasgow
University Martin delved

into the psychology of women in music,

including historical prejudices,

with Professor John Butt, a
global expert on J.S. Bach.

- Many people are still afraid,

or certainly not keen,

to acknowledge that women can
be just as creative as men.

And the problem is that quite often,

they've not been given the
opportunities to be so.

Anna Magdalena studies have
only really just begun.

She seems to have been somewhat neglected.

- I feel now that we do such disservice

to classical musicians.

It's like we almost canonize them.

We make them into these saints

and the reason they could write the way

they could is 'cause they weren't saints.

- I suppose there's a
certain degree of shock

when you present certain
aspects of your work.

It's almost a sort of a pious reaction,

that you're violating a religion.

My view of Western culture,

particularly classical music culture,

is that it's taken over some
of the trappings of religion.

Therefore, people, when
they're dealing with it,

sometimes actually behave as if you were

talking about one of their religions.

The emphasis
on The Great Master means

that women composers have
to find self-assurance

against a historical
background that excludes them.

And women's work certainly
wasn't valued as highly.

What's more, if Martin's
research challenges

the very autographs on Bach documents,

it will devalue manuscripts held

by collectors all over the world.

Heidi met up with Martin,

both eager to press on with
research work in Leipzig,

but they hit a serious problem.

They were banned from
access to research materials

held at the Bach archive.

Then, it got worse.

Senior staff there also
refused to give interviews

or discuss any of Martin's theories.

- Well, I'm very surprised

and very disappointed that they banned us.

They have much to gain
from what I've discovered

and I can't see what they've
got to lose, to be honest.

- The whole point of an archive is

to give scholars or researchers,

access to documents to study
and for research purposes.

And so, I find that very
disappointing and disheartening.

However, this
unexpected delay allowed Martin

to share some relevant facts
and conjectures with Heidi.

- The Toccata and Fugue in D-Minor

was one of his most celebrated works.

Now, most Bach experts
agree that it was written

by his pupil, Johann Ludwig Krebs.

So what else wasn't written by Mr. Bach?

And why should a Bach
composition attributed

to one writer be acceptable

and another attribution heretical?

Simply because it's a woman?

It's just one of those
professions that computes as male,

like surgeon, electrician;
composer equals man.

If you look in the Grove
Dictionary of Music,

even the most recent one, you look up Bach

and the family tree is there

and all the women have been wiped out.

There are also question marks
about Bach's life story.

His first biography
wasn't written until 1802,

52 years after his death, by
biographer Nikolaus Forkel.

But much of what we
believe about Bach today

was based on information given to Forkel

by Bach's son, Carl Phillip Emanuel.

- It was C.P. Bach who
actually invented the story

of his father's life, you know.

He was very, very important in terms

of putting the obituary together and then,

equally, if not more
important, in informing Forkel.

So you could say that C.P. Bach

was one of the first Bach spin doctors.

- And I said, who wrote these?

That's the first thing
you'd ask as a historian.

And you find it's the followers of Bach

and the family of Bach
who have written them.

So they're immediately suspect
in the eyes of an historian.

Anything that's written
by the family or friends

you have to look beyond
that to find the truth.

So has a biased and possibly

distorted view of J.S. Bach's life

and work become historical fact?

Professor Melanie Unseld is
an historian whose specialty

is family life in the early 18th century.

The focus on him

as an individual composer, standing alone,

is also the picture that
we have of him today.

A picture of Bach which has come

down to us from the 19th century.

And it is also this
process within the culture

of remembrance, in which everyone

around him tends to be superseded
by him as an individual,

by his personality,
and are then forgotten.

But not by Martin Jarvis

who had already made the transition

from musician to forensic detective.

So what's the story there?

It's in the genes.

His late father,
Superintendant Bernard Jarvis,

was a senior police officer in Wales.

- He became the head of Special Branch.

My father taught me trust nobody.

Don't trust anything that you're told.

You need to examine
what's been said and know,

to know that it's true and that's probably

the most important lesson
I learnt in my life.

Sleuthing is in the DNA, really.

He desperately needed examples

of musical calligraphy and
handwriting proven to be hers.

Then, he unearthed a petition written

by Anna to the Leipzig council

seeking child maintenance support shortly

after her husband's death in 1750.

- I suddenly realized that if I had

an example of Anna Magdalena's handwriting

and an example of her music calligraphy,

surely if I then could find places where

her music calligraphy and handwriting were

where they shouldn't be then I would

be able to prise open the door.

This petition was exactly

what Martin was looking
for; a large sample

of Anna's writing, written with care.

It meant he could deconstruct her writing

and compare it to other manuscripts.

It was an exciting breakthrough.

After Martin found Anna's
petition to the council,

two more documents dated 1713,

the Weimar manuscripts, were discovered.

Martin found evidence of
Anna's hand in both documents.

A canon and an aria, a song
for soprano and strings.

But why was the discovery of
those documents so important?

In 1713 Bach's musical patron

was Duke Wilhelm Ernst in Weimar.

It was the Duke's 52nd birthday and VIP's

from far and wide would have
attended the celebrations.

Consequently, it's very likely that Anna

made the 50 mile journey
from the family home

in Zeitz to Weimar with her parents.

Anna was only 12 years old then,

but Bach scholars say they
didn't meet until she was 20.

- The handwriting on that document is,

at the very least, in
part Anna Magdalena's,

if not entirely, and, significantly,

the music calligraphy is hers.

The second piece that was
found in Weimar, of course,

was found in a box which
hadn't been opened since 1713.

The original manuscript

of the song, "Alles Mit Gott",

was held in the Duchess
Amalia Library in Weimar.

Fortunately, it had been
removed for examination

before a serious fire in
2005 destroyed 50,000 books

and a thousand hand written notes

reflecting the music culture in Weimar

in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Who knows how many other
priceless documents

were lost forever that might
have helped Martin's research.

While waiting for official permission

to examine the original manuscript

he looked at a high quality facsimile.

- No shadow of doubt in
my mind that the aria

is in Anna Magdalena's handwriting.

What it proves is that the
handwriting of Anna Magdalena,

is in places where tradition
says it shouldn't be,

which means that the relationship,

historically, between Anna Magdalena

and Johann Sebastian cannot
be as we have assumed.

- When you suddenly tip it and you think,

well, hang on, if this was written

by a woman the approach
would be completely different

and people are uncomfortable with that.

The fact that the revelation's come up now

that it has been written by a woman,

makes perfect sense to me.

I think it's made me love Bach more.

In Leipzig, Martin
shares his findings with Heidi,

using comparisons with calligraphy

from a rare example of
Anna's correspondence.

- The Aria discovered in 2005
and the Canon for Four Voices

were probably written by Anna Magdalena

and certainly not written
by Johann Sebastian.

- And your premise that it's not written

by Johann Sebastian is
based upon on your research

and looking at the
handwriting characteristics?

Yes, absolutely.

- And you could eliminate Maria Barbara,

his first wife, because
she was already deceased?

- That's correct, yes.

- So there's only two possible writers

that could have written
those particular documents

and that would have been Mr. or Mrs. Bach.

- Yes.

- In my examination of that document

I found fundamental differences

in Johann Sebastian Bach's writing

in comparison to that particular document.

And I found several
handwriting characteristics

that I thought were
individualizing to her writing

that would support the proposition

that she is, indeed, the writer.

- Good, thank you.

Tilly Cernitori
was a child prodigy,

playing the cello
proficiently at only nine.

We believe that Bach began
collaborating musically

with Anna Magdalena when she was 12.

So, is it possible that Anna
was also a child prodigy?

- There are child prodigies today,

so why not in the past?

My next stop is the Middle East,

to catch up with a young
English/Israeli composer.

She's about to hear her work performed

at the Tel Aviv Opera House
and she's here for rehearsals.

The entire Deutscher family; father Guy,

mother Janie, and younger daughter Helen,

are all gathered here for
a very special occasion:

the premiere of Alma's new opera.

A pianist at two, violinist at four

and composer for full
symphony orchestra at six,

she's still only 10 years old.

- I've just finished
composing my whole opera,

Cinderella, and it's going
to be put on in a few days.

I started
composing when I was four,

so I was very interested
in how Alma created music,

to see if there were any common factors

at play relative to our
lives and experiences.

- I can't just press a button
and get an idea, a melody.

I usually get it when I'm resting.

For instance, before I fall asleep

or just when I'm waking up.

Also, when I'm skipping and
melodies pour into my head.

Also, when I'm improvising at the piano

and then I hear sometimes a
human voice singing in my head,

or a violin, or a whole orchestra.

But where do those
human voices come from?

I was curious about the building blocks

behind Alma's compositional skills.

- I have an imaginary
land called Transylvanian.

Inside it are also lots
of imaginary composers

and musicians and sometimes,
from the best of them,

I steal music from them
and use it as my own.

So, there are lots of composers

and some of the best ones are Anton

and Yellowsink and Shell and Flara

and Bluegold and Greensilver.

Usually my most beautiful
melodies come from them.

I can imagine J.S. Bach spotting

the potential of Anna Magdalena,

at the age of 12, as we now suspect.

It seems to me she could well have been

unusually accomplished for her age.

Alma's parents are musicians
and she's home educated.

Anna would have been, too,

and her father and uncle were musicians.

What does Alma think of a time

when women were prevented from performing

or being credited as composers?

- 300 years ago then women weren't,

and girls weren't,
encouraged to be composers,

weren't allowed to be composers.

And I think I would be
quite angry and frustrated.

I wouldn't have been able to compose.

By the 18th
century women simply didn't

have the opportunity to
write large concert works

or at least to hear them performed.

Meaning that they often stuck
to chamber music and songs.

Anna Magdalena may well
have had the advantage

over her later counterparts
in that she could

have had the opportunity
to complete large pieces.

However, these works would automatically

have been credited to her husband.

She would have written
under the family brand.

What does Alma think about that?

- I would have minded it very much

because it's not their music, it's mine.

And I know actually,
that Felix Mendelssohn,

he visited England and he
visited Queen Victoria.

And Queen Victoria wanted to sing some

of Mendelssohn's songs with
Mendelssohn accompanying.

And so Mendelssohn said, "Well,
choose your favorite song."

And Victoria chose and Mendelssohn blushed

a little bit and said,
"Well, that's actually

"not my song, it was
composed by my sister".

So even in the 19th century,

the true composer was unveiled

by accident, rather than by design.

But how does Alma think she
has achieved so much, so young?

- It's a bit of both of
talent and education.

Of course, one needs to
have talent or inherit it,

but then one also has to know how

to develop it and have education.

And then, also, it's another talent

to be able to work and concentrate.

- It's very easy for us now sitting

in the 21st century to say well,

the frustration, the
anger, all of those things

would have been there and she would

have been trying to right the wrongs,

but I very much doubt that
would have been the case.

I think, yes, maybe the
frustration and the anger,

but certainly what society
was dictating at the time

wouldn't maybe necessarily
have allowed her to think

that she could have potentially gone

out there and written those pieces.

Even in the 21st century we don't allow

for her to have written those pieces.

So, I think at the time of writing

did women have that recognition?

I would say the answer is probably not.

But, how could a young girl,

living in the early 18th century,

ever achieve such an
advanced level of education?

A family sought

the best possible
opportunities for education

within the context of
their family network.

That can mean, for example,
that children are sent

to school, or they receive instruction

at home in addition to
this general education.

Or, for girls in
particular, that they are,

in fact, taught at home, by
members of the family network.

It could be an aunt or a tutor brought

into the home for this purpose.

However, in order to compose,

you need more than school education.

Because we know that she
was trained as a singer,

we can surmise that she did
indeed have a musical education,

that she received musical instruction.

So Anna was musically educated

and gifted as a child.

How do professionals who live

and breathe Bach react to that?

Like the Director of the
Bach Museum, Jorge Hansen?

That Anna Magdalena

might have produced
musical notation at the age

of 12 or 13 would not
be surprising at all.

Further documents suggest Anna

could well have been a pupil of Bach.

Her handwriting appears
on the cover of a book

of organ works, while
she was still a teenager.

This signature is written
by her, not by him.

And what might he have
been like as a tutor?

- If he thought of himself as superior

it was as superior among equals.

He would have had a God-given mission

to do music and to do it well.

I mean, he had this real sense of career

and the notion, you know,
that if anybody insulted

his art he could get really angry.

His rage spilled
over after demanding

a transfer to the Court of
Prince Leopold in Kothen.

Duke Wilhelm Ernst at the Court of Weimar

reacted badly and Bach was jailed.

The dispute was resolved when,

in 1717, his demands
were met and he finally

got the job of Kapellmeister at Kothen.

The
Kapellmeister is responsible

for everything musical
that happens at court.

That is, he directs the ensembles,

rehearses the works and composes too,

but he is not a composer.

This term does not yet exist in the period

in question, rather he is Kapellmeister.

A few years
later, Anna Magdalena,

now 20, got a job there as a singer

and she was hired by Johann Sebastian.

But she was far from home.

Where did she live?

- She's a young girl come into Kothen.

So, where is she gonna stay?

The logical thing is for her to come in

as a tutor living in a household,

in this case, the Bach household.

To many people, the very idea

that Anna Magdalena lived with

the Bach family is unacceptable.

It went
without saying that

within musical families
and among musicians,

a network was always sought to accommodate

musicians who were passing through.

And she was doing precisely that

when she came to Kothen as a singer.

And so, it is entirely possible

that she was a guest of the Bach family,

that she stayed with them,

and that she was part of
the everyday musical life

of the Bach family as a matter of course.

A possible indication

that Anna lived in the Bach family home

is the appearance of Anna's
handwriting in a notebook

for Wilhelm Friedemann, Bach's eldest son.

- The first thing I needed to do was

establish whose handwriting was

in the first prelude as it exists

in the Friedemann notebook.

I brought in some examples of
Anna Magdalena's handwriting

and I could see quite
clearly that we had a match.

- It appears to be the same
writer, that's very clear.

What is known is that when

she arrived in Kothen she already had

an impressive reputation as a singer.

Anna's status was reflected
in her unusually high salary.

- Why was she paid so much money?

She was a 20 year old woman,
only female member of Court,

second most highly paid member of Court,

paid as much as 10 times as much

as any of the other musicians.

Well, clearly she must have been doing

something very special
and it wasn't copying.

Interestingly enough, the
Court records identify

the copyists and Anna Magdalena's
name is not amongst them.

So we know, John, that Anna Magdalena

was paid a large amount of money.

What do you think she
was doing for that money?

- I mean, certainly singers
did tend to get paid more.

I mean, that's common in opera

and often they get paid
more than composers.

It might be Bach pulling
a fast one, you know,

but clearly the height of
that salary is indicative

of some level of value and excellence.

Every summer the rich

and famous flocked to the town of Karlsbad

for the spa waters and lavish parties.

Prince Leopold and Kapellmeister Bach

were enthusiastic followers
of this popular tradition.

Whether Bach
was having an affair

with Anna Magdalena is, of
course, completely unknown,

but it does seem to fit the evidence.

Bach goes off to Karlsbad with the Prince

and he takes some musicians.

- Classical musicians, let us not forget,

were the pop stars of their time.

They'd be hell-raisers today.

The things that they got
up to in their private life

spilled over into their work life.

A lot of them were rogues.

A lot of them were alcoholics.

A lot of them would be
making the headlines today.

Even today, guests
attend the closing party

of the famous Karlovy Vary Film Festival

in the very same rooms Bach and

his musicians knew almost 300 years ago.

You really would take a singer,

somebody to sing some pretty music

when people are having dinner.

So my conjecture is that Anna Magdalena

accompanied Sebastian on
this trip to Karlsbad.

Clearly, that party atmosphere

would lend itself well to perhaps

some goings-on that might be considered

to be unseemly back in Kothen.

Whatever the
truth of the matter,

Bach returned from Karlsbad to be informed

that his wife was dead and already buried.

The cause of death remains unknown.

She was hastily laid to
rest in an unmarked grave.

Only a commemorative stone exists

in the vast parkland where she was buried

and no one knows exactly
where her body lies.

Not being
buried in holy ground

is indeed an indication
that something untoward

may have occurred before death.

But we can go no further than to say

that this remains a question mark for us.

- He didn't hear about this,

according to his second eldest son,

Carl Philipp Emanuel, until
he walked through the door.

First of all, it was the middle of summer

so she could have had
a contagious disease.

But the death certificate
doesn't say what she died of.

Bearing in mind that only a couple

of years earlier she'd lost the twins.

I think she was probably very depressed

and may well have been depressed

because Johann Sebastian was showing

an interest in Anna Magdalena.

So, she may well have committed suicide.

17 months later
Bach married Anna Magdalena.

But not in a church.

In general, one can say

that weddings were
subject to a very strict

set of rules, depending on whether it was

the first marriage or the second.

And in that context it
was absolutely normal

for the second marriage not
to be contracted in public,

but rather that it should
be concluded at home.

- He was directed, the word is directed,

to get married in his own home.

So what was the reason?

Was it because there was some sort

of social stigma associated
with his relationship with Anna?

Whatever the circumstances,

Bach married a successful,

talented young woman almost half his age.

Life in Kothen seemed
secure, surrounded by love,

promise and creative freedom.

But for Anna did that include composing?

As the wife
of Johann Sebastian Bach,

she holds a thoroughly preeminent position

within this social fabric, namely as wife.

And the functions of husband and wife

are indeed very strictly regulated

in the 18th century family.

The husband is indeed
the head of the family,

but the wife is directly
at his side to the extent

that she may also deputize
for him when he is absent.

- It was understood that the whole family

was behind the Kappellmeister
and Anna Magdalena

was absolutely the Kappellmeisterin.

She would have been doing
all the things Bach was

doing and the job included composing.

The partnership was
successful and life was good.

However, a shock was
in store for the Bachs

with the arrival of Fredericka Henrietta,

bride-to-be of Prince Leopold.

- She suddenly shuts down
the funding for the Court.

So he then finds himself in the situation

where he's got to look for
employment somewhere else.

Was this because
Princess Frederica Henrietta

disliked music, as Bach concluded,

or was she jealous of
the close relationship

between the Prince and the Kapell?

Martin might surmise
that a whiff of scandal

from Karlsbad was still
hanging in the air.

We'll never know.

Whatever the reason, Bach
applied for the job of Cantor,

teaching Latin at St.
Thomas's School in Leipzig.

The move was probably
not a social disaster

and Bach faced bold new challenges

and a fresh outlet for his creativity.

But for Anna it must
have been heartbreaking.

For his wife it was indeed

a more serious setback, because she was

no longer able to perform in public.

This ruling
against female performers

was specific to Leipzig and must have been

a devastating blow to a
young woman who enjoyed

a prestigious career and
a substantial salary.

And, to add insult to
injury, her husband was not

even first choice for the job.

Not even the
second choice I believe?

- Not even the second choice, no, no.

I mean, this is partly to do
with the politics of Leipzig.

Right, yeah.

- And what was expected of a cantor.

And one thing that was
expected of a cantor

was that he would play a big role in

the academic Latin teaching of the school.

And his Latin was probably
not particularly good

and he wasn't keen on doing it anyway.

So, therefore, he
appealed more to the party

in the town council that
wanted a star musician.

Now, in this respect, Bach was

a good musician but he was not a star.

- In Leipzig he's a teacher at a school.

He's not even really there
as a composer in residence.

He's there to supervise the Latin.

He's doing some music, obviously,

but his principal role really is,

basically, as a housemaster in a school.

How Anna coped with

this upheaval is, of course, unknown.

And one can only speculate
on the family dynamic

between a teenage girl and a stepmother

who was only five years older than her.

- The relationship between Anna Magdalena

and Catharina Dorothea must have

been a very interesting one.

A 15 year old girl who's
just lost her own mother

has a stepmother who she now has

to call mother who's five years older.

I think, I don't think human
beings have changed that much.

I think it would be all-out war.

Ultimately, Anna
had 13 children of her own.

Only six survived.

So the key question is, could
Anna have had time to compose?

It goes without saying

that there were servants.

That is, a cantor household had servants

as a matter of course, but
his and her families belonged

to a very extensive
musical family network.

That is, everyone assumed
tasks which were possible

for them to undertake
and which were necessary.

- There's been so much said about

how she couldn't have been a composer.

She couldn't have done it

because she had all those children.

Because she wouldn't
have had the education.

Well, all those things have
been knocked on the head.

You mentioned that you improvise
and extemporize yourself.

Do you think there's something

that stops you from being a composer?

- I always had music in my
head but I never wrote it down.

If you grow up and you always hear

women cannot do this and this and that,

they can only do this and this and that,

of course you have a mental conditioning

and that creates psychological blocks.

And not every woman is able to get free

from these mental cages, you know.

It's not easy if you have a society

around you which says what you have to do,

what you cannot do and things like this.

Even at the age of only 10,

Alma is feeling the pressure
to make difficult choices.

- When I was little then I said I wanted

to play the violin like Perlman

and play the piano like Barenboim
and compose like Mozart.

But now, I realize that I can't
really do all these things.

People say that I will
have to choose later,

when I grow older, between
playing the violin and piano.

And all the pianists say,
"Oh, you must choose piano."

And all the violinists say,
"You must choose violin."

But it's better this way
than the other way round,

if the pianist says,
"You must choose violin."

And the violinists say,
"You must choose piano."

I want to be a woman composer.

- Children just hear a piece

and they like it for what it is.

They hear a piece and they want
to know the story behind it.

Classical music is the
key to so many stories

and opening up your imagination.

Suddenly, the purist
police come in and say,

well actually no, this
is what the composer

was trying to say and this
is how he wanted to play it

and these are the rules
and these are more rules

and all the fun comes out of it.

Who cares who wrote it?

It's the fact it was
written in the first place.

It's the fact that when
we hear those notes

do they touch your soul or not?

I started playing the
piano when I was four

and the thing that I do remember about it

is having to sit on a cushion and having

these two little legs just dangling.

It's nice to know who
wrote it but, ultimately,

when you play a piece to a child

and they'll tell you the honest truth.

They just want to know if
they like the piece or not.

It's as simple as that.

It's as black and white as that.

And Tilly Cernitori
wants to be a conductor.

But generally, it seems
to have taken much longer,

in music, for women to emerge.

So, what is it about music that appears

to make it more difficult for women?

- I think some men are really
jealous of our creative power

because women already have
creative power in life,

and they kind of feel a bit threatened

if they can create also art.

Even though there are

more women now coming into music,

as performers, there are
still very few composers.

I just don't know why that is.

- I think it's the whole
psychological conditioning.

Because I have been prevented
also to be a conductor.

People always said no, you are
a girl, you cannot conduct.

And then I see great women conductors,

so you just stand up
and say I'm gonna do it.

- You can't write women out of history,

ultimately, we just won't let it happen.

It's just not gonna happen.

Of one thing there's no doubt:

the Leipzig years produced
a prolific upsurge

of music in the Bach household.

- The money comes into the same coffers.

I think that's the case
with a family team.

That you might work on something together

and you might not really mind
very much about the ownership

of it as long as the money's coming in.

It's so much to do with that.

It's about making ends meet.

So, Johann Sebastian was, effectively,

the managing director of
the Bach family business.

Is it really
team composing now?

She's composing it.

He's polishing it.

They're producing the
final result together.

- If you knew that the person behind

these pieces had to write, or hide rather,

under this cloak because it
wouldn't have been accepted.

That, to me, adds another
layer to the story.

For her to be writing and assisting him

and maybe even the fact that we have

to recognize he was
treating her as an equal,

trusting her with these
pieces, at that level.

I think that's one of the greatest musical

and love stories ever told.

If Anna
Magdalena was alive today

she would certainly have
relished the opportunity

to perform in this iconic building.

Nobody knows who wrote the beautiful theme

of the famous Goldberg Variations.

But the original is in Anna's hand.

- The aria on which the
Goldberg Variations is based,

I think it's by Anna Magdalena.

She's written herself a little tune.

So he takes that tune and
writes the variations for it.

He starts with the aria
and finishes with the aria.

This is, to my knowledge, unique.

- Bach as a composer,
to my way of thinking,

is more an attitude towards music

and towards music that pre-exists.

So, from that point of view,
it doesn't actually matter,

as far as Bach's concerned,

whether the aria's written
by him or someone else.

- Music is people speaking to people.

I think, irrespective of if it's

a man that's written it or a woman

that's written it, that shouldn't matter.

However, it does,
because people have known

that they've been speaking
to Bach all this time.

And it's like someone sort of
just pulled out the jack lead,

pulled out the line and said,
actually hold the line caller,

you're actually speaking
to this lady instead.

In spite of all
the positive corroboration,

Martin wanted me to talk to
someone who was skeptical

about his findings and suggested I meet

Bach expert Ruth Tatlow in Leipzig.

So, is there anything to
say that Anna Magdalena

actually could have been a composer?

- I suppose she may have written an aria

and Bach just chose to
write the variations on it.

It's a very four square.

I mean, it's a total rigid binary form,

so you could say it is very simple.

- What makes us think that because

it's simple it might be by a woman?

- If she was an apprentice composer,

she was learning the skills.

This is more of the style of piece

that she could have composed.

But the Cello
Suites are much more complex

than the theme to the Goldberg Variations.

It's Martin's assertion that
they were written by Anna

that has caused the most controversy.

- I most certainly can put my hand on

my heart and say that Anna
Magdalena was the composer.

Mostly of the Cello Suites, right.

She's the principal composer.

I do believe that Johann
Sebastian had some input.

The Cello Suites are

they're more intimate, they're in a way

more inward than the Violin Partitas,

for instance, which are very virtuosic

and they're performance pieces.

So, it's not showing off.

It's not pushing the
technique to the limits,

but it's just really exploring

the strengths of the instrument.

- The question of the Cello
Suites is a difficult one.

I don't have any problem at
all with them being by Bach.

They seem to me perfectly within

the general spectrum of which Bach works.

But, with that proviso in mind,

there's not much we know about them.

And I think part of the problem with

the Cello Suites is
actually the instrument.

We literally don't know
what the instrument was.

There's a huge theory at the moment

that the Cello Suites
might have been designed

played like a huge violin.

So the cello was not a fixed instrument.

And there's virtually no precedent

for unaccompanied music for cello.

- I think there's tremendous
value in this research

because there's absolutely no reason

to believe that there
weren't women composing.

And the question is,
what happened to them?

What happened to their music?

And I think it's absolutely believable

that a lot of them published
under their husbands' names.

One piece of documentary
evidence did appear

to support Anna as a composer.

Bach family friend, Heinrich
Ludwig Schwanenberger,

had added a credit to
Anna on the front cover

of her personal beautifully
handwritten manuscript.

It seemed unambiguous.

So given that there's no
original manuscript of Bach,

and one of the main sources is
Anna Magdalena's manuscript,

is there anything to
suggest that she might

actually have been the composer?

- I would say no, there isn't.

But I've taken Martin Jarvis's evidence

very seriously and I've followed it up.

His argument for Anna Magdalena as

the composer hangs on one
small piece of evidence,

which is at the bottom of the title page.

It says, ecrite par
Madame Bach son epouse.

And Martin Jarvis takes this to mean

that Anna Magdalena was the composer.

But, he actually failed
to emphasize the fact

that on the title page it also said,

in Schwanenberger's handwriting,

composee par Johann Sebastian
Bach or J.S. Bach, twice.

- We have to consider why
Schwanenberger wrote those words.

What was he trying to tell us?

Was he trying to tell
us that he was grateful

for Anna Magdalena copying them?

Well, I don't think so.

Why would he do such a thing?

- Now, in fact, I did a little experiment.

I looked up in Christian Ludwig's

English-German-French dictionary published

in 1706 and I looked up three words.

I looked up compose, copy,
and I looked up the word write

to see which of these
words came up as ecrirer.

So these are the results that,

it is not given, the word ecrite,

is not given as a synonym
for compose in any respect.

The word ecrite is not given
as a synonym for copy either.

The word ecrite is given as a synonym

for the physical act of writing
by hand or transcribing.

And Martin's argument
lies in the word ecrite,

which he says has a dual meaning

of both composed by
and physically written.

His support for this
is a modern dictionary

and this points to the
fact that there are some

methodological flaws in his
approach, unfortunately.

- The fact of the matter is
that manuscript describes

Bach as the composee, the
person who put it together.

Composee means to put together,
not to compose the music.

Ecrit is the verb that I understand,

from the Paris Conservatoire,

was the verb used to
describe the composer.

- If people don't want to believe,

if they don't want to get on board

because it suits their
purpose not to get on board,

well, that tells you everything
you need to know already.

It tells you the uphill
struggle that Mrs. Bach

would have had and why she wrote,

or didn't write, in such a public arena.

Because, even now,
centuries down the line,

people still won't accept it.

In any event,
surely it would have

been remarkable for anyone
other than Johann Sebastian

to have been credited on the cover page.

After all, he was the Kappelmeister, and,

in those days all music came from God.

- We don't think twice now when you see

these massive factories,
and that's the only way

you can actually describe them,

of film composers who are putting

out score after score after score.

Why wouldn't it be possible that

somebody else is helping copywrite?

In fact, I don't think it
can be anything but possible

that someone else is helping to copy-write

these pieces or helping
to additionally write.

And yet, the fact that it's a
woman just changes everything.

- But a question mark still exists

over the words, written by Mrs. Bach.

The Cover Page shows two
parts, or pars, in Latin,

and Shwanenberger's note is added

to the second part, the Cello Suites.

Also, according to the French
Academy Dictionary of 1694,

the word ecrire figuratively means

composing a spiritual work.

Figuratively is derived from
the Latin word figurare,

which means to form or fashion.

So, go figure!

Why do you think there
are so many mistakes

in Anna Magdalena's manuscript?

- She's not very accurate,

especially in slurs and articulations.

She's very, I would say, enthusiastic.

She doesn't seem to care too
much about those little things.

I find that young
composers very often forget

to put the details into their scores.

For instance, whether a
note is slurred or short,

because they hear it so
clearly in their own head.

So, could Anna Magdalena
have made this fair copy

of the Cello Suites from
her own draft manuscript?

- I find that there is
a different substance,

musical substance in the Suites

than in the Sonatas and Partitas.

For that reason I say, hmm, why not?

- It's actually called ornamentation.

It's a Baroque practice which
was very common at the time.

I learned it actually
with my recorder studies,

but I have never seen
applied to the Cello Suites.

I think it's very much
in the style of the time.

- I always felt that the suites
need more interpretation,

or interpreting decisions,
than Sonatas and Partitas.

When I read the book, I had the feeling

that something had a resonance in myself.

So there was
something that rang true

in Martin's book that
made you think, well.

- Yes, exactly, made me
think exactly, well, why not?

But what was Heidi Harralson's

professional opinion, based
solely on her interpretation

of handwriting on the Cello Suites?

Do you think that there's

enough evidence to support the hypothesis

that Anna Magdalena was the composer?

- Based upon my examination
of the Cello Suites

I would conclude that Anna Magdalena

can be identified as the author.

And I would eliminate
Johann Sebastian Bach

as the author of the Cello Suites.

- To take the tooth
fairy away from so many

of these respected, esteemed
professors and purists,

you're rocking their very foundations.

And I don't even think it's their fault.

They can't believe.

It's not even they don't
want to, they just can't,

because you're basically telling them

that black is white, that night is day.

Martin also had
questions over Bach's eyesight.

The Centre for Anatomy
and Human Identification

in Dundee, Scotland is renowned

for identifying war victims
and recreating famous faces.

Forensic anthropologist,
Dr. Caroline Wilkinson,

took on the challenge of re-creating

the head of Johann Sebastian Bach.

- The original is in the sarcophagus.

All we had was the cast that was made

and we made a copy of that.

We used the skull from
when it was exhumed.

The process that we use is anatomical,

so we build the muscles
of the face directly

onto the skull, using the shape

and proportions of the skull to tell us

about the shape and size of the muscles.

Then we build the features
based on anatomical standards.

So, the nasal aperture
tells us about the nose.

The teeth tell us about the lips.

The orbits tell us about the eyes.

Once we have the finished
shape of his head,

that's then given to our animator

who puts the textures and
skin color and eye color

and hair et cetera, onto the animation.

So, what were
the important clues

about Johann Sebastian's lifestyle,

and critically, his eyesight?

- There's nothing about his face

that tells us about his personality.

But there are a number of things

that tell us about his life.

So, for example, we know that he had quite

swollen eyelids and had a
lot of surgery on his eyes,

which probably contributed to his death.

And also, his age and the
weight he was carrying.

All of those things
will have had an effect

on his appearance and how
other people judged him.

- Bach's eyesight was deteriorating

from quite a young age, actually.

And certainly, by 1740, his
sight was getting very bad.

So somebody else was writing the music.

- I think that the pain
that he will have suffered

with his eyes must have been significant.

So that would have had an
effect on him emotionally

and may have affected his
musical ability as well,

if he wasn't able to see as
well as he could have done.

Anna may have copied this work,

the Credo from the B-Minor Mass.

This complex music appears to be

in her hand when Bach was virtually blind.

Did he dictate it to her?

Or what, exactly, was her role?

- Taking music from
dictation also requires

somebody of a very high musical skill.

If you're going to take music down

without any errors then you are likely

to be sufficiently skilled to write

the stuff yourself, of course.

That's the point.

- If she had time to copy
she had time to compose.

And now things really shift.

Heidi even questions the
authenticity of Bach's signature,

let alone the precision required
to put notes onto a page.

- It would help us to learn more about

the actual movement of the writing.

We can trace these signatures
on a digital tablet

to understand kinematic handwriting

motor movement in greater detail.

What we can immediately see is that

the 1720 signature appears to be

more fluently written in the sense

that there's more connecting strokes.

Yeah, yeah.

- I would even say, as I was writing it,

it actually felt like a cursive signature,

a formal cursive signature
with a great deal of fluency.

What I found interesting
about the 1748 signature,

Bach was effectively blind.

I highly question the
ability for a blind person

to be able to write this fluently.

In studies about
blindness and handwriting,

what we have found is
that people who are blind

cannot maintain an alignment
on their signature base line

and this signature is quite aligned.

There's also problems
with size and proportions.

Even the spacing between letters

and this is spaced very well.

In fact, the manual control
required to effectively print

this name in some form of
calligraphy is quite high.

I think there would be a correlation

between the inability
to write one's signature

and to write music
calligraphy because writing

one's signature is actually
an easier activity.

So, if Bach was not able
to sign his signature

in the late 1740's I
think it's highly unlikely

he could write music calligraphy either.

In the late 1740's,
Bach's existing myopia

was considerably worsened by
the development of cataracts.

And working in poor light,
or even by candlelight,

could have affected his ability

to notate music quite seriously.

Martin had already looked into blindness

and calligraphy and decided to consult

his optometrist
brother-in-law, Melvyn Kaufman

and Martin's musician sister, Clare.

- Bach and, I have to
say the City Council,

were very worried that as Bach's eyesight

was getting worse it was
going to impact on them,

because he wouldn't be
able to write as much.

So, in 1749,

he was persuaded to actually have

the operation done by Dr. John Taylor.

Today, Taylor is
recognized as a quack doctor:

a charlatan whose operations
and purgatives often failed.

- He submitted himself
to a couching operation,

which was quite horrendous, really.

What they did was they sat people,

on a chair and someone would actually

put their arms round them to hold them

in place so that they couldn't move.

Remember that we're talking, in Europe,

pre-anesthesia,
pre-antiseptic, pre-antibiotic.

So, what Dr. John Taylor did
was to get a very sharp needle

and to very quickly put the needle

into the eye to knock the lens backwards.

He decided after seven days
to do another operation

because the first operation seemed to work

for a day or two, but
then it wasn't any good.

So, he operated on Bach's second eye

and then that was catastrophic for Bach.

After Bach's death in 1750,

his elder sons moved on, both
musically and geographically.

They abandoned Anna Magdalena,

leaving her to survive
on City Council handouts

until she died.

Anna died on February 27th, 1760

and was buried in St.
John's church in Leipzig.

The entry in the City
Register of Deaths reads:

a mendicant woman from the Haynstrasse,

aged 59 years, Anna
Magdalena, nee Wilcken,

widow of Mr. Johann Sebastian Bach,

Cantor of the St. Thomas School.

So, what actually did
happen after Anna's death?

The elder sons achieved
great success as musicians

and publicly lauded their great father.

But stepmother Anna is never referred to.

- Most mysterious of all is
that all of Bach's letters

and letters to Anna
Magdalena all vanished.

The day books all vanished, as well.

Of course, paperwork
often gets thrown out.

We'll never know who was responsible,

or why personal records weren't preserved,

but very little survived.

The portrait of Anna Magdalena

that he had painted in the
mid-1730's also vanished.

So, it's as if somebody quite deliberately

wanted to destroy any history that,

in my view, pointed to Anna Magdalena.

- That's one of the most
shameful aspects of it

and one that I hope will
be set to rest, finally.

They did, I think, try extremely hard

to keep her out of the picture altogether.

And made, and that's
particularly suspicious

because if she hadn't
done anything worthwhile,

anything significant,
why would they do that?

What's the point?

Daybooks exist
for most other composers.

And it does seem surprising that something

as valuable as a family
portrait should vanish.

Could it really have been deliberate?

And other questions are raised

in the issue of Bach's signatures.

- This was a collection of
what was considered known,

or authentic, examples--
- Yeah, yeah.

- Of Johann Sebastian Bach's signature.

If these are supposed
to be Bach's signatures,

there's what we would term,
in handwriting identification,

as a significant range of variation.

Meaning that there's a lot of internal

variance within and
between the signatures.

For example, very different
capital letter forms,

such as what appears
to be a very different

form of B in the 1713 signature.

Another different form of
B in the 1720 signature.

And then even moving forward we have

yet another form of B
in the 1748 signature.

So it now seems
possible that some Bach signatures

on Bach manuscripts are not actually his.

This has huge implications,

not only for the owners
of these manuscripts,

but also for music history itself.

It seems a fresh look is needed.

In order to progress the investigation,

an example of an undisputed Bach signature

needs to be found.

Finally, success.

The Priest at St. Agnes Church in Kothen

set out the Church Register,
opened a certain page,

and there it was, the
signature; Kappellmeister Bach.

- This is a book that's dated 1719 to 1728

and it contains the signatures

of those coming to confess in this church.

And this is an original book, too.

It's fantastic, isn't it?

What does this title refer to?

Original Bach manuscripts

are certainly in short supply.

But Martin and Heidi hear
that an elusive original

is held at the Bachhaus
museum in Eisenach.

- I was very enthusiastic and excited

about doing the examination
of the original,

authentic example of
Johann Sebastian Bach's

music calligraphy.

We were allowed to do microscopic analysis

of that particular document.

And we were able to also
take microscopic photographs

of some of the more important
aspects of that document

as being highly identifying between

both Bach's writing and
his wife, Anna Magdalena.

We learned
that the lines on the paper

were also drawn by Johann Sebastian Bach.

That was unknown before and it still

doesn't tell you in the new Bach-Edition.

It means that Bach drew the
lines himself to save money.

These are very fascinating methods

and I think they promise new insights.

The whole separation between
musician and composer,

and copyist, that is all nonsense.

In the Baroque period, all was one.

Of course, Anna Magdalena
was also a composer.

It seems composers
were supported by a team,

like Stradivarius and Michelangelo.

Ownership wasn't the issue it is today.

And when music was regarded
as coming from God anyway,

perhaps the hand holding
the pen wasn't important.

- I've not seen anything
that would diminish

or detract from his findings.

Scribal work is going to be

very regimented, formal and structured.

Instead, what we're seeing
in some of those works

is missing elements, editorial notes,

things that would suggest
that it is a manuscript

being written spontaneously
rather than copied.

Art and science
have had a special,

almost mystical, connection
since Galileo and Copernicus.

Martin and Heidi have now presented papers

at numerous forensic document

examination seminars worldwide.

Not one of their scientific
findings has been contested.

- This was presented in the proceedings

of the International Graphonomics Society.

And that particular
society is a collaboration

between forensic handwriting examiners,

handwriting neuroscientists,

people working in
robotics and engineering.

So this was a scientific paper presented

at those proceedings.

It was well received.

It is rare to have one where we're using

forensic handwriting
examination techniques

to understand authorship
in music manuscripts.

- I think it's very important because

it's bringing actual
facts to the research.

And I think it's a kind of
revolution to bring science

into arts which was before
kind of unthinkable.

- I peripherally worked
on the Dead Sea Scrolls.

I think it's especially interesting

to apply forensic techniques to

the investigation of
historical manuscripts.

But to some degree, as
a Forensic Scientist,

one needs to also maintain neutrality

and a calm perspective.

So I stay focused on the
technical components of this.

It's left to someone else
to interpret the level

of nuance that this has on music history.

The first part of

the investigation was successful.

But now, they urgently need access

to original documents
containing both Anna's

and Johann's writing to
date and verify accurately.

Conservation staff at the
Duchess Amalia Library

finally allowed access to
the original manuscript

of "Alles Mit Gott",
thought to be dated 1713.

Martin had identified Anna's
handwriting on a facsimile.

Now, he had a chance
to verify the original.

This was a historically vital moment.

- I approach reading music calligraphy

from a handwriting perspective

the way I would a foreign language.

And we can analyze the handwriting

of a foreign language even if we

don't know the language ourselves.

Because we're not really
analyzing the language,

we're analyzing the graphic
components of the letters

and their individualizing characteristics.

Well, looking at this microscopically,

what we find very interesting is that

under 40x magnification we can see that

there does appear to be
what you were thinking.

You were thinking that
there was an overwrite

and it does appear to be overwritten.

You can see here on the screen

that there's two different pens involved.

One is a kind of brownish looking ink

and one that's a little darker.

The t and the o are overwriting

the original word and we can see

the original ink underwritten.

And this is suggestive that there is more

than one writer involved in this document.

This has been my first sight

of Bach's handwriting.

The exciting thing is
that Anna's is there, too.

We can determine that the actual

music calligraphy was
written by J.S. Bach.

But the handwriting on the document

was written by Anna Magdalena.

You can say
that definitely, can you?

Yes.

- So that would place her at
Bach's side at the age of 12?

- Yes, it would.

- I think that there's even
more layers to this woman.

I think that she's so admirable

because she had to make choices

that she probably definitely
didn't want to make,

but just purely for salvation,
had to, in order to survive.

In order to remain as Mrs. Bach,

she was gonna have to
be really super savvy

and she was gonna have to help

and she was gonna have to
be written out of history.

And in so doing, it's
quite funny, isn't it?

Because she's smashed right back in there

because she's made a huge impact.

Harvard University houses

the most important document
in the entire investigation;

the Perpetual Canon for Four Voices.

Martin believes it's in
Anna Magdalena's hand.

It's dated 1713, when she was 12.

If Heidi can verify it,
then Mr. and Mrs. Bach

had a long and fruitful
writing relationship.

And if this is so, we have to take

a new look at Anna Magdalena.

Come on in.

Thank you.

And possibly at many other

female relatives of great composers.

- We were able to verify that
it is an original document.

It is written with iron-gall ink,

which is typical of the time period.

In today's examination
one of the most important

things that we were looking at

was whether the date of 1713 was written

contemporaneously on the document.

It's important to point out that

some people looking at this document

would assume that Johann Sebastian Bach's

signature is on this document.

And yet, the context of the document shows

that it's not intended as a signature.

It's not a signature and
it's not his handwriting.

Nothing in my analysis could disprove that

that date was erroneous or
written at a later time.

It looked contemporaneous.

The ink was similar, the
handwriting was similar.

It does place Anna Magdalena's handwriting

in 1713 on that document,
the Canon for Four Voices.

From age 12, Anna
was the Master's apprentice.

Her family were professional musicians

and she had a musical education.

Music history has perpetuated

the image of the sole male creator.

But was it really like that?

We now know Anna had the
time and ability to compose.

So there's every possibility that

the Cello Suites were
written by Mrs. Bach.

- What's crystallized
in this is that there

are issues to do with
the involvement of women

in composition from the
17th century, probably,

all the way through the
18th and 19th century.

A problem of establishing
recognition for female composers.

There is a sense that, finally,

she's going to get recognition.