The theory that Anna Magdalena Bach had to end her career as a singer when she married and moved to Leipzig is not tenable. This is shown by thorough research presented in several articles in this blog. “The Singer. Part V” is the final part.
Title of the Libretto for the cantata “Vergnügte Pleißenstadt” (“Happy City on the Pleisse”)
Several years ago, in connection with my dissertation, I started looking more intensely at the life of Anna Magdalena Bach. She is very often portrayed as a woman who was a singer at some point and copied music for her husband Johann Sebastian, but whose life revolved around looking after the many children, doing the cooking and cleaning the apartment. My long years of research lead me to doubt this image, which I treated in two books. But I still come across subjects related to Anna Magdalena Bach which are worth examining more closely. That is the purpose of this blog, in which I post regular articles on this interesting woman. A sub-title “Johann Sebastian Bach in private” would also be suitable, as in many cases the circumstances of her life are closely related to those of her husband. Opinions about him may also change. Does it make any difference to you for example, whether he ordered a cup of coffee from his wife or from a maid who passed it on to an employee in the kitchen? (See: Were there servants in the Bach family household?)
My publications about Anna Magdalena Bach:
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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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.