LEIPZIG BACH ARCHIVE PRESENTS NEWLY DISCOVERED ORGAN WORKS BY JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

Leipzig-based Bach researcher and Bach Archive director Peter Wollny has been familiar with the two works that have just been identified as Bach’s, the Ciacona in D minor, BWV 1178, and the Ciacona in G minor, BWV 1179, for more than 30 years. He found them in the Royal Library of Belgium. During the course of his research career, the musicologist collected numerous clues which now, with the final piece of the puzzle – the naming of the scribe – form a complete picture. This identification took place in the context of work on the BACH Research Portal, a research project by the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig, in which for the first time all the available archive resources about the entire Bach family of musicians are being opened up and made publicly available in digital form.

Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Peter Wollny: »I spent a long time searching for the missing piece of the puzzle in the attribution of the works – now the whole picture is revealed. We can state for once and for all that the copies were made around 1705 by Bach pupil Salomon Günther John. Moreover, stylistically the works contain features that one finds in Bach’s works from of this period, but in those of no other composer. I want to thank my colleagues at the Royal Library of Belgium and the Leipzig Bach Archive for their decades of support for my research. And special thanks go to our Foundation’s sponsors: the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, the Free State of Saxony and the City of Leipzig, for their unfailing trust and financial support for our work.«
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You can download photos for your coverage free of charge here: https://www.picdrop.com/jensschlueterphotography/Bachwerke
Password: Bach2025
Available from: 17 November 2025, 5pm approx.
Photo credits: Leipzig Bach Archive/Jens Schlüter