Anna Magdalena Bach
née Wilcke (1701-1760)
A blog for all those who would like
to learn more about the wife of
Johann Sebastian Bach -
for reading and listening
with new articles appearing regularly
St. Thomas Square, Leipzig, 1749
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For all those who want to get an overview of the life of Anna Magdalena Bach
in a printed medium this book is recommended:
"Die Frau Capellmeisterin Anna Magdalena Bach. Ein Zeitbild" published by Verlag Klaus-Jürgen Kamprad, Altenburg, Germany (only in German)
The radio programme “Anna Magdalena Bach – Ehefrau und Geschäftspartnerin” gives an impression of what this book is about. It was produced by the German cultural radio station Deutschlandfunk Kultur and broadcast on 30th March 2022 (only in German).
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Retrospectives of lectures the author has given about Anna Magdalena Bach:
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Moritzburg Palace in Zeitz, where Anna Magdalena's father was employed as a court trumpeter
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How this blog about Anna Magdalena Bach started:
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?)
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I would like to thank Alan Shepherd for the English translation.