Musicologist Peter Wollny has unearthed two previously unknown works by Johann Sebastian Bach, a discovery described as 'world sensational'. The manuscripts, found in 1992 at the Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels, were authenticated after a 35-year quest.
Wollny, now 65 and director of Leipzig's Bach archive, was a graduate student at Harvard when he chanced upon the unattributed 18th-century scores. 'The handwriting fascinated me,' he said. 'I had a vague feeling these bits of paper could be interesting some day.' He made photocopies and kept them for three decades.
The pieces, Chaconne in D minor BWV 1178 and Chaconne in G minor BWV 1179, were performed for the first time at Leipzig's St Thomas church. Their unusual structure, with varying ostinato bass lengths and fugal elements, set them apart from contemporary works. Only Bach's Passacaglia in C minor showed similar bold techniques.
Wollny's colleague Bernd Koska noted his thorough approach: 'He tends to weigh things up in his mind very thoroughly before he reaches a conclusion.' The authentication process relied on both musical stylistics and paper analysis, with Wollny's expertise in Bach's handwriting proving crucial.
