Harvard Scholars Find Lost Bach Work

After a hunt that lasted over twenty years and spanned hundreds of miles, Harvard researchers have re-discovered the long-lost manuscripts of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, the second son of composer Johann Sebastian Bach.

The manuscripts, which were discovered hidden away in a Ukrainian state archive in Kiev, contain nearly one hundred pieces of music composed by C.P.E. Bach that have never been performed before, in addition to compositions penned by J.S. Bach and other members of the Bach family.

"When it comes to the study of 18th-century music, you can't have a bigger find," said Mason Professor of Music Christoph J. Wolff, a Bach scholar whose queries eventually brought the documents to the surface. "Particularly as pertains to the Bach family, it's absolutely crucial."

The massive archive--which is currently being replicated for scholars' use--disappeared from Germany after World War II, and many scholars presumed the collection had been destroyed.

In 1943, the collection had been moved from its home in the Berlin Sing-Akademie museum to a remote location in the German province of Silesia for safekeeping during World War II. But after the war, Silesia became part of Poland, and scholars lost track of the collection.

"One story was it had been destroyed, it's lost, and the other, that it had been taken by the red army to the Soviet Union, and nobody knows where it is," said Wolff, who is also Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Still, Wolff continued to ask colleagues who traveled to the former Soviet Union to inquire about the manuscripts. And earlier this year, a tip came in from another Harvard researcher that the documents may have been found.

"It's a real Ms. Marple sort of thing," said Patricia K. Grimsted, research associate of Harvard's Ukrainian Research Institute. "I found a German-translated report from the Ministry of Culture in Moscow on cultural holdings throughout the Soviet Union."

The description of one of the items in the report caught Grimsted's eye, since it roughly matched the description of the missing Bach archive. Shortly thereafter, Grimsted said, a Ukranian

librarian told her that he remembered encountering a set of documents matching the description several years before.

So Grimsted returned to her contact at the Ukrainian archives and inquired after the documents again.

"It was really thanks to that clue that he knew where to look," she said.

Even since the collection's discovery, scholars said they have been unable to figure out precisely how the manuscripts turned up at their current location.

"The legend in Kiev is that a tank driver found them in a village and brought them back, but I don't think the manuscripts--about 90 crates--would have fit in one tank," Grimsted said.

Grimsted said she is still searching for a government report documenting the arrival of the manuscripts.

But while Wolff said he is amazed that the documents survived the trip to Kiev in such good condition, he said he is most concerned with the future of the manuscripts.

While it remains uncertain whether the manuscripts will return to Berlin or remain in Kiev, Wolff said the Packard Humanities Institute will make the collection available to musicians and scholars all over the world by creating digital copies of the archive.

"The work now can only begin, because what we were able to do is just nibble on the surface, since we only had a few days," Wolff said. "I think this will keep quite a number of undergraduate and graduate students busy.

librarian told her that he remembered encountering a set of documents matching the description several years before.

So Grimsted returned to her contact at the Ukrainian archives and inquired after the documents again.

"It was really thanks to that clue that he knew where to look," she said.

Even since the collection's discovery, scholars said they have been unable to figure out precisely how the manuscripts turned up at their current location.

"The legend in Kiev is that a tank driver found them in a village and brought them back, but I don't think the manuscripts--about 90 crates--would have fit in one tank," Grimsted said.

Grimsted said she is still searching for a government report documenting the arrival of the manuscripts.

But while Wolff said he is amazed that the documents survived the trip to Kiev in such good condition, he said he is most concerned with the future of the manuscripts.

While it remains uncertain whether the manuscripts will return to Berlin or remain in Kiev, Wolff said the Packard Humanities Institute will make the collection available to musicians and scholars all over the world by creating digital copies of the archive.

"The work now can only begin, because what we were able to do is just nibble on the surface, since we only had a few days," Wolff said. "I think this will keep quite a number of undergraduate and graduate students busy.