Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach – Briefe und Dokumente

Among Johann Sebastian Bach’s musician sons, Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, born in 1732, has for a long time been a shadowy figure although as Concert Master to the court of Schaumburg-Lippe in Bückeburg he was leader of one of the most important German court orchestras of the age.

This collection of over 280 letters and documents brings together for the first time previously scattered sources on his life and influence up until the mid-19th century, and is augmented by many previously unpublished writings which shed new light on the “Bückeburg Bach”.

The official documents illuminate many details of his work as a court musician and can stand for an example of the highly developed musical culture in Northern and Central Germany in the second half of the eighteenth century. His correspondence show him not only in the role of musician, emphatically concerned with the publication of his works, but also as a teacher and a family man with a particularly strong commitment to his father’s musical legacy. Reviews of his published works show that he was highly esteemed as a composer.

Again and again, as becomes increasingly clear, unfortunate circumstances – confusion with his younger brother Johann Christian, long illnesses, losses due to his publishers’ bankruptcy – meant that he failed to achieve financial success and lasting wider recognition.