Baby Bach

Posted at 6:02 AM on September 1, 2006 by John Zech
Filed under: The blog

According to one story, J. S. Bach showed he was even precocious as a baby. His father, Johann Ambrosius Bach, had a twin brother who looked so similar that even their wives had trouble telling them apart. (Even their musical styles were nearly identical.) But when young Johann Sebastian was born his mother found a new way to identify her husband; he was the one the baby called "Papa."

Now there's news of a discovery of J. S. Bach's earliest manuscripts (he wasn't quite a baby anymore...more of a stripling, when he wrote them). According to the A-P:

Previously unknown manuscripts by Johann Sebastian Bach, recently discovered in Germany, prove that the prolific German composer was a virtuoso even as a teenager, researchers said on Thursday. The works, one of which is dated 1700 when Bach was only 15 and the other thought to be even older, are copies of other composers' choral pieces, arranged for organ by Bach.

You can read about the details here.