Bach: Two Chaconnes for organ BWV 1178,1179

• 1. Ciacona and fugue in d BWV 1178
• 2. Chacona in g BWV 1179

On 17 November 2025, these ciaconas were presented to an interested audience for the first time at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. They are two works by Johann Sebastian Bach, dating from his time in Arnstadt. It was there that he took up his first position as organist at the age of 18 and soon gained experience in composing. Even these early pieces reveal the influence of the North German school on the Central German composer.

The manuscripts of the two ciaconas are kept in the Royal Library in Brussels and were not newly discovered. The sources have been known for many years, and the two works now being presented have already been the subject of numerous reviews – they were even recorded on vinyl in the 1960s. However, their origin remained unclear for a long time. Johann Sebastian Bach himself had certainly not written the manuscripts.

Peter Wollny, director of the Bach Archive in Leipzig, and his colleagues have now succeeded in unravelling the mystery. During their research, they came across the organist Salomon Günther John. The Bach researchers were able to identify documents written in his hand, which enabled them to compare handwriting samples. This ultimately led to the conclusion that the ciacona manuscripts could be attributed to John. John had stated elsewhere that he had received lessons ‘from the former organist in Arnstadt’ – at the time when Bach was working there. It is assumed that John copied his teacher's works for his own use. This was normal practice at the time for acquiring literature and a very common (and often the only) source of Bach's works.

Now the two works in question can be reliably attributed to Bach's early oeuvre, both scientifically and musically. They are not spectacular finds from the attic that had been forgotten for centuries, but pieces that were already known. However, attributing them to Bach gives them a whole new perspective.

Boris Hellmers-Spethmann