The Anna Magdalena Notebook

1725 - Germany (Baroque Period)

In the eighteenth century, copying music was a very important part of any
musicians life. Thats why in the year 1725 Johann Sebastian Bach gave his
second wife, Anna Magdalena, the a notebook, commonly referred to as
the Anna Magdalena Notebook.

Its fine binding work and gilt edging, strongly suggests it was a gift from J. S.
Bach to his wife to celebrate a very special occasion: possibly, either her
24th birthday on September 22nd, 1725, or their wedding anniversary on
December 3rd.

Anna Magdalena was very much musically inclined and was employed as a
singer at the time of their marriage. In Bach's own words, she could sing
"decent soprano".

Bach copied the first two pieces on the notebook, as part of the gift for his
wife: the very first one is the partita BWV 827 in A minor, or AM, which are
Anna Magdalenas initials. The second piece is the partita in E minor, BWV
830.

The notebook also contains several dances, arias, chorales and other pieces
of music by several composers, including Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach,
Christian Petzold, Franois Couperin, Georg Bohm and other musician
friends of the Bach family. Most entries were copied by Anna Magdalena
herself, but the presence of the handwritings of Johan Sebastian, Carl
Phillip Emmanual and Johann Christian Bach indicates that maintaining the
notebook was a family effort.