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Wife of Famous Popstar Died Penniless – Tribute on September 21, 2025 in ZeitzThis year, Zeitz remembers a woman who during her lifetime often stood in the shadow of her famous husband, yet whose significance for the history of music can hardly be overstated. 
Press release from the City of Zeitz: Tribute to Anna Magdalena Bach on September 22 at 3 p.m. in the Anna Magdalena Bach District Music SchoolAnna Magdalena Bach, née Wilcke, was born on September 22, 1701, in Zeitz as the daughter of a court trumpeter and grew up in a household where music played a major role and served as the main source of income.Little is known about the woman from Zeitz, which most likely means she was regarded by her contemporaries and later generations only as Bach’s wife. Yet she could have pursued a career of her own: in her youth she received professional vocal training and from 1718 worked as a soprano at the Anhalt-Zerbst court, later from 1720 at the court of Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Köthen. The fact that she held the rank of chamber musician and earned a high salary – the second highest after Kapellmeister Bach – demonstrates the esteem she enjoyed at the Köthen court. The widower Bach was at that time Kapellmeister in Köthen, met Anna Magdalena, and so on December 3, 1721, the wedding bells rang. Bach’s immense output has been celebrated ever since, but the fact that Anna Magdalena abandoned her own career when, at the age of 20, she married the widowed Bach with four children, managed a huge household with his children from his first marriage and thirteen of her own, accommodated Bach’s constant stream of pupils and visitors, worked in the family’s sheet music trade, and copied many of her husband’s compositions—copies that survive and today are of great scholarly importance because his manuscripts were lost—was not deemed worth mentioning by biographers and historians. Two notebooks from 1722 and 1725 still exist today, known as the Notebooks for Anna Magdalena Bach, compiled by Johann Sebastian and Anna Magdalena Bach. They contain keyboard works by Bach and other composers as well as vocal pieces. It is assumed that Anna Magdalena also achieved remarkable proficiency at the keyboard, though this is not documented. Several pieces from the collection require considerable keyboard skill. Whether she performed them all, however, is unknown. Johann Sebastian Bach died on July 28, 1750. After his death, a council election cantata was commissioned from Anna Magdalena—a sign that she was capable of organizing such a performance. But Bach left no will, and so there were hardly any financial reserves for the widow. In 1751 Anna Magdalena had to leave the service apartment in the Thomasschule. At first she received support from the city of Leipzig and the university. Occasionally she received special donations, and at times some support from the legacy of Friedrich Heinrich Graff, who maintained a foundation for poor widows and students. In 1752 Anna Magdalena petitioned the city council for financial help and offered some scores for sale. Because of “her poverty, and also some surplus musical materials,” the city paid her 40 Reichstaler. She died on February 27, 1760, as a recipient of public welfare (“pauper woman”) and was buried in a pauper’s grave. Her burial site remained unmarked. It was not until her 300th birthday in 2001 that the city of Leipzig, at the initiative of a local women’s group, commemorated Anna Magdalena Bach by placing a bronze plaque at Thomaskirchhof 18, where the cantor’s residence had once been, funded through donations. The Bach Museum dedicated an exhibition to her on the same occasion. Now the city of Zeitz also honors the famous daughter of the city with a ceremony on the occasion of her 324th birthday and the 300th anniversary of the second notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach. The commemoration will take place on September 22 in the festival hall of the Anna Magdalena Bach District Music School at Nicolaiplatz 1 and will begin at 3 p.m. The program, led by Niklas Franziskus Makowski, is as follows: • Musical opening • Greeting by Mayor Christian Thieme • Musical performance • Speech by the Chairman of the Cultural Committee, Helfried Adam • Musical performance • Reception with sparkling wine and conversation Students of the Anna Magdalena Bach Music School will perform. All music lovers and interested parties are warmly invited to the celebration, which will end around 4 p.m. Author: AI-Translation - Lars Werner, Pressesprecher Stadt Zeitz | |
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