Bach's Wives

Johann Sebastian Bach was married twice: first to Maria Barbara Bach from 1707 to her death in 1720 and then to Anna Magdalena Wilcke from 1721 to his death in 1750. He had many children with both of them, and both marriages appeared to be happy.

Maria Barbara Bach (1684-1720) was the daughter of one of Johann Sebastian's father's cousins, Johann Michael. She was known to sing within family circles (as was expected of everyone in the Bach clan), but probably did not do so publicly. There are reports, however, of Bach coming under fire a little for having a "stranger woman" in the organ loft with him and allowing him to sing. While it is never specified who this woman was, Maria Barbara is considered a legitimate guess.

There are no known records of Maria Barbara helping Bach out with any copying, though it is worth mentioning that while he was married to her, there were not nearly as many compositional demands as in Leipzig (where he was while married to Anna Magdalena). In Weimar, Bach was expected to compose music to amuse the duke for whom he worked; this included birthdays, special occasions and royal visits. Besides that, it was likely that the duke would have provided copyists for Bach to use.

After Maria Barbara's death in July 1720 while Bach was away with his employer on holiday, court records show the hire of one Anna Magdalena Wilke as a singer in the group of musicians kept at hand. Anna Magdalena came from a family of musicians in a town not far away from where Bach was; both her father and brother were trumpeters and all of her older sisters were married to trumpeters. She and one of her sisters had taken voice lessons in their teens and Magdalena (19 years old by this time) was employed in Zeitz, a town far from neither her hometown or Bach's court. While she had never worked for Bach before, it was likely they had met earlier (as Bach had worked with her father some years earlier in a performance of the cantata "Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd", BWV 208, written for the birthday of the duke for whom Anna Magdalena's father had worked, though Anna Magdalena would have been twelve at the time and probably would not have sung).

At the court, Anna Magdalena made about half of what Bach did - and more than many of her co-workers. She was not the only female on the payroll, either: there were two other women (also singers), the "Sisters Monjou". While employed there, Anna Magdalena probably sang secular music that was not by her future husband (almost all of the music he produced for this period was either for solo instruments and/or orchestra - none for solo voice or choir).

It is unclear exactly when Anna Magdalena and Bach began courting (or whatever they did in the early 18th century), but by September 1721, they both served as godparents to a friend of Bach's, an indication that they had begun to be associated together. In December of that year they were married in a small ceremony at St. Angus, the Lutheran church in the town (their employer was a Calvinist, but he allowed his employees to practice whichever religion they wished - probably within the realm of Christianity, anyway).

After their marriage, Anna Magdalena continued to work. What subtracted from this was not actually her marriage, but the marriage of the prince to a woman who was utterly disinterested in music. After THAT particular marriage (for which Bach wrote music which is now lost), the duties of every musician employed at that court became fewer and fewer. The list of musicians shrunk until Bach, Anna Magdalena and a small handful of other musicians were the only ones remaining. At this time, Bach began to look for other work. Anna Magdalena probably knew that whatever career move he made next would diminish or destroy her own completely.

As a result of the prince's marriage, the Bachs relocated to Leipzig, where Sebastian was the "Cantor". Duties of this position included teaching at the St. Thomas School, directing the choir, and (perhaps most famously) composing a cantata for Sunday every week, in addition to special occasions (Christmas, Michaelmas and other important days in the liturgical calendar). Anna Magdalena never held a professional post again, though she sometimes would accompany Bach on his trips and sing with him for private events.

The cantatas which Bach composed had to be put into parts for the singers and the instrumentalist. This meant many hours each week spent copying out these parts. Many cantatas survive only in the handwriting of Bach's pupils and many more only in what has been determined to have been Anna Magdalena's handwriting (which looks remarkably like Bach's to the untrained eye). One of the surviving copies of the Cello Suites are in Anna Magdalena's hand; there was some speculation for a long time that she might have composed them, though this has been dismissed in recent years.

Though she was no longer singing professionally after the move to Leipzig, Anna Magdalena was known to have helped establish the household as musical one; she and her husband would arrange for friends to come over hand have the most contrapuntal of jam sessions ever to have been known to exist. After Bach took over as director of the Collegium Musicum Leipzig, many of these events were moved to Zimmermann's Coffeehouse, not a few blocks away from their apartment in the Thomas School. This is the place where two of Bach's most famous secular cantatas is thought to have been premiered: The Coffee Cantata (Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht), BWV 211 and The Peasant Cantata (Mer hahn en neue Oberkeet), BWV 212. These both have significant soprano parts in them, and the possibility of Anna Magdalena performing them is not at all unreasonable.

Perhaps the most important compositional contribution as a result of Anna Magdalena is the "Notenbüchlein für Anna Magdalena Bach", two notebooks (from 1722 and 1725) with collections of keyboard works by Bach, his pupils, his sons and other composers (notably Francois Couperin). These works were intended as fun little diddies to entertain Anna Magdalena. There are very simple works (many of which any keyboard student can sing one or two of) and there are far more advanced works (including some keyboard partitas), some songs, some four-part chorales, and even a few fragments from various (sacred) cantatas.

Bach's eldest daughter (Catharina Dorothea) was also known to have had a nice voice (in Bach's own words in a letter to a friend in 1730) - everyone in his family was musical! Because their ages were so close (seven years apart), Anna Magdalena and Catharina Dorothea may have had a particularly unique relationship. Perhaps Anna Magdalena gave her some lessons, though there is no way to prove that now.

Both of Bach's wives served as important figures in his life and it is thanks to them that his music is what it is and survives today. Anna Magdalena particularly has always had a special place in my heart for having been in the professional world, even if just for a few years.