Leipzig is at it again! In 2019, the city celebrated the 200th birthday of Clara Schumann in grand style – a real game-changer for the attention given to female composers in general. Now, six museums are pooling their resources for the theme year 'Stark! Weibliche Lebenswelten in den Leipziger Musikmuseen'. The Bach Museum dedicates its efforts in a captivating way to no fewer than 33 women from the circle of the master of the Baroque.

For more than 200 years, the far-flung Bach family shaped musical life in central Germany. Yet in music history, it was exclusively men who received recognition. The small but fascinating thematic exhibition at the Bach Museum now focuses for the first time on the women. Building on research by musicologist Maria Hübner, the museum in the shadow of the Thomaskirche in Leipzig gives voice to no fewer than 33 women: Johann Sebastian's (step)mother, his two wives, (in-law) sisters, (in-law) daughters, granddaughters and so on. They are divided into four categories: family managers, singers, businesswomen, and members of the residential community at Neukirchhof in Leipzig. In that building, Anna Magdalena moved in with a changing group of Bach women after her husband's death forced them to leave their home at the Thomasschule.

Stories

You should take that 'giving voice' quite literally. Through headphones, the women briefly tell their stories (in German and English). These are fictional narratives, based on limited source material. The reason their lives are so sparsely documented is that they had no legal standing of their own. They appeared only in relation to male family members. Often there is nothing more than baptism, marriage, and death certificates to reconstruct their lives.

But however limited and fictional, the formula works and we do get a picture of these women and the times in which they lived. For instance, we hear Elisabeth Bach (born Lämmerhirt, 1644-1694), the mother of Johann Sebastian (1685-1750), complaining that her own name wasn't even mentioned in her death notice – only 'Johann Ambrosii Baachen Hausfrau'.

Even more painful was it for Anna Magdalena Bach (1701-1760), Johann Sebastian's second wife. In his memorial, Carl Philipp Emanuel (1714-1788) described his stepmother merely as the daughter of a court trumpeter, while she herself had been a highly qualified and much-in-demand singer at the court of Köthen before her marriage. When the couple moved to Leipzig, it meant the end of her career. Leipzig had no court, and in the churches, women were not allowed to sing solos. Yet Anna Magdalena, like her (step)daughters, remained musically active.

This is evident among other things from a preserved quote by Bach in which he praised the musicality of his family members. They could give a vocal and instrumental concert, he wrote to a friend, 'especially since my present wife sings a pure soprano and my eldest daughter performs quite well too'. That daughter was Catharina Dorothea (1708-1774) from his first marriage. She tells us how she dreamed of becoming a professional singer, but after the death of her mother Maria Barbara (also born Bach, 1684-1720) she became indispensable in the busy household with the many children that would follow.

For Johann Sebastian's sister Maria Salome Wiegand (born Bach, 1677-1727) there was only marriage and housekeeping in store. Her heartfelt cry, which immediately catches your eye when you enter the exhibition space, touches you: 'My brother Johann Sebastian is known to everyone, but who knows me?' No one knows whether she was also exceptionally gifted, or whether perhaps she was jealous of her brothers who were allowed to become musicians, you hear her sigh through the headphones.

Notebook and Art of Fugue

Anna Magdalena is one of the few female Bach women, perhaps even the only one, who enjoys some recognition. Of course, that is due to the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, relatively straightforward yet charming piano pieces that her husband compiled for her and with which she taught their children the piano – pieces that are still beloved by young pianists learning to play. It's possible that this Notebook also contains compositions by Anna Magdalena herself, since it's entirely conceivable that she too was a composer.

In that context, I was very curious whether the exhibition would address musicologist Martin Jarvis's theory, but I wasn't entirely surprised to find not a word about it. After all, Jarvis had already become persona non grata at the Bach Archive by the time of his research. Based on forensic analysis, he concluded nearly 20 years ago that several of Bach's famous cello suites could be attributed to Anna Magdalena. Although the theory was hotly contested and other academics hoped it would be quickly forgotten, I still gave it attention in my book Woman at the Piano (p. 105-116) – I also explain why there. But I also felt compelled to conclude that we 'will never know with certainty what Anna Magdalena's compositional abilities were'.

What people in Leipzig do agree on, however, is that she assisted her husband as a copyist and with other organizational matters. Furthermore, she ensured that works such as The Art of Fugue were published. The printing preparations had already begun before Johann Sebastian's death, but for the widow, the distribution of his music also meant welcome income. Incidentally, she embellished the manuscript with drawings of flowers. She was a great lover of flowers and songbirds.

Legacy

Another Bach woman who safeguarded the legacy of the composing family members is soprano Cecilia Bach (née Grassi, †1791). Before her marriage at age 40 to Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782), she enjoyed great success in Venice and London. After his death, she ensured that the score of his opera Amadis of Gaul– which had premiered in Paris – was published. She even wrote a preface for it, though it was apparently omitted in a later reprint, possibly because it was too critical and/or inappropriate for a woman… Granddaughter Anna Carolina Philippina Bach (1747-1804) also worked to disseminate the music of a Bach – in her case, her father Carl Philipp Emanuel.

Convents and Courts

Another granddaughter, Anna Philippina Friederica Colson (née Bach, 1755-1804), daughter of Johann Christoph Friedrich (1732-1795), received a musical education, but she played the harpsichord only in private circles. Unlike her brother, she was not considered for a professional position.

Yet we must not say that women never managed to build careers, the catalog rightly notes. In women's convents or at a royal court, women of that era could indeed make music freely. They played not only plucked instruments there, but also wind and string instruments and even organ. Think, for example, of Élisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre (1665-1729) and Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677). Or think of the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice, where Antonio Vivaldi was active. He composed no fewer than 31 violin concertos for his student Anna Maria dal Violin (1696-1782). Only… these women have been systematically erased from music history.

Of the 33 Bach women, hardly any or no portraits have survived – an oil painting of Anna Magdalena by Antonio Cristofori has been missing since 1790. Yet the exhibition is richly illustrated. The portraits of European female composers and musicians from Ton Koopman's private archive, presented as an annex to the Bach exhibition, help with this. They give a multifaceted impression of the far too often overlooked yet undeniable and indispensable contribution of women to the world of music.

The Unknown Beauty

Here's another woman whose role is only now being properly appreciated: Cécile Jeanrenaud (1817-1853). Although it remains unclear whether she herself was musically active – she was apparently rather modest about her musical talent – she was an indispensable support to the man at her side: composer, celebrated conductor, and piano virtuoso Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, who confessed in a letter to a friend that he was 'madly in love' with her. In biographies of Mendelssohn, we learn little about his wife, who gave birth to five children. Except, that is, that she was known for her beauty.

But the Mendelssohn House – which has also honored Felix's sister Fanny beautifully for several years now – tries to see further and finds good reason to celebrate 'this unknown beauty' in her own right. And we do get to see those flowers, as it turns out that Cécile Jeanrenaud had considerable talent as a draftsperson, evident from her numerous watercolors of flowers. It's a pity, though, that only one copy was made of the collection and that the reproductions, with one exception, are not for sale. One wall of the small exhibition space is taken up by a reproduction of a work on which Felix and Cécile worked together. After Felix's death, Cécile oversaw, among other things, the publication of a collection of songs that he had dedicated to the singer Livia Frege.

Livia Frege

This Livia Frege (1818-1891) now also receives permanent attention in a (digital) exhibition at the Stadtgeschichtliche Museum in the Alte Rathaus. At her debut at age 14 as a singer at the Gewandhaus, the Leipzig Daily celebrated this 'young talent of our city' who 'fills us with the highest expectations'. Even as the unmarried Livia Gerhardt, she also sang in the Musical Academy founded by Clara Schumann. She married Woldemar Frege, a member of a wealthy merchant family to whom the Frege House in the city center still bears witness. Normally, marriage meant the end of a musical woman's professional career, but Livia Frege continued to sing – though no longer in opera, but in lieder and oratorios. She would also open a musical salon in their villa. Finally, this year the Schumann House, the Grieg Meeting Place, and the Musical Instruments Museum offer thematic guided tours and workshops. Leipzig is in any case a wonderful city for music lovers. A Musical Trail takes you from one memorable place to the next. Worth the detour – Well worth your time!

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• Consult here the full program of Strong. Women's Worlds in the Leipzig Music Museums.
• The Voices of Women in the Bach Family, until November 10, 2024 at the Bach Museum. All stories are included in the catalog. More extensive portraits of the 33 Bach women can be found in Maria Hübner's book, Women of the Bach Family (Kampard, 2021, 288 p.).
• The Unknown Beauty – Cécile Mendelssohn Bartholdy, until February 9, 2025 at the Mendelssohn House.
• Read more about musical Leipzig in the blog With Clara in festive Leipzig.
• This article also appeared in notities.vrouwaandepiano.be.