The news is described as "a big moment for the music world."
The organ works are said to have been composed when the now world-famous Johann Sebastian Bach worked as an organ teacher in Arnstadt when he was 18 years old, in 1703.
Bach scholar Peter Wollny came into contact with the works as early as 1992, but they were unsigned. However, he saw similar characteristics that were unique to Bach during the time in question.
But it is only now, over 30 years later, that it has been possible to establish that Bach is actually the author. It turned out that it was a student of Bach, named Salomon Günther John, who had copied the notes for the works. And that this was the case was only recently proven, when other copies of the text by Salomon Günther John at the time were discovered – and then the handwritings could be compared.
I searched for a long time for the last piece of the puzzle to be able to identify the works – now I have the whole picture clear to me, says Peter Wollny.
The works – Chaconne in D minor BWV 1178 and Chaconne in G minor BWV 1179 – were also performed for the first time in around 320 years in the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, where Bach was cantor for 27 years and where he is also buried.
Johann Sebastian Bach was born in 1685 and died in 1750.
