After the death of his wife, Maria Barbara, Johann Sebastian continued his work at the Court at Cöthen. He wrote and performed cantatas for the birthday of the Prince and also for the New Year. In order to perform these works, singers under contract from nearby Courts had to be enlisted, and one such singer was Anna Magdalena Wilcke. She was the daughter of the Court and Field Trumpeter at Weißenfels, and herself employed as a Court Singer. Little is known of her early years.
Anna Magdalena Bach
Born on 22 September 1701 at Zeitz, her mother was an organist, and the family moved to Weißenfels when her father took up his musical position at Court. The first official mention of Johann Sebastian’s future wife is found in local baptismal records on 25 September 1721, when Bach and Anna Magdalena were godchildren to a child called Hahn. Bach was 36 and Anna Magdalena 20, and apparently, he was attracted by her fine soprano voice, among other things. And thus it came to pass that the couple married on 3 December 1721. To celebrate the occasion, Bach went twice to the city cellars and bought two small casks of Rhine wine, apparently at a steeply discounted price.
Johann Sebastian Bach: Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir, BWV 38 (Deborah York, soprano; Franziska Gottwald, alto; Paul Agnew, tenor; Klaus Mertens, bass; Amsterdam Baroque Choir; Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra; Ton Koopman, cond.)
School of St. Thomas Leipzig
One week after Bach’s wedding, Prince Leopold of Cöthen married his cousin Friderica, Princess of Anhalt-Bernburg. This proved to be disastrous for Bach, as the new princess hated her husband’s musical activities and managed, as Bach wrote in a letter “to make the musical inclination of the said Prince somewhat lukewarm. There, I had a gracious Prince as master, who knew music as well as he loved it, and I hoped to remain in his service until the end of my life.” But as we all know, Johann Sebastian started to look for a new job and eventually ended up in Leipzig. And it was on 26 February 1724 that Anna Magdalena gave birth to her firstborn son Gottfried Heinrich Bach. Regrettably, the child was described as “feeble-minded” at an early age, but he did play the keyboard well. His brother C.P.E. Bach once said, “he showed great genius, which however failed to develop.” Gottfried Heinrich might have composed a melody or two contained in the second Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, but he lived out his life in the care of his younger sister Elisabeth Juliane Friederica.
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