It is no major composition but an occasional work in the form of an exquisite and highly refined strophic aria, Bach's only contribution to a musical genre popular in late 17th-century Germany. |
Otherwise the work would have been consumed by the flames and we would never have known of its existence. |
There is no question that some of the material in the cache is authentic, It seems that the cache is a mixture of things, some authentic . . . others not. |