Anna Magdalena Bach née Wilcke or Wilcken was a singer and the second wife of Johann Sebastien Bach. She was born on the 22nd September 1701 and died on the 27th February 1760. Anna Magdalena Bach’s came form a musical family. Her father was a trumpet player and her mother was the daughter of an organist. In 1721 Anna Magdelena was working as a singer (she was a soprano) at the court of Anhalt-Cöthen. This is where Johann Sebastien Bach had been working as Capellmeister (director of music) since 1717. They were married on the 3rd December 1721, 17 months after his first wife, Maria Barbara Bach, had died.
The Bachs moved to Leipzig in 1723. Anna Magdelena Bach continued to sing professionally after her marriage and it is thought that the Bachs’ shared interest in music contributed to their happy marriage. She often worked as a copyist, transcribing her husband’s music which she sold as a means to contribute to the family’s income. She also would complete the performing parts for cantatas to be sung in Leipzig churches. A few of Bach’s works survive only in her hand. Anna Magdalena organised regular musical evenings featuring the whole family playing and singing together.
Title-page of the notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach
Taken from the Bach son Gesamtausgabe (BGA), vol. 44 [B.W. XLIV]: "Joh. Seb. Bach's handschrift" (Joh.Seb.Bach's manuscripts), Originally published by the Bach-Gesellschaft in Leipzig, 1895. This image is in the public domain.Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=443051
On her marriage, Anna Magdalena became a step-mother to Bach’s children from his first marriage and she gave birth to 13 children, of whom six survived to adulthood.
Christiana Sophia Henrietta (1723 - 1726)
Gottfried Heinrich (1724 - 1763)
Christian Gottlieb (1725 - 1728)
Elisabeth Julian Friederica (1726 - 1781)
Ernestus Andreas (1727 - 1727)
Regina Johanna (1728 - 1733)
Christiana Benedicta (1730 - 1730)
Christiana Dorothea (1731 - 1732)
Johann Christoph Friedrich, the ‘Bückberg’ Bach (1732 - 1795)
By Georg David Matthieu - 1. haendel.it2. kottanelkul.reblog.hu, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=186279
Johann August Abraham (1733 - 1733)
Johann Christian, the ‘London’ Bach (1735 - 1782)
By Thomas Gainsborough - Art Renewal Center, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38077
Johanna Carolina (1737 - 1781)
Regina Susanna (1742 - 1809)
From Bach’s first marriage -
Catharina Dorothea (1709 - 1774)
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710 - 1784)
By Wilhelm Weitsch - https://www.bridgemanimages.com/it/weitsch/wilhelm-friedemann-bach-c-1760-oil-on-canvas/nomedium/asset/312452, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=111429477
Johann Christoph and Maria Sophia (1713 - 1713)
Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach (1714 - 1788)
By Franz Conrad Löhr - http://www.bpk-images.de/?18671877727020631900&MEDIANUMBER=00092233, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44147555
Johann Gottfried Bernhard (1715 - 1739)
Leopold Augustus (1718 - 1719)
Taken from the Bach Gesamtausgabe (BGA), vol. 44 [B.W. XLIV]: "Joh. Seb. Bach's handschrift" (Joh.Seb.Bach's manuscripts), Originally published by the Bach-Gesellschaft in Leipzig, 1895. This image is in the public domain. Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1409618
Apparently, after the death of Johann Sebastien Bach in 1750, his sons came into conflict over the division of his estate and moved on in separate directions. Anna Magdalena was left alone, with no financial support from family members, to care for herself and her two daughters as well as her step-daughter from Bach’s first marriage. She became increasingly dependent on charity and handouts from the city council. Possibly the only family member who helped her was Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, her stepson from Bach’s first marriage whose letters show he provided her with regular financial assistance. She died in poverty on the 27th February 1760 and was buried in an unmarked pauper’s grave at Leipzig’s St John’s Church.
Anna Magdalena Bach is best known by the two musical notebooks compiled and given to her by her husband, Johann Sebastien Bach. These notebooks served as both a family journal and a medium of instruction. It contains selections and entries by various family members over a period of time. There is a wide range of pieces in these notebooks - there are chorales, arias and solo harpsichord pieces amongst them. The first notebook of 1722 contains pieces composed by Bach himself. The second notebook of 1725 contains pieces composed by Bach but also contains pieces by other composers and friends. Some of the other composers include Francois Couperin, Georg Böhm and possibly some of his sons such as Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach. After Anna Magdalena’s death, the 1725 Notebook came into the possession of her stepson, Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach.
The Anna Magdalena Bach Notebook of 1725 is covered in green with a gold border and has two locks and a red satin ribbon. The initials A. M. B. and the date 1725 are stamped on the front in gold lettering. Later on it is thought the Carl Philipp Eamanual Bach added to the initials “Anna Magdal Bach”.