Vier Zeugnisse für Präfekten des Thomanerchores 1743-1749

Johann Sebastian Bach wrote testimonials for alumni of St Thomas ’s School who wanted to apply for scholarships to study at university. Until recently, only one of these testimonials was known, but not its exact purpose. In the summer of 2008 Andreas Glöckner discovered three further testimonials in the Leipzig University Archive which then shed light on the overall circumstances in which they were produced. The fact that Bach, the cantor at St Thomas’s produced testimonials for scholarship applicants was previously unknown, as was the setting up of a special fund to support poor students from St Thomas’s and Bach’s participation in making these awards. These findings therefore represent a wealth of new discoveries and insights for Bach scholarship. It is particularly pleasing that there are now more dated written documents from Bach’s last decade which contain information on the situation of church music in Leipzig in the year of Bach’s death.