Anna Magdalena composed major works in a household torn by adultery and suicide, claims Darwin Professor.

It was back in 2006 that Professor Martin Jarvis from the music department of the NT’s Charles Darwin University first aired his claim that Anna Magdalena Bach, the second wife of Johann Sebastian, was the likely author of a number of the composer’s best-known works. Jarvis’s theory drew a degree of ire from musicologists and professional cellists alike back then, but now it looks like his controversial theories are set to receive fresh backing in a new documentary soon to be aired at Bafta in London.

^{A scene from the new documentary}

Written by Mrs Bach, presented by the respected British composer Sally Beamish, apparently uses analysis of ink and handwriting to support the idea that Anna Magdalena wrote not only the six Cello Suites, but also the Aria from the Goldberg Variations and the first prelude from The Well-Tempered Clavier.

Martin Jarvis, who is also Conductor Emeritus of the Darwin Symphony Orchestra, is no stranger to controversy. His initial revelations caused quite a storm – so much so that, in his own words,...