We are sometimes so awestruck by the music of JS Bach that we forget it did not spring out of some musical womb fully formed. Rather, it was in part the product of an insatiable musical curiosity and lifelong learning, which included the painstaking practice of copying out the music of others. 

We would know very little indeed about the music of Bach’s distant cousin Johann Ludwig Bach (1677-1731) unless his younger, more famous relative had not copied 18 of his cantatas and performed them in Leipzig’s Thomaskirche. Johann Sebastian was so impressed with these works, they were performed not just once, but some three times: in 1726, 1735 and in the final year of his life, 1750.

 

Johann Ludwig was descended from one of the earliest known members of the legendary musical family, Veit Bach, a persecuted Lutheran who died before 1578. JL spent his professional life at the court of Meiningen where, apart from church music, he produced operas, scenic ballets and occasional music for the ducal court and visiting dignitaries. Sadly, most of his music has been lost.

The survival of...