Zweig MS 4

Apparently not autograph; in an unidentified hand. Written in ink on single staves on either side of a single leaf. Headed ‘Concerto:’, and ‘Flaut Traversiere’. The first movement, in 2/4 time but with no tempo direction, is of 147 bars; movement II, ‘adagio’, 3/4, 40 bars; movement III (occupying the verso), ‘Allegro’, 3/8, 116 bars. The following authentication is written in ink in the lower margin of the verso: ‘Handschrift von Friedemann Bach, Sohn des grossen Joh. Sebastian Bach. Ächtheit nach Vergleichung von authentischen Originale der Berliner Königl: Bibliothek von F.W. Jähns’. Number in Hinterberger cat. IX added in pencil at foot of recto.

In Hinterberger catalogue IX this manuscript is described as the autograph solo part of a flute concerto by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, formerly in the collection of the musicologist Friedrich Wilhelm Jähns (1809-1888). Despite the statement added at the foot of the verso by Jähns this manuscript appears not to be in the autograph of W.F. Bach. The identification of the work as a flute concerto also seems far from certain, since the heading implies only that the manuscript contains a flute part to a concerto; indeed, the part begins with 26 bars rest for the instrument. Finally, there is no evidence on the manuscript itself to link the work with W.F. Bach apart from Jähns’s annotation, so this too must be in doubt. No notes by Zweig survive about the circumstances in which he acquired the manuscript, and it may well be that there was once other material supporting the identification, at least of the composer; it has been catalogued here under the name W.F. Bach, as it was when it was in Zweig’s possession. Zweig MS 4 is written in a fluent and apparently professional music hand, and the watermark shows that the paper was made in central Germany in the middle of the 18th century. The watermark has been identified with the help of Dr Rudolf Elvers, and is a form associated with the countermark ‘A C S’, a manufacturer at work from circa 1737 perhaps to 1753.