Johann Sebastian Bach

A modern reconstruction of Johann Sebastian Bach's head -- using state-of-the-art computer modeling techniques -- shows the composer as a strong-jawed man with a slight underbite, his large head topped with short, silver hair. The bust, unveiled in Berlin on Monday, was created by anthropologist Caroline Wilkinson in her lab at the University of Dundee in Scotland. Rather than use Bach's actual bones, which are buried at the St. John's Church in Leipzig, Wilkinson worked from a copper replica of Bach's skull made for a previous reconstruction in 1894, done nearly 150 years after his death by a physician and a sculptor.

The Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra opened its fourth season under its music director, Martin Haselbock, at Zipper Hall on Saturday night in fine shape, juxtaposing a clutch of famous baroque-era composers with two lesser-known ones. The unwary reader of Musica Angelica's season brochure might have thought that the listing of Orchestral Suite No. 4 in D by J.B. Bach contained an unfortunate typo. But no, this wasn't the familiar Suite No. 4 -- also in D -- by good old Johann Sebastian Bach.

A previously unknown work by Johann Sebastian Bach has been discovered in a crate of 18th century birthday cards, researchers said in Germany. They said the aria for soprano and string or keyboard accompaniment composed for a duke's birthday in 1713 is the first music from the renowned composer to surface in three decades. Michael Maul of the Bach Archive Foundation found the composition last month in the eastern city of Weimar. The foundation said Bach wrote the two-page score at age 28.

A modern reconstruction of Johann Sebastian Bach's head -- using state-of-the-art computer modeling techniques -- shows the composer as a strong-jawed man with a slight underbite, his large head topped with short, silver hair. The bust, unveiled in Berlin on Monday, was created by anthropologist Caroline Wilkinson in her lab at the University of Dundee in Scotland. Rather than use Bach's actual bones, which are buried at the St. John's Church in Leipzig, Wilkinson worked from a copper replica of Bach's skull made for a previous reconstruction in 1894, done nearly 150 years after his death by a physician and a sculptor.

German researchers have completed the final volume of a new collection of the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach, crowning a 55-year effort, the head of Leipzig's Bach Archive said. The Neue Bach-Ausgabe, or New Bach Edition, was compiled by the Bach Archive and the Johann Sebastian Bach Institute in Goettingen. It consists of more than 100 volumes, with the composer's cantatas filling more than 40 alone, said Christoph Wolff, director of the Bach Archive. The first volume was in 1953.

Part of a lost composition by Johann Sebastian Bach has been found in Japan about 80 years after it went missing, a Japanese music professor says. Eight pages of a 1728 wedding cantata by the German baroque master recently were found among the possessions of the late Japanese classical pianist Chieko Hara, said Tadashi Isoyama, a professor at the Kunitachi College of Music in Tokyo.

The oldest known manuscripts of Johann Sebastian Bach -- handwritten copies of works by two other composers -- have been discovered in a German library that was heavily damaged in a fire two years ago, researchers said Thursday. The two manuscripts date from around 1700 and contain copies Bach made of organ music composed by Dietrich Buxtehude and Johann Adam Reincken, said Hellmut Seemann, president of the Foundation of Weimar Classics.

Johann Sebastian Bach composed for most musical genres in vogue during his lifetime. But he never wrote an opera. At St. Andrews Presbyterian Church on Sunday, the William Hall Master Chorale presented Bach's "The Passion According to St. John" in a way that came as close to filling that gap as possible without staging the piece as an opera. Conductor William Hall used a large chorus, included soloists with meaty voices and balanced them with a small orchestra of period and modern instruments.

The Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra opened its fourth season under its music director, Martin Haselbock, at Zipper Hall on Saturday night in fine shape, juxtaposing a clutch of famous baroque-era composers with two lesser-known ones. The unwary reader of Musica Angelica's season brochure might have thought that the listing of Orchestral Suite No. 4 in D by J.B. Bach contained an unfortunate typo. But no, this wasn't the familiar Suite No. 4 -- also in D -- by good old Johann Sebastian Bach.

THIRSTY for Bach? A pair of overlapping festivals dip into his influences, organ and choral works and chamber music, with concerts that continue through the month. Opening the 34th annual Long Beach Bach Festival today at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, 525 E. 7th St., is a program that explores the composer's debt to organist Dietrich Buxtehude.

German researchers have completed the final volume of a new collection of the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach, crowning a 55-year effort, the head of Leipzig's Bach Archive said. The Neue Bach-Ausgabe, or New Bach Edition, was compiled by the Bach Archive and the Johann Sebastian Bach Institute in Goettingen. It consists of more than 100 volumes, with the composer's cantatas filling more than 40 alone, said Christoph Wolff, director of the Bach Archive. The first volume was in 1953.

The oldest known manuscripts of Johann Sebastian Bach -- handwritten copies of works by two other composers -- have been discovered in a German library that was heavily damaged in a fire two years ago, researchers said Thursday. The two manuscripts date from around 1700 and contain copies Bach made of organ music composed by Dietrich Buxtehude and Johann Adam Reincken, said Hellmut Seemann, president of the Foundation of Weimar Classics.

WERE Bach's famous cello suites and other works really written by his second wife, Anna Magdalena? That's what Martin Jarvis, a professor at the Charles Darwin University school of music in Darwin, Australia, believes. Using police forensic science techniques and some internal musical evidence, Jarvis claims that Anna Magdalena was the composer of the six suites, not merely the copyist, as traditionally believed.

Promising to give it "the full monty," British harpsichord maestro Richard Egarr, making his first solo tour of the United States, will perform J.S. Bach's masterwork, the "Goldberg Variations," as well as the seldom-heard 14 "Goldberg Canons," on Friday at the Doheny Mansion in Los Angeles.

A previously unknown work by Johann Sebastian Bach has been discovered in a crate of 18th century birthday cards, researchers said in Germany. They said the aria for soprano and string or keyboard accompaniment composed for a duke's birthday in 1713 is the first music from the renowned composer to surface in three decades. Michael Maul of the Bach Archive Foundation found the composition last month in the eastern city of Weimar. The foundation said Bach wrote the two-page score at age 28.

--Police Capt. Penny E. Harrington was promoted to chief of police of Portland, Ore., making her the first woman in the nation to lead a big-city police force. Mayor Bud Clark said he chose Harrington over three other finalists because of "the long-term period she's had in the trenches." Harrington, 42, joined the Portland Police Bureau in 1964 and worked her way up through the ranks.

The big guns were wheeled out for the finale of the Corona del Mar Baroque Festival Sunday night at St. Michael and All Angels Church. Artistic director Burton Karson led the full Festival Orchestra and Chorus in four lesser-known works by the best-known composer of the Baroque era, Johann Sebastian Bach. The 22-piece orchestra and 27-voice chorus blended with the most pleasing results in the final work on the program, Cantata No. 172, "Erschallet, ihr Lieder."

Part of a lost composition by Johann Sebastian Bach has been found in Japan about 80 years after it went missing, a Japanese music professor says. Eight pages of a 1728 wedding cantata by the German baroque master recently were found among the possessions of the late Japanese classical pianist Chieko Hara, said Tadashi Isoyama, a professor at the Kunitachi College of Music in Tokyo.

In 1971, Leonard Bernstein, a Jew, wrote a Catholic mass of sorts. An audacious theatrical interpretation of the liturgy that was commissioned in memory of JFK to open the Kennedy Center in Washington, "Mass" is an impudent stylistic brew that combines rock, 12-tone music and Broadway. At its center is a hippie celebrant who confronts God and society; on its edges are provocative excursions into Buddhism and Judaism. The Kennedys were aghast; Nixon, who was president at the time, stayed home.