The Quodlibet or ''Wedding Quodlibet'', BWV 524, is a lighthearted composition by Johann Sebastian Bach which today exists only in fragmentary form. The line "In diesem Jahre haben wir zwei Sonnenfinsternissen" (In this year we have

een Een ːnis a village in the Netherlands. It is part of the Noordenveld municipality in Drenthe. History Een is an ''esdorp'' which developed in the middle ages on the higher grounds. The communal pasture is triangular. The village developed dur ...

two solar eclipses) places the composition of the piece in or shortly after 1707, when central Germany was witness to two such celestial events. The extant source—a fair-copy autograph manuscript on three large, folded sheets—was not discovered until 1932. The work itself is a loosely structured quodlibet for SATB and continuo. Bach likely did not write the text, which some attribute to the Leipzig poet Johann Christoph Gottsched. Though the cover sheet has been lost, the

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

of the remaining portion indicates that the quodlibet was to be performed at a wedding, possibly that of the composer himself to Maria Barbara Bach.

References

*Bratz, Thomas.
BWV 524 Quodlibet (Fragment) 'Was seind das vor grosse Schlösser'
. Retrieved 19 August 2007 * Bomba, Andreas. "O ye thoughts, why torment ye my spirit". Program Notes to ''Bach: The Complete Works, Vol. 16''. Hänssler.

External links

Quodlibet, BWV 524
performance by the Netherlands Bach Society (video and background information) {{authority control Compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach Choral compositions Wedding music by Johann Sebastian Bach