Oxford’s Bodleian Library has announced the acquisition of the original manuscript of JS Bach’s cantata for Ascension Day: ‘Auf Christi Himmelfahrt allein’ (BWV 128). The manuscript will be on public display from today as part of the Write, Cut, Rewrite exhibition in the Weston Library’s Treasury.

The manuscript, also known as ‘the Kohn manuscript’ after Leipzig-born collector Ralph Kohn, is one of only four by JS Bach in the UK. The most extensive collections of Bach’s manuscripts are in Berlin and Leipzig, and most of the surviving cantata manuscripts are in institutions in Germany, Poland and the USA. The three other Bach autographs in the UK are held at both the British Library and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

Martin Holmes, curator of music at the Bodleian Libraries, said: ‘It must be every music librarian’s dream to be given custody of a Bach autograph and the library is honoured to have been entrusted with this magnificent manuscript. Only two other institutions in the UK have Bach autographs in their collections and the Bodleian is proud to be the third.’

The 16-page work is part of a sequence of cantatas composed for Eastertide 1725 with texts by Marianne von Ziegler – Bach’s only known female librettist. The Kohn manuscript also includes annotations by Bach's eldest son, Wilehelm Friedemann. A performance commemorating the 300th anniversary of the cantata’s original performance for the feast of the Ascension in May 1725 is also being planned.

On display until 5 January 2025, the Kohn manuscript was previously exhibited in the UK at Buckingham Palace in the early 2000s to coincide with a performance of the cantata for the then Prince of Wales. The cantata manuscript will be digitised and made available through Digital Bodleian, the Library’s platform for sharing its digitised collections, and through the Bach Digital online portal.

Visit the exhibition 

The original manuscript of Bach's ‘Auf Christi Himmelfahrt allein’ (BWV 128)