There is some disagreement whether Wq.194 no. 24 and no. 25 are actually two different works or one work. The collection of poems by Christian Fürchtegott Gellert which inspired Bach to create Wq.194 contain 54 poems. In the first published edition of Bach's songs (Wq.194) a song for each of these poems is printed on a separate page, with a single exception: one song (this work) is printed on two separate pages. Only the first of two pages contains a title, and only on the first page words of the song are printed with the so-called "drop cap" (large stylized first letter), hinting that both pages shall be threated as one song, not as two separate songs. On the other hand, parts on two pages are in different scales: the first page in C minor, the second in C major.
Due to the ambiguity, different catalogues either consider two pages to contain two separate works (the second one without a name), or parts of the same work. The most recent comprehensive online catalogue of C.P.E. Bach's works by The Packard Humanities Institute considers it to be a single work.
Annotation last modified on 2020-08-12 19:05 UTC.
