Bach, Johann Sebastian.

rare: with the exception of a very incomplete copy sold in these rooms on 25 may 2001 (lot 6), we have no record of J. S. Bach's "opus 1" being offered for sale at auction in modern times.

In the absence of the autograph manuscript, this edition is the primary source for the Six Partitas. Bach's autograph has not survived, although earlier versions of Partita III and Partita VI exist in his second Clavier-Büchlein  for Anna Magdalena Bach (1725).  As with other editions of Bach's works published during his lifetime, this one is of the greatest musical importance and at the same time very rare.  

The Clavier-Übung was the first work published by Bach himself--the first music of his to appear, apart from a single surviving cantata (no.71), printed in 1708 by the city of Mühlhausen.   Bach had already published the Partitas separately (from 1726 onwards), but only a handful of these survive (no.6 is unrecorded in RISM or the NBA).  He made a number of corrections for the 1731 edition, which he thus designated his  "Opus 1".  The composer was forty-six in 1731; remarkably, his son Emanuel Bach also published his first work, the minuet Wq.111, that same year. 

The Six Partitas represent the culmination of Bach's development of the Baroque keyboard suite, which here assumes a unique grandeur and significance.  Forkel reported in 1802 that its publication in 1731created a significant impact, since there had been nothing to compare with it in keyboard music up until that time.  Each partita includes, besides a standard four-movement suite sequence, a distinctive opening movement and contrasting gallantry pieces, like the 'Burlesca' and 'Scherzo' in Partita III (the latter lacking from the early version in the autograph Clavier-Büchlein for Anna Magdalena Bach).

Although the fine engraving made the edition quite expensive (it cost 2 thalers), Bach apparently achieved a wide circulation for it, with copies reaching Padre Martini in Bologna.  However, fewer than thirty copies survive today, even accounting for those not quite complete, such as the present one, and almost all are in institutional libraries.  This is an impressive copy overall, with unusually wide margins and deep, clear impressions, representing a rare opportunity to acquire one of the most important, indeed, most beautiful, editions of this great composer. .