Franz Zierlein and His Bach Sources

Abstract: This article concerns two manuscripts held in the Pomeranian Library in Szczecin (Książnica Pomorska w Szczecinie), namely, the manuscripts with call numbers MusMs5 (a copy of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier Book I, and Johann Peter Kellner’s Fugue in D Minor BWV Anh. 180) and MusMs6 (a copy of the English Suites BWV 806–811). To date, these sources have not been widely known. They are therefore subjected to detailed study, beginning with an attempt to answer the question of how they arrived in Szczecin, through philological analysis and establishing links with other eighteenth-century manuscripts, to considerations regarding their early provenance. Particularly valuable is the copy of the twenty-four preludes and fugues, since its preparation can be linked to the circle of Bach’s pupils and associates. What is more, it contains a late redaction of Well-Tempered Clavier Book I, including hitherto unknown readings of the musical text. These probably date from the year 1740, and consequently they are named “variant 1740.” Both manuscripts were owned by Franz Zierlein. This enigmatic possessor had the same surname as a pupil of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach who in the 1770s served as Kapellmeister to the Prince-Bishop Ignacy Krasicki. It is not certain whether we are dealing with a single individual (there could have been two brothers Zierlein, for instance), but it is a fact that music at the court in Lidzbark Warmiński (Heilsberg; the seat of Ignacy Krasicki) was under the direction of a pupil of the Hamburg Bach and an outstanding virtuoso of keyboard instruments at that. This, in turn, suggests the need for further research into reception of the music of Bach(s) and other German composers in Lidzbark Warmiński.