Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 February 1879 — A Valuable Musical Discovery. [ARTICLE]

A Valuable Musical Discovery.

German papers announce a discovery of much interest to the musical world. The treasure-trove consists of a large portion of the missing works of Johann oebastian Bach. The discovery was made by Herr Robert Franz. Convinced that the long-lost Passion music and Christmas oratorios might yet be brought to light, Herr Fr anz com menced a systematic reStrhrch in every place the great master had been knoqfn to reside. After much fruitless labor he arrived at the seat of the Witzhun family, and passing one day down an alley in the garden noticed that the young trees where they were tied to their supports were bound round with strips of paper to prevent the bark from being scored. A closer inspection showed that the paper bore the beautiful handwriting of Bach, and turning to ! the gardener Herr Franz besought him to say whence the precious MS. had come. The reply was to the eft'ect that in the loft there had been several chests full of the paper covered with old notes and as it was or no use to any one he had made it serve instead of leather for binding up the saplings, adding that he had done so for some time ana

found the result highly satisfactory. Herr Franz hastened to the loft, when he was rewarded by finding a chest yet untouched and filled to the brim with MSS., which on inspection proved to contain no fewer than 120 violin sonatas. His joy was dashed, however, by the; certainty that the precious music had long ago gone to bind up the trees and hauirrecoverably perished through exposure to the weather. It is probable that the works now discovered will not be received with such favor by the general musical public as was accorded to the symphonies of Schubert unearthed by Mr. Grove and produced at the Crystal Palace concerts by Mr. Manns. Herr Joachim, however, will find in them “freshfields and pastures new;” while everyone who has the least pretense to a love of music must admit the discovery to bo one of exceeding interest— Pall Mall ( London ) Gazette. A mere suggestion is sometimes as satisfactory as a detailed statement “ How much did you pay for that hat?” asked a gentleman of a colored brother. “I really don’t know,” was the reply. “ de shopkeeper wasn’t dere jess den.” A resident of North Troy, Vt., has been held in SI,OOO bail -ior drawing caricatures of prominent citizens.