THE BACHS WERE ONE
Anna married John when he was thirty-seven. She was only twenty. He had already married and had seven children. His first wife died. Anna bore him thirteen more children. She assisted him in his music work. She learned to copy out his manuscripts so that his students could take copies of his music home for practice. She became so familiar with her husband, Johann Sebastian Bach’s hand that scholars sometimes have difficulty telling where Bach’s hand ends and Anna Magdalena’s begins. Her hand, even in writing, became a reflection of her beloved’s. In essence, they became one, even in the writing style.