Lost and inaccessible sources

The DMgA is in possession of several films of music manuscripts and prints which have either been lost in their original form or whose current condition does not allow them to be viewed or digitised. These microfilms are thus the only way to study the sources and are therefore among the archive's treasures.

"Cracow Tablature" (1st half of the 16th century)
After several stops, the 362-page manuscript ended up in the Warsaw State Archives, where it was catalogued as Ms. 564 of the Polinsky Collection. Willi Apel had a microfilm made shortly before the start of the war in 1939, which proved to be a stroke of luck - the tablature disappeared during the Second World War and was presumably destroyed. The DMgA owns a copy of Apel's microfilm.

"Organ tablature Celle" (1601)
This manuscript is the earliest known source containing only organ chorales. The collection travelled from Celle via Lüneburg to Berlin, where it became the private property of Carl August Haupt, then director of the Berlin Institute of Church Music. After his death, it remained in the family until it was probably destroyed during the Second World War. Fortunately, Max Seiffert had made a photographic reproduction of the tablature in 1937, which was kept in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin under the shelfmark "Bü 84". However, this reproduction was also lost by 1961 at the latest. Fortunately, the DMgA keeps a microfilm of Seiffert's photographs.

"Stuttgarter choir books"
The 48 choir books form the remainder of the repertoire of the former court chapel and were created in the course of the 16th century. The condition of the originals is now very fragile, so that one has to resort to the microfilms of the DMgA in order to study the choir books.

Exequiae Blumenthalianae, Himmel-Braut-Kroon (Ich hab mein Lauff vollendet [à S, A, T, B]). Bey ... Leichbegängnüß der ... Jungfern Ursul Hedwigs von Blumenthal ... Berlin 1635 [RISM CC 4569a]
(Copy from the private microfilm collection of Fritz Roth)

Christliche Leich-Sermon de perpetua hominis christiani in his terris militia ... gehalten bey ... Leich-Bestättigung ... Herrn Johann Christoph Spatzen ... welcher ... den 1. Junij 1678 ... eingeschlaffen ... den 6. ... beygelegt worden (Fliesset reich ihr Thränen-Quellen) Regensburg 1678 [RISM DD 3418b]
(Copy from the private microfilm collection of Fritz Roth)

Guldenes Kleinod ... bey Beerdigung des ... Herrn Johann Georg Suppers ... den 15. Augusti dieses 1678. Jahrs vorgetragen (Unlängsten hat man schon erfahren) Regensburg 1678 [RISM DD 3418c]
(Copy from the private microfilm collection of Fritz Roth)

No original can be found for the three individual prints mentioned above. The whereabouts of Fritz Roth's microfilm collection, from which the copies were made, is unclear.

Johann Ernst Bach: Wünschet Jerusalem Glück.
This cantata has only survived once, in the Niedertreba parish library in Thuringia (D-NTRE; now in D-WRha). The original was transferred to the Landeskirchenarchiv Eisenach. Upon enquiry, however, it was discovered that the file cover was empty and the contents could not be found. The microfilm of the DMgA, which was created in 1977, is now the only thing that remains of the manuscript.