Gathering Dust

In his lifetime, J S Bach was better known as an organist than a composer. So in 1721 when he presented his six concertos to the Margrave of Brandenburg his purpose was not to promote their performance but, by creating a favourable impression, to gain employment. In fact neither performance nor employment followed and the manuscript was to gather dust for 13 years in the Margrave's library until his death in 1734. Even then the quality of the compositions was not recognised. The music was included for valuation in a job lot with other manuscripts not worthy of being listed by composer and remained undiscovered in the Brandenburg archive until 1849. The concertos were finally published in 1850, 100 years after Bach's death.