Fasch Enigma

The provenance of the eight known settings of Latin Vespers texts remains shrouded in mystery. The autograph scores in Dresden have all been altered by the composer's friend from earlier days in Leipzig, Johann David Heinichen, who was responsible for music in the Catholic Chapel at the Dresden court. However, the paper they are written on is of Bohemian origin, and it seems more likely that Fasch wrote the music while in the employ of Graf Morzin in Prague, immediately prior to his appointment as Kapellmeister at Zerbst in Autumn 1722. When Prince Johann August paid for him to spend six months in the Saxon capital, Fasch probably took these manuscripts (which could serve no purpose in Lutheran Zerbst) with him.