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Recently identified musical pieces by the musical genius Bach have been presented and played in Germany for the premiere performance in 320 years.

Germany's Cultural Affairs Minister the government representative called the unearthing of the two pieces a "important event for the world of music".

They originally drew interest of a musical scholar in 1992 when he was cataloguing historical musical documents at the Brussels archive.

The organ pieces - the D minor Chaconne and G minor Chaconne - were dating unknown and anonymous. The scholar spent the next 30 years working to verify the authorship of the pieces.

Landmark Presentation

They were presented at the St Thomas Church in Leipzig, where the composer is laid to rest and where he worked as a church musician for 27 years.

The pair of works were executed by Dutch musician Ton Koopman, who said he was proud to be able to play them for the premiere in three hundred twenty years.

He said the pieces were "of a very high quality" and would be "an important addition for organists today, as they are also appropriate for more compact instruments".

Cultural Relevance

They are thought to have been composed at the beginning of Bach's professional life, when he was employed as an organ instructor in the town of the Thuringian town in Thuringia.

The scholar, who is now the head of the musical archive in the municipality, said they exhibited several characteristics distinctive to the artist.

"Stylistically, the works also include characteristics that can be identified in Bach's compositions from this period, but not in those of other musicians," he said.

They are thought to have been recorded in the early eighteenth century by one of Bach's pupils, Salomon Günther John.

At a presentation of the pieces, the researcher said he was "virtually certain that Bach had composed the pair of works" and they have now been incorporated into the authoritative listing of his compositions.