Cöthen Funeral Music BWV 244a-The so-called Köthener Trauermusik (Cöthen Funeral Music) was performed at the memorial service for Prince Leopold of Anhalt Cöthen on 24 March 1729. The history of reconstruction begins in the second half of the nineteenth century. In 1873 Wilhelm Rust co-editor of the first Complete Bach Edition and subsequently Thomaskantor established the fundamental relationship between the Köthener Trauermusik on the one hand and the St. Matthew Passion and Trauerode BWV 198 on the other. In the service of concert practice it is the intention of this attempted reconstruction to enrich the repertoire of church music for Passiontide and the period aroundthe Sunday before Advent on which the dead are commemorated. It is also hoped that it will contribute to the understanding of Bach?s ?Great Passion? whose sister work the Köthener Trauermusik is.