The Mystery of Bach's Genius? Solved! It's All in the Ink

J.S. Bach wrote his musical scores with iron gall ink, which was in standard use in Europe at the time. The ingredients include tannic acid from oak galls, a hypertrophy growing on the sides of oak trees, and gum arabic, from the sap of the acacia tree. Imagine if a musicologist claimed that the mystery was fast being solved of how Bach composed music of such towering genius, since a "relatively simple combination of naturally occurring substances offers a plausible route to the...