The work, an aria called "Alles mit Gott und nichts ohn' ihn," was discovered in an old shoebox along with poems and letter written in celebration of the 52nd birthday of Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Saxe-Weimar, Bach's patron. Michael Maul, a member of the Bach Archive in Leipzig, found the work while doing research at the Anna-Amalia Library in Weimar.
A recording of the work is being prepared by conductor John Eliot Gardiner, who will also perform the work in London in December.