Bach Compendium

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The Bach Compendium ( BC ) is a systematic directory of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach , which was developed by the musicologists Hans-Joachim Schulze and Christoph Wolff .

The Bach Compendium offers a similar classification according to genre like the Bach Works Directory (BWV) or the New Bach Edition (NBA). However, it puts the individual works, especially the cantatas, in a different order, which at least partially reflects the chronological origin of the research results that were current on the date of publication of the compendium.

In the detail of the description of the original sources, the BC stands between the detailed descriptions and analyzes of the critical reports of the NBA and the more cursory information of the BWV.

From 1985 to 1989 four volumes of the seven-volume directory were published.

Division into work groups

The works are divided into the following work groups in BC :

A - Cantatas for the Sundays and feast days of the church year
B - Church pieces for special occasions
C - motets
D - passions and oratorios
E - Latin church music
F - chorales and sacred songs
G - Secular cantatas for court, nobility and bourgeoisie
H - vocal chamber music
I - Free Organ Works
K - Organ works linked to chorales
L - piano works and lute works
M - chamber music for a solo instrument
N - Chamber music for duo and trio instrumentation
O - chamber music for larger ensembles
P - canons
Q - teaching and exercise books
R - sketches and drafts
S - original collections
T - Doubtful vocal works
U - Doubtful instrumental works
V - Mistakenly attributed vocal works
W - Mistakenly attributed instrumental works
X - Copies (and minor adaptations) of other vocal works
Y - Copies (and minor adaptations) of other instrumental works
Z - Contemporary Collections

Structure of the work groups A to E, G and H

First of all, the cantatas and other major vocal works are classified into subgroups based on their purpose. Within these groups, the arrangement takes place chronologically, whereby different versions, even if they are lost or do not have their own numbers in the BWV, are given their own designation. First, the text part for a group, then the music part appears with the incipits of each of the movements of the cantata concerned.

Each text part consists of the sections cast, text and song templates, work history, source and literature. Above all, the history of the work and the description of the sources are much more detailed than in the BWV.

The cantatas of work group A are initially arranged according to their intended purpose according to the church year, starting with the cantatas of the 1st Advent up to the 27th Sunday after Trinity , followed by the cantatas on the three Marian holidays celebrated in Leipzig and the cantatas for St. John's Day and St. Michael’s Day and the cantatas for the Reformation Festival . This is followed by the group of cantatas, the definition of which has not been passed down, and the two cantatas BWV 21 and 51 that can be used for each period (“per ogni tempo”). The cantatas erroneously attributed to Bach are not included, such as BWV 53 or BWV 141. This structure follows largely that of Alfred Dürr's standard work on Bach's cantatas.

Subgroups of work group B : cantatas for council elections , marriage ( bridal mass ), funeral and memorial service, penance service, anniversary of the Augsburg confession 1730, princely birthday / organ consecration / honor day

Subgroups of work group C : double-choir motets , single-choir motets, arrangements of other works. In the synopsis there is a list of motet movements in vocal works that belong to other groups of works and are also discussed there.

Subgroups of work group D : Passions , oratorios

Subgroups of work group E : Masses and mass individual movements, Magnificat , festival music for Christmas Day

Subgroups of work group G : cantatas for members of royal houses (further subdivided according to the individual royal houses), for members of the nobility, for university events, for events at the St. Thomas School, for weddings, for various purposes.

The work group H consists of only three levels: Quodlibet (BWV 524 BC-H1), Aria "Whenever I mean Toback Whistle" (BWV 515, BC-H2) and Murky "Your Fine listen to them" (BWV Anh 40. BC-H3).

Structure of work group F

In contrast to the BWV, the authors have also included the traditional chorales within the large vocal forms (cantatas, passions, oratorios) in the compendium. This creates the opportunity to gain an overview of all the chorale melodies used by Bach , their variants and their use. The two major subgroups are broken down into further sections:

  • Four-part chorales (F1 – F213, in alphabetical order of the chorale melodies)
  • Chorales and sacred songs with basso continuo (F214 – F287, in the order given by the collections)
  • Lost collections (F288 – F289)
  • Individual chorales with basso continuo (F290 – F297)

The chorale melodies of work group K on which the organ choirs are based are included through cross-references.

Each text part of a chorale melody consists of information about the composer of the melody and the authors of the text, as well as references to the use of the text and the cantus firmus in Bach's works.

Publication status

At the moment (November 2016) the following volumes of the Bach Compendium have been published (all by Edition Peters):

Remarks

  1. ↑ Clavier is here - in spelling and meaning of the 18th century - generic term for harpsichord , spinet , clavichord and also the fortepiano , in the development of which Bach was very interested.
  2. ^ Alfred Dürr: The cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach. Bärenreiter, Kassel 1971, ISBN 3-423-04080-7
  3. ↑ The chorales BWV 253–438 are also incorporated here. In the BWV, these chorales reflect the four-part Joh. Seb collection published by Johann Philipp Kirnberger and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach under Johann Gottlob Immanuel Breitkopf from 1784 to 1787 . Bach's four-part chorale chants , which contain nothing other than the four-part chorals used in the cantatas, passions and oratorios, but without text underlay and without obbligato parts and continuo part.

literature

  • Hans-Joachim Schulze, Christoph Wolff: Bach Compendium: analytical-bibliographical repertory of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach (BC). Peters, Frankfurt am Main 1986, ISBN 3-87626-130-9 . Peters, Leipzig 1986, ISBN 3-369-00029-6 .
  • Robert L. Marshall [untitled] in: Bach Yearbook. 77. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-374-01104-7 . P. 207ff. (Discussion of the Bach Compendium)

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