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Bach Compendium

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The Bach Compendium (BC) is a systematic catalogue of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, which was developed by the musicologists Hans-Joachim Schulze and Christoph Wolff.[1][2]

The Bach Compendium offers a similar genre-based classification such as the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV) or the New Bach Edition (NBA); however, it lists the individual works, especially the cantatas, in a different order, which at least partially reflects the chronological genesis according to the date of publication suggested by the current research for the Compendium.

As for the thoroughness in the description of the original sources, the BC stands between the detailed descriptions and analyses of the Critical Commentaries of the NBA and the rather cursory statements of the BWV.

Of the seven volumes that were originally planned, only four volumes were published between 1985 and 1989.

Division into workgroups[edit]

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

A - Cantatas for Sundays and feast days of the liturgical year
B - Sacred works 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
J - Free Organ Works
K - Chorale-based Organ Works
L - Keyboard[3] Music
M - Chamber music for one instrument
N - Chamber music for duo or trio ensembles
O - Chamber music for larger ensembles
P - Canons
Q - Didactic works and exercises
R - Sketches and drafts
S - Original collections
T - Doubtful vocal works
U - Doubtful instrumental works
V - Spurious vocal works
W - Spurious instrumental works
X - Copies (and essentially straightforward arrangements) of vocal works by other composers
Y - Copies (and essentially straightforward arrangements) of instrumental works by other composers
Z - Contemporary collections

Publishing[edit]

The following volumes have ben published (all by Peters):

  • Volume 1, Part 1: Vocal Works I (containing works A 1 through A 100), Leipzig 1985, (ISBN 3-369-00031-8 Search this book on .) or Frankfurt am Main 1986, (ISBN 3-876-26081-7 Search this book on .);
  • Volume 1, Part 2: Vocal Works II (containing works A 101 through 194), Leipzig 1987, (ISBN 3-369-00032-6 Search this book on .);
  • Volume 1, Part 3: Vocal Works III (containing workgroups B, C, and D), Leipzig 1988, (ISBN 3-369-00033-4 Search this book on .) or Frankfurt am Main 1988, (ISBN 3-876-26083-3 Search this book on .);
  • Volume 1, Part 4: Vocal Works IV (containing workgroups E, F, G, and H), Leipzig 1989, (ISBN 3-369-00051-2 Search this book on .) or Frankfurt am Main 1989, (ISBN 3-876-26084-1 Search this book on .).

References[edit]

  1. Wolff, Christoph; Schulze, Hans-Joachim (1986). Bach-Compendium: analytisch-bibliographisches Repertorium der Werke Johann Sebastian Bachs (BC) (in German). Leipzig: Peters. ISBN 3-369-00029-6.CS1 maint: Unrecognized language (link) Search this book on
  2. Marshall, Robert L. (1991). "[untitled]". Bach Jahrbuch. Berlin: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt. 77: 207ff. ISBN 3-374-01104-7.
  3. The word "keyboard" (German Klavier or Clavier) here – and more generally in the musical literature of the 18th century – is a generic term for a class of instruments containing the harpsichord, the spinet, and even the pianoforte, an instrument in whose development Bach took a strong interest.


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