New Bach Edition

The Neue Bach-Ausgabe (NBA, in English: New Bach Edition) is the second complete edition of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, published by Bärenreiter. The name is short for Johann Sebastian Bach: Neue Ausgabe sämtlicher Werke (Johann Sebastian Bach: New Edition of the Complete Works). It is a historical-critical edition (historisch-kritische Ausgabe) of Bach's complete works by the Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Institut Göttingen and the Bach-Archiv Leipzig. It succeeded the first complete edition of Bach's music published in the second half of the nineteenth century by the Bach Gesellschaft.

Content

The edition contains in eight series 96 Notenbände (music volumes), in addition Kritische Berichte (Critical Reports) and Supplementbände (supplementing volumes):

I. Cantatas (46 volumes)

II. Masses, Passions, Oratorios (9 volumes)

III. Motets, chorales, Lieder (4 volumes)

IV. Organ works (11 volumes)

V. Keyboard works and lute works (14 volumes)

VI. Chamber music (5 volumes)

VII. Orchestral works (7 volumes)

VIII. Canons, The Musical Offering, The Art of Fugue (2 volumes)

IX. Addenda (approximately 7 volumes)

Supplement, Bach Documents (9 volumes)

Each volume of music contains a preface and a selection of facsimiles of its sources. For each such volume, a separate Critical Report describes all sources of a work and their interdependence, presents all reliable information about the history of a composition and discusses editorial issues. Fragments of compositions were published along with complete works.

History

The celebrations in 1950 of the bicentennial of Bach's death in Göttingen and Leipzig led to the initiative to publish his complete works in a critical scientific edition. Musicologists such as Friedrich Blume, Max Schneider, Friedrich Smend and Heinrich Besseler, and sponsors such as Bernhard Sprengel and Otto Benecke made the project possible, supported by the editor Karl Vötterle.

The Neue Bachgesellschaft recommended to pursue the project as a joint venture of musicologists in Göttingen, then West Germany, and Leipzig, then East Germany, in order to stress that the common cultural heritage was undivisable. The Bach-Archiv Leipzig and the Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Institut Göttingen collaborated, their directors Werner Neumann and Alfred Dürr made the new edition their life's project. In 1951 the Bärenreiter edition in Kassel was chosen by the Federal Government, in 1954 the new Deutscher Verlag für Musik in Leipzig became a partner in the publishing until the unification of Germany.

Initially the duration of the edition was estimated as 15 to 20 years, but the scientific work with the sources required much more time than anticipated. The first volumes appeared in 1954. The edition was completed in June 2007.

Relevance

The Neue Bach-Ausgabe presents a reliable version of Bach's music for both scientists and performers. Its strict philological methods were exemplary for critical scientific editions in the second half of the 20th century.

In preparation for the NBA, lost compositions were found, whereas some known compositions proved to be not Bach's works. The examination of the sources corrected the chronology of his compositions.

Revision

In February 2010 the Bach-Archiv Leipzig and the publisher announced a revision of single volumes, in order to include new sources and findings. 15 more volumes are planned, including the Mass in B minor, single Weimar cantatas, the St John Passion, the motets, the violin sonatas, the cello suites and others.

Awards

In 2001 the German Association of Music Publishers (Deutscher Musikverlegerverband) awarded a special prize to the New Bach Edition in recognition of editorial achievement.

External links

• Bärenreiter New Bach Edition
• Bach-Archiv Leipzig website
• Bach-Archiv Leipzig zieht positive Jahresbilanz 2010 Bach-Archiv, Leipzig, 23 December 2010 (in German)