List of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach printed during his lifetime
Summary
Compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach printed during his lifetime (1685–1750) include works for keyboard instruments, such as his Clavier-Übung volumes for harpsichord and for organ, and to a lesser extent ensemble music, such as the trio sonata of The Musical Offering, and vocal music, such as a cantata published early in his career. Other works, such as several canons, were printed without an indication by which instruments they were to be performed.
No more than a few works by Johann Sebastian Bach were printed during his lifetime. Extended works for choir and instrumentalists were not printed very often in his day. Bach selected mostly keyboard compositions for publication, which conformed to such contemporary practices, and was instrumental in establishing him as a keyboard composer. His works not only circulated in print: also manuscripts were copied and transmitted. Whether or not a work was selected for print was independent of the quality of the music.
Contextedit
Whereas earlier composers such as Palestrina, Monteverdi, Praetorius and Schütz had their works printed to ensure that the entire range of their music became more widely known, this was not the case with Bach, who only had a small proportion of his works printed. Christoph Wolff has suggested three reasons: firstly the financial support from municipal councils or noble patrons available to previous generations had diminished in Germany as a result of the Thirty Years War; secondly the expense of printing contrapuntal keyboard music which, at that time in Germany, was more often typeset than engraved; and lastly the low number of potential customers for works that were often technically difficult and unconventional.[1]
Counting by BWV numbers, less than ten percent of the composer's output was printed during his lifetime. Especially the choral works, less than half a percent of over 400 BWV numbers, are under-represented. This was however not exceptional for Bach's time when larger works for chorus and orchestra were less often printed. Bach's own efforts to get his works printed concentrated mostly on his keyboard compositions, which contributed to the fact that, at least until the 19th-century Bach Revival, he was mainly regarded as a keyboard composer. Whether or not a work was selected for print was independent of the quality of the music.[2]
Compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach printed during his lifetime
Prelude and Fugue in E♭ for organ in Clavier-Übung III
1739
0645–650
chorale preludes for organ (Schübler Chorales)
1747–1748
0669–689
chorale preludes for organ in Clavier-Übung III
1739
0769
Canonic Variations on "Vom Himmel hoch" for organ
1747–1748
0802–805
duets for keyboard instrument in Clavier-Übung III
1739
0825–830
partitas for harpsichord in Clavier-Übung I
1726–1730, 1731
0831
French Overture for harpsichord in Clavier-Übung II
1735
0971
Italian Concerto for harpsichord in Clavier-Übung II
1735
0988
Goldberg Variations for harpsichord (Clavier-Übung IV)
1741–1742
1074
Canon a 4
1728, 1739, 1747
1076
Canon triplex a 6
1747
1079
The Musical Offering for diverse instruments
1747–1749
1080
The Art of Fugue
1751, 1752
1138.1
Council election cantata for Mühlhausen #2 (lost)[3]
1709
1138.2
Council election cantata for Mühlhausen #3 (lost)[4]
1710
Most of the prints of Bach's music which appeared during his lifetime were commissioned by the composer.[5] Bach's personal copies, often containing handwritten corrections or additions, have been recovered for several of his printed works. The German expression for personal copy, Handexemplar, also appears in English-language Bach-scholarship, and is used in the list below when referring to prints once contained in the personal library of Johann Sebastian Bach.[6]
During Bach's lifetime his compositions were mostly distributed amongst his immediate musical associates through manuscript copies. After his death in 1750, manuscript copies of keyboard and vocal works were made by professional copyists and distributed by musical publishing firms, especially Breitkopf (Leipzig), Traeg (Vienna) and Westphal (Hamburg). This in turn led to the appearance of printed editions of his works, beginning with the publication of Bach's four-part chorales in the second half of the eighteenth century. The fact that Bach had published representative samples of his music for keyboard instruments contributed to his fame, and to an increased demand for such works after his death.[1]
In his 1732 Musicalisches Lexicon [scores], Johann Gottfried Walther listed all keyboard compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach which had been printed up to that point, that is, the six partitas of Clavier-Übung I.[7][8] In Bach's obituary, which was published four years after the composer's death, printed and unprinted works are listed separately: the list of engraved compositions contains eight items, all of them instrumental works, and concludes with The Art of Fugue, which had been printed shortly after the composer's death.[9] A comparable list, starting with the same eight items, appeared half a century later in Johann Nikolaus Forkel's Bach-biography.[10][11] In 1937 Georg Kinsky published an extensive study of Bach's original publications.[5][2]
Printed musicedit
The eight publications listed in Bach's obituary included The Art of Fugue which was in fact published shortly after the composer's death. Further, two publications with vocal music and two canons are extant.
Mühlhausen council election cantatasedit
Gott ist mein König, BWV 71, Bach's council election (Ratswahl) cantata composed for Mühlhausen in 1708, was printed that same year at the expense of the town council.[5][12][13] Also in 1709 and 1710 Bach wrote the council election cantatas for Mühlhausen, which likewise would have been printed.[14][15] These cantatas, BWV 1138.1 and 1138.2, are however lost: neither a print nor a manuscript survives.[3][4]
Publication
The Mühlhausen council commissioned the publication of the Ratswahl cantatas. The parts and libretto of the Gott ist mein König cantata, printed in Mühlhausen in 1708, are extant.[5]
Handexemplar
Mus. 11495 of the Berlin State Library, one of the surviving prints of the BWV 71 cantata, has a handwritten note by Bach on the front page.[13]
Bach's "Canon mit 4" (canon for four voices), BWV 1074, was published in Georg Philipp Telemann's Der getreue Music-Meister [scores] in 1728.[36][37][38] This canon was also published with two solutions in Johann Mattheson's Der vollkommene Capellmeister in 1739, and with three solutions in Volume 3 of Lorenz Christoph Mizler's Musikalische Bibliothek [de] in 1747.[36][39][40]
Clavier-Übung IIedit
The second volume of the Clavier-Übung was first published in 1735,[26][41][42] soon followed by a reprint with several corrections.[43][44] It contained two compositions, specified for performance on a two-manual harpsichord:[26][41][43][45]
Clavier-Übung II was printed in Nürnberg by Christoph Weigel. In the second printing pages 20 to 22 were replaced by new engravings.[43]
Handexemplar
K.8.g.7 from the British Library was Bach's Handexemplar: it is a copy from the first print run with more than hundred corrections in Bach's hand.[46][47][48]
Spiritual songs and arias from Schemelli's Musicalisches Gesang-Buchedit
Georg Christian Schemelli's Musicalisches Gesang-Buch (musical songbook), commonly known as Schemellis Gesangbuch, contains 954 song texts, 69 of which, BWV 439–507, are printed with a setting for singing voice and thoroughbass.[49][50] Not all 69 melodies were composed by Bach, but he provided (or "improved") an accompaniment for all of them.[49]Schemellis Gesangbuch was published in 1736, and contains some of Bach's probably least known compositions.[51]
The Prelude and Fugue were published separately as a pair by C. F. Peters in 1845 in Volume III of the Organ Works of J. S. Bach, with the fugue listed in the contents as the "St Annen-Fuge".[53]
Clavier-Übung IVedit
In 1741 or 1742 another Clavier-Übung volume was published, the Aria with diverse variations for double manual harpsichord, later known as the Goldberg Variations, BWV 988.[26][49][54][55] Not thus numbered in the print it was the fourth Clavier-Übung publication.[49] This publication does not carry a reference to Johann Gottlieb Goldberg: the music was published over half a century before the perhaps exaggerated anecdote involving Goldberg was printed in Forkel's biography of Bach.[56]
Publication
The work was published by Balthasar Schmid in Nürnberg.[46][55]
The Schübler Chorales, BWV 645–650, is a set of chorale preludes for organ, published around 1748 as Sechs Chorale von verschiedener Art (Six Chorales of Various Kinds) by Johann Georg Schübler.[62][69][70][71]
Publication
There is some doubt whether Bach commissioned the publication, which mainly, perhaps even exclusively, consists of arrangements of cantata movements which he had composed a few decades earlier. The work was published in Zella Melsi, and the engraver apparently prepared the print unsupervised by the composer. It is likely that Bach at least chose the six pieces, determined their sequence in the publication, and gave some instruction on the organ registration to be employed.[72][73]
Kinsky, Georg (1937). Die Originalausgaben der Werke Johann Sebastian Bachs: Ein Beitrag zur Musikbibliographie (in German). Vienna, Leipzig, Zurich: Reichner.
Bach, Johann Sebastian (1726). Clavier Ubung bestehend in Praeludien, Allemanden, Couranten, Sarabanden, Giquen, Menuetten, und andern Galanterien; Denen Liebhabern zur Gemüths Ergoezung verfertiget: Partita I. Leipzig. RISM 00000990003430.
Bach, Johann Sebastian (1727a). Clavier Ubung bestehend in Praeludien, Allemanden, Couranten, Sarabanden, Giquen, Menuetten, und andern Galanterien; Denen Liebhabern zur Gemüths Ergoezung verfertiget: Partita II. Leipzig. RISM 00000990003431.
Bach, Johann Sebastian (1727b). Clavier Ubung bestehend in Praeludien, Allemanden, Couranten, Sarabanden, Giquen, Menuetten, und andern Galanterien; Denen Liebhabern zur Gemüths Ergoezung verfertiget: Partita III. Leipzig. RISM 00000990003432.
Bach, Johann Sebastian (1730). Clavier Ubung bestehend in Praeludien, Allemanden, Couranten, Sarabanden, Giquen, Menuetten, und andern Galanterien; Denen Liebhabern zur Gemüths Ergoezung verfertiget: Partita V. Leipzig. RISM 00000990003433.
Mattheson, Johann (1739). Der vollkommene Capellmeister (in German). Hamburg: Herold.
Mizler, Lorenz Christoph (1747). Musikalische Bibliothek ... Des dritten bandes Dritter Theil. Mit zwölf Kupfertafeln. Musikalische Bibliothek (in German). Vol. III, 3. Leipzig: Mizler.
Telemann, Georg Philipp (1728). Der getreue Music-Meister (in German). Hamburg.. RISM 00000990063956 – facsimiles: VM7-3878 at Gallica (BnF 397929328); Mus.2392.B.1 at SLUB; M B/4987 at Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg [de]. Der getreue Music-Meister [scores]
Breig, Werner (2010). "Introduction" (PDF). Complete Organ Works – Breitkopf Urtext (New Edition in 10 Volumes), Vol. 6: Clavierübung III / Schübler-Choräle / Canonische Veränderungen über "Vom Himmel hoch". Breitkopf & Härtel. pp. 14–20.
Emans, Reinmar; Hiemke, Sven (2015), "Editionen der Werke Johann Sebastian Bachs", in Emans, Reinmar; Krämer, Ulrich (eds.), Musikeditionen im Wandel der Geschichte (in German), Walter de Gruyter, pp. 227–260, ISBN 978-3110434354
Schneider, Max [in German] (1907). "Verzeichnis der bis zum Jahre 1851 gedruckten (und der geschrieben im Handel gewesenen) Werke von Johann Sebastian Bach". Bach-Jahrbuch 1906. Bach-Jahrbuch (in German). Breitkopf & Härtel. pp. 84–113.
Talbot, Michael (2011). "Bach, Johann Sebastian". The Vivaldi Compendium. Boydell Press. pp. 28–29. ISBN 978-1843836704.
Talle, Andrew (2008). "A Print of Clavierübung I from J.S. Bach's Personal Library". In Stauffer, George; Butler, Gregory (eds.). About Bach. University of Illinois Press. pp. 157–168. ISBN 978-0-252-03344-5.
Walther, Johann Gottfried (1732). "Bach (Joh. Sebastian)". Musicalisches Lexicon (in German). Leipzig: W. Deer. p. 64. Musicalisches Lexicon oder Musicalische Bibliothec [scores]
Wolff, Christoph (2002). "At the Blasius Church in Mühlhausen". Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician. Norton. pp. 102–115. ISBN 9780199248841.
Wollny, Peter (1996). "Zur Überlieferung der Instrumentalwerke Johann Sebastian Bachs: Der Quellenbesitz Carl Philipp Emanuel Bachs" [On the transmission of instrumental compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach: the sources owned by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach]. In Schulze, Hans-Joachim; Wolff, Christoph (eds.). Bach-Jahrbuch 1996 [Bach Yearbook 1996]. Bach-Jahrbuch (in German). Vol. 82. Neue Bachgesellschaft. Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt. pp. 7–21. doi:10.13141/bjb.v1996. ISBN 3-374-01630-8. ISSN 0084-7682 – via Qucosa.