Cantata Odyssey: Print, On-Line Sources From Bach's Musical World

Cantata Odyssey: Print, On-Line Sources From Bach's Musical World

William L. Hoffman wrote (September 4, 2022):
Various major ventures involving Bach print and on-line studies and recordings in recent years have stirred renewed interest in the genre of the cantata and its place in Bach's Musical World. Many of these pursuits have focused on the variety of cantatas that Bach composed and also can be found in a range of mini cycles unequalled by his contemporaries who produced a great number of complete annual cycles of church-year cantatas — quantity lacking diversity among these cantatas as musical sermons. Fruitful initiatives can be found in a range of resources. One is the publication of monographs on the Bach sacred cantatas which classifies them as part of the five cycles of Kirchenstücke (church pieces) involving three church-year cycles [Bach rarely called them "cantatas," preferring such terms as "concerto," "motet," "Hauptmusic" (principle music), or "Stück (piece)]. Bach also composed cantata-style vocal works such as secular vocal serenades and transcriptions from his other works. His 226+ cantatas with their quality and diversity can include distinct movements from Italian opera involving the ingredients of movements involving chorus, aria, arioso, plain recitative, and accompanied recitative, plus the German chorale trope, and plain chorale, as well as the instrumental sinfonia. This cantata influence also involved the German oratorio (larger cantata) as well as two cantata-style movements found in Latin church music (chorus, aria) and motet (chorus, chorale). The cantata vocal texts include biblical quotations, original madrigalian poetry, and hymn stanzas (either original plain text or paraphrased poetry). The resulting cantata format is described by performance forces (scoring) as predominately "chorus cantata" (Cycle 1) "chorale cantata" or "pure-hymn chorale cantata" (Cycle 2), and two-part chorus cantatas and "solo" or "dialogue cantata" (Cycle 3). Beyond the established sacred cantata forms as liturgy in the Sunday and feast-day services are two other categories of music of joy (town council and wedding) and sorrow (funeral, memorial service), which constitutes a fourth church piece-miscellaneous (profane) cycle of special, occasional music (BCW), and a fifth, Christological (Messiah) cycle of oratorios (great cantatas), Latin church music, and motets).

Bach Cantata Mini-Cycles

In addition, Bach successively shaped many sacred cantata mini-cycles, notably in his third annual cycle with works using texts of Christiane Mariane von Ziegler (Easter season 1725: BWV 103, 108, 87, 128, 183, 74, 68, 175, 176); BCW; Christoph Birkmann (1726-27: BWV 49, 52, 55, 56, 58, 82, 98, 169; BCW); Georg Christian Lehms (1725-26: BWV 13, 16, 32, 35, 57, 110, 151, 170, 1135-Anh. 209; BCW); Rudolstadt/Meinengen (?Christoph Helms) (1726: BWV 17, 39, 43, 45, 88, 102, 187; BCW); and Johann Ludwig Bach (substitute 1726, BCW, JLB 1-19); as well as seven Picander (BWV 19, 157, 84, 30, 249, 145, 36); seven possibly Christian Weiss (BWV 6, 42, 85, 79, 76a, 75a, 1135=Anh. 199); three Salomo Franck (BWV 168, 164, 72); Erdmann Neumeister, BWV 24, Johann Friedrich Helbig, BWV 47. various (BWV 27). and anonymous (BWV 22, 51). The vast majority of the Franck texts were set in Weimar (BCW) while some (BWV 70, 80, 147, 186) were adapted in Leipzig. The prolific Neumeister texts associated with Bach (BCW) were set mostly in Weimar while several were misattributed to Bach instead of Telemann (BWV 142=Anh. II 23, 160=TVWV 1:877, 218=TVWV 1:634, 219=TVWV 1:1328, BWV Anh. 1=TVWV 1:617, BWV Anh. 156=TVWV 1:732). Three other sacred mini-cycles involve seven dialogue settings of the Soul (soprano) and Jesus (Vox Christi, bass) (BWV 32, 49, 57-59, 60, 152), settings of psalms (Cantatas 85 (Ps. 23), 112 (Ps. 23), 1083 (Ps. 51), 131 (Ps.130), and 80 (Ps. 46), as well as motets BWV 230 (Ps. 117), and 225 (Ps. 149, 150). and obbligato instruments (violoncello piccolo in Cantatas BWV 68, 85, 41, 175, 183, 115, 49). In the mid-1730s, Bach presented one church cycle of cantatas by Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel, "Saiten-Spiel des Herzens" (String Music of the Heart), 1734-35 (BCW), verified in the new BWV3 catalogue (651) from Bach's Music Library. Bach may also have performed another Stölzel cycle, "Namen-Buch Christi und der Christen" (Namebook of Christ and Christians), later but its is still being considered (BCW: 5f).

Secular Cantatas, Drammi per Musica

A small, significant category, the so-called "secular" (profane) occasional music, particularly the drammi per musica, involve the 50 occasional works in BWV classification (BWV 30.1(a), BWV 36.2(a), BWV 36.3(b), BWV 36.1(c), BWV 66.1(a), BWV 234.1(a), BWV 173.1(a), BWV 184.1(a), BWV 193.1(a), BWV 194/1(a), BWV 198, BWV 201, BWV 202, BWV 203, BWV 204, BWV 205.1, BWV 205.2, BWV 206.1, BWV 206.2, BWV 207.1, BWV 207.2, BWV 208.1, BWV 208.2(a), BWV 208.3(a), BWV 209, BWV 210.1, BWV 210.2(a), BWV 211, BWV 212, BWV 213, BWV 214, BWV 215, BWV 216.1, BWV 216.2(a), BWV 249.1(a), BWV 249.2(b), BWV 1151=Anh. 6, BWV 1153=Anh. 7, BWV 1152=Ang. 8), BWV 1156=Anh. 9, BWV 1160=Anh. 10, BWV 1157=Anh. 11, BWV 1158=Anh. 12, BWV 1161=Anh. 13, BWV 1162=Anh. 18, BWV Anh. 19, BWV 1155=Anh 20, BWV Anh. 195, BWV 1163=Anh. 196, BWV 1159. One distinct min-cycle is the Leipzig University occasional vocal music commissions of 20 Bach works involving mostly dramatic cantatas (usually drammi per musica) for dignitaries associated with the Saxon Court and a sacred funeral motet (BWV 226) and ode (BWV 198) (Universität Leipzig). Bach composed both sacred and secular funeral and wedding cantatas. He had adapted at least four Köthen dialogue serenades as cantatas for Leipzig Easter and Pentecost Monday and Tuesday festivals in 1724. Another separate category of cantata-like vocal works are those 49 parodied with new-text overlay from pre-exiting sacred and secular vocal works (see BCW). One distinct group are the Missae: Kyrie-Gloria, BWV 233-236, drawn from various sacrand secular cantatas through contrafaction from German to Latin and set as cantatas with choruses and arias (see BCW: <<Possible Sources, “Gloria,” Two "Domine Deus,” "Kyrie">>.

Topical, Contextual Cantata Studies

In the first two decades of this century, Bach print and on-line scholarship has produced a wealth of varied topical and contextual studies. The most significant is the Bach Werke Verzeichnis works catalogue, BWV 3 3rd edition just published. It sets a new standard for Bach scholarship, going far beyond the first two editions (1950, 1990), which had a straight-forward cataloguing of BWV numbers 1-1126 with extant musical incipits and a standardized format of scoring by movements, text sources, work history, other sources, and scholarly editions (BG, NBA). It "organizes the accompanying data (overviews of works and sources, collections of works, incerta and incorrect attributions, various registers) in a new, user-friendly system," says the publisher, Breitkopf und Härtel ¹ It retains the original BWV numbering, BWV 1-1128, and adds variant versions with decimal/number extension (see Wikipedia as well as the paragraph above, "Secular Cantatas, Drammi per Musica." This new edition also adds Bach theoretical settings, BWV 1129-34, and new listings of accepted works where usually only the text or documented reference (not the music) survives, drawn mostly from the BWV Anhang (Appendix) and categorized as sacred cantatas, BWV 1135-47; secular cantatas, BWV 1148-63; miscellaneous sacred works, BWV 1164-66; an organ concerto from a lost Telemann work, BWV 1167; and early organ chorale preludes recently accepted into the BWV canon, 1167-76; and the added March from BWV 207/1, BWV 1177. The new Ahänge section (629-728) has "Supplement 1, collections (Bach music prints, Orgel-Büchlein index 1-182, and family-member Büchlein (Friedemann, Anna Magdalena, Christian). Supplement 2, previous BWV Anh. 1-213, have been reordered into the new Ahänge section (675-728), labeled "Incerta." A new section, Bibliography (729-780), features historical printed texts from Bach and others (published 1713-56), early 19th century prints by musical category, historical literature, music catalogues, secondary literature, and 20th century publications of individual works. Finally, is the Register (Index, 781-835) cataloguing the chorale melodies and texts, musical incipit catalogue, persons, and Bach copyists. These final three sections can be accessed on-line at Issuu: Breitkopf: 70-91. Also of significance is the first section of BWV3, introductory overview (VII-XXX) in German and English by the three editors, Christine Blanken, Christoph Wolff, and Peter Wollny (Issuu: Breitkopf: 7-30). Next is an abbreviation section (XXXI-XLIV), and a systematic works overview of vocal works by usage (3-13) with instrumental and theoretical works in the general thematic catalogue (13-21). More about the materials in BWV 3 to be covered in the Bach Mailing List Discussion forthcoming.

Cantata-Type Vocal Music Studies

Almost half of Bach's surviving compositional creations are found in the BWV as sacred cantatas or related vocal music, BWV 1-524. Recently, additional versions of some of these works have been determined and catalogued in BWV 3, based upon such factors as containing new music, significant text alterations, changed obbligato instruments, and transcriptions. Bach organ works, the next largest work group, also achieved alternate versions as he utilized borrowed materials, structural changes, and other adaptive techniques (Wikipedia), with alpha extensions, BWV 525-771 (Wikipedia]). Various scholarly editions, mostly in German, have been published recently: from the 2015-17 three volumes of sacred cantatas in Konrad Klek's Dein ist allein die Ehre (Thine Alone Are the Glory)² and the Laaber-Verlag Bach-Handbuch of Bachs Kantaten: Das Handbuch (2012)³ in two volumes of topical essays by noted Bach German scholars, to Hans-Joachim Schulze 2006 Die Bach-Kantaten: Einfuhrungen Zu Samtlichen Kantaten Johann Sebastian Bachs (The Bach Cantatas: Introductions to Bach's 226 extant sacred and secular cantatas, oratorios Amazon.de), and the final two volumes of Martin Petzoldt's Bach-Kommentar.⁴

Special Cantata-Type Studies

Beyond the various recent scholarly studies of the cantatas and related works are music cycles and special studies, such as Bach's "Messiah" cycle from Christoph Wolf (2020, <<Wolff: Bach Oratorios as "A Grand Liturgical Messiah Cycle:" Passions>> (BCW) and Michael Maul's Bachfest 2021 "Messiah" Cycle (Bachfest Leipzig), also known at Bach's Christological Cycle (see BCW), as well as Maul 2022 "Bach — We are Family" (Bachfest Leipzig: "Talk with the Artistic Director of the Bachfest Prof. Dr. Michael Maul") and the Bachfest 2020 complete chorale cantata cycle (Netherlands Bach Society). Turning to published monographs, there are two recent studies of Bach's sacred music. The late Craig Smith, founder and guiding light of Emmanuel Music, presented cantatas every Sunday and compiled program notes, edited by Pamela Dellal, who did the text translation of all Bach's vocal music (Emmanuel Music), and edited Smith's Bringing Bach's Music to Life: Essays on Bach's Cantatas (Hillsdale NY: Pendragon Press, 2019). The book includes a brief history of Smith and Emmanuel Music, a Foreword by John Harbison describing Smith's plan for a book of program notes on all the cantatas but only 70 done, and Dellal's Editor's Note covering the contents of 24 well-known cantatas (Pendragon Press: select TABLE OF CONTENTS). It concludes with a helpful Glossary (264-71) and Index (272-76).

The dramatic and theological elements in Bach's cantatas are explored in Mark Ringer's Bach's Operas of the Soul: A Listener's Guide to the Sacred Cantatas (Lanham MD: Amadeus Press, 2021; Amazon.com, see Contents (np, arranged from Advent to Trinity +27), and Introduction: Bach's Sacred Cantatas (1-6), and Cantata Index (215-20), of 175 cantatas, omitting apocryphal, early, undesignated, and BWV 189-200 cantatas. A most-welcome edition to Bach studies is Andreas Loewe's Johann Sebastian Bach's St. John Passion (BWV 245): A Theological Commentary, With a New Study Translation by Katherine Firth and a Foreword by N.T. Wright (Leiden Net.: Brill, 2014; Brill. While there are numerous monographs on the cantatas (see "3. Cantata Monographs," BCW), there are few that cover Bach's major vocal works. Here is a thoughtful study of the text and theological commentary of the St. John Passion, a worthy companion to Alfred Dürr's Johann Sebastian Bach's St John Passion: Genesis, Transmission, and Meaning, trans. Alfred Clayton (York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2000; Amazon.com). More about the cantata and other monographs to be covered in the Bach Mailing List Discussion forthcoming.

Specialty Cantata Editions

Also in the past decade are specialty cantata and related monograph editions involving publications, recordings, and translations. There are two source publications. The Neue Bach Ausgabe revised edition soon will publish Peter Wollny's study of Pre-Weimar Cantatas BWV 21.1, 106, 131, 150, followed by Christoph Wolff's study on the final 1949 version of the St. John Passion, BWV 245.5 (Bärenriter. Another major Bach works publication is Carus Verlag: Johann Sebastian Bach: The Sacred Vocal Music. Complete Edition in 23 volumes (Leinfelden-Echterdingen: Carus Verlag), Carus-Verlag. Just completed is the authoritative cantata Urtext of the Stuttgart Bach Edition, including alternate versions, featuring editions of noted Bach experts and interpreters such as Andreas Glöckner, Klaus Hofmann, Ulrich Leisinger, Masaaki Suzuki, Uwe Wolf and Peter Wollny, notably the final cantata vol. 16, BWV 190-200 (Issuu). The planned publication date for BWV 197.1 is 15. 09. 2022 for the Christmas cantata score (Carus-Verlag), reconstruction Pieter Dirksen, who also realized Cantata 188 for Carus in 2017.

As with the plethora of cantata publications, there are a wide range of cantata recordings, including complete editions (see BCW). Currently there are three on-going projects: 1. Bach Stiftung, J. S. Bach Foundation, vocal works (Zurich: Gallus Media; begun 2006, on going), Bach Stiftung St. Gallen; Rudolf Lutz conducts monthly concerts in this 25-year project. 2. All of Bach, Netherlands Bach Society (Utrecht: Netherlands Bach Society; begun 2014, on-going), Netherlands Bach Society: All of Bach:, Netherlands Bach Society: All of Bach; available on-line, various conductors perform in various venues. 3. Oxford Bach Soloists, vocal works (Oxford: Oxford Bach Soloists, begun 2015, over 12 years), Oxford Bach Soloists. In addition, there are a plethora of translation of the Bach cantatas (BCW, NB some sources no longer extant), as well as Bach Cantatas Website translator Francis Browne, who added "Note on the Text" in various instances (BCW: Interlinear + Note). The newest edition to on-line cantata translations is BachCantataTexts

New English translations of the texts of J.S. Bach's vocal music are based on the historical language and theology of Bach's time. Translators: Michael Marissen & Daniel R. Melamed (see About the Translations, BachCantata Texts). A related but limited publication activity is the study of biblical quotations and illusions in the cantatas with three sources: 1. Ulrich Meyer, Biblical quotation and allusion in the cantata libretti of Johann Sebastian Bach (Lanham MD: Scarecrow Press, 1997; Google Books). 2. Melvin Unger, Handbook Bach's Sacred Cantata Texts: An Interlinear Translation with Reference Guide to Biblical Quotations and Allusions (Lanham MD: Scarecrow Press, 1996; Amazon.com). 3. Martin Petzoldt, Bach-Kommentar, vol. 1. omnes tempore cantatas (Trinity Sundays), 2004; vol. 2. de tempore cantatas (Advent to Trinityest), 2007; 3. (Kassel: Bärenreiter, Stuttgart: Internationale Bachakademie; Bach Mailing List).

On-Line Cantata Articles

Various on-line sources provide special programming such as the Bach Cantatas Website discussions (see BCW) as well as the following: Bach Network Discussing Bach (Bach Network), the American Bach Society Tiny Bach Concerts (American Bach Society) and publications (American Bach Society), the three on-going cantata projects cited in the previous paragraph presenting periodic repertory concerts (Bach Stiftung, All of Bach, Oxford Bach Soloists), Bach Journal of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute (American Bach Society) and the Houston Bach Society "Notes on Bach" book reviews (Bach Socierty Houston). Besides the extensive discussions, text translations, discographies, and various topics (BCW), the Bach Cantatas Website (BCW) provides a range of sources on Books about Bach and his Music (BCW). Besides the cantata mini-cycle and other sources, the BCW covers the related vocal music of the oratorios as a sacred trilogy, the Latin Church music as Lutheran liturgy, and the motets as primarily music of sorrow.

ENDNOTES

¹ BWV3 publisher, Breitkopf; contents, Issuu.
² Konrad Klek, Dein ist allein die Ehre, 3 vols.: 1. Cycle 2, chorale cantatas; 2. first Leipzig cycle 1723f; and 3. cantatas from Easter 1725 (Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2015-17), Amazon.com.
³ Bach's Kantaten: Das Handbuch, eds. Reinmar Emans, Sven Hiemke; 2 vols.: 1. early, Weimar, Leipzig Cycles 1-2; 2. 3rd cycle beginning Easter 1725; late chorale, town council, occasional sacred cantatas; secular cantatas (Lilenthal: Laaber, 2012), Laaber Verlag.
⁴ Martin Petzoldt, Bach-Kommentar: Theologisch-musikalische Kommentierung der geistlichen Vokalwerke Johann Sebastian Bachs (Theological-Musical Commentary on the Sacred Vocal Works of Johann Sebastian Bach): Vol. 3 (2018), Fest- und Kasualkantaten, Passionen (Festive and Occasional Cantatas, Passions), and Vol. 4 (2019), Latin Church Music (Masses, Magnificat), Motets (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2018, 2019).

—————
To Come: Cantata Odyssey: Bach Werke Verzeichnis (Works Catalogue) New 3rd edition (Breitkopf).

Cantata Odyssey: Bach Werke Verzeichnis (Works Catalogue) New 3rd edition

William L. Hoffman wrote (September 17, 2022):
The BaWorks Catalogue (Bach Werke Verzeichnis) new 3rd edition (BWV³, Breitkopf), just published by Breitkopf und Härtel, fully reveals Bach's creative endeavors in a vast panorama of definitive materials revealed in the past half-century since the first edition (BWV¹), Wolfgang Schmieder's 1950 Thematisch-systematisches Verzeichnis der musikalischen Werke von Johann Sebastian Bach: Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis. It was part of the standard for composers works catalogues such as Alfred Wotquenne’s Thematisches Verzeichnis der Werke von Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach of 1905 (see CPE Bach.org) which chronicled the works by genre instead of the Opus numerical system published chronologically, beginning in the High Baroque period.

Bach's musical publications began with his Clavier-Übung (CU, Keyboard Practice) of six partitas, BWV 825-30 (Wikipedia), published in 1731 as his Opus 1 and followed by CU II-IV (Wikipedia). Four more publications of learned works followed in the late 1740s.¹ Previously, c.1744/45, Bach reviewed earlier works appropriate for publication. In 1744, "Bach asked student and son-in-law Altnikol to prepare fair copies of several other major works that he had recently reviewed," says Christoph Wolff:² Well-Tempered Clavier, Missae: Kyrie-Gloria, BWV 233-236; and parts of the "Great Eighteen" chorales, BWV 651-668 Bach Digital), which he was still revising. In the mid-1740s, Bach also carefully reassessed his entire, incomplete cycle of chorale cantatas as well as the Six Harpsichord-Violin Sonatas, BWV 1014-19. Bach also left unfinished his early Orgel-Buchlein (OB) project (Bach Digital) and the solo Harpsichord Concerto collection, BWV 1052-59 (Bach Digital).

Bach Werke Verzeichnis: Background

Bach Bach Werke Verzeichnis (BWV) editor Wolfgang Schmieder (Wikipedia) began his cataloguing in 1937 and eventually developed a detailed accounting of Bach's vocal and instrumental genres by occasion or location (Issuu: 28-29). The year 1950, the bicentenary of Bach's death, when the works catalogue BWV¹ was first published, also was a seminal date in Bach scholarship. The Neue Bach Ausgabe (NBA) edition began considering publication while Bach scholars began dating vocal music composition and determining authentic and apocryphal works. Schmieder "grouped the compositions by genre, largely following the 19th-century Bach Gesellschaft (BGA) edition for the collation," says Wikipedia (see Wikipedia: "History"). The BG edition had begun in 1851 with the publication of the sacred cantatas, then in 1950 in the BWV with an "S" for Schmieder or eventually the "BWV" designation. The most extant Bach works in manuscript were first published, e.g.. individual chorale cantatas found in the Thomas School archives since 1750 when widow Anna Magdalena had inherited them and donated them in order to continue living in the cantor's family quarters until the Bach estate was dispersed at the end of 1750 and a new Bach family residence secured. The first BG volume contained chorale cantatas designated Nos. 1 to 10 with new volumes published annually (see IMSLP) through 1899 involving alternate versions and questionable works (Anhang supplement, appendix). The second volume followed in 1852, Cantatas Nos. 11-20, from manuscripts inherited by oldest sons Friedemann and Emanuel. In 1853 the first BGA volume of keyboard works was published with the 15 inventions and 15 sinfonias, BWV 1772-801, and print editions of the Clavier-Übung I-IV. Volume 4 of the BGA in 1853 featured the first major work, the St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, in the manuscript inherited by Emanuel. After 1950, the BWV subsequently was published in two editions. In 1990 Schmieder published the second edition, known as BWV², incorporating new findings such as manuscript copies, alternate versions, and reconstructions (Handschriften), in addition to a new section in each work listing, Literatur (articles, critical commentaries). An innovative feature in the BWV is the Anhang (BWV Anh. appendices, Wikipedia.) of questionable works which the new BWV editors, Alfred Dürr and Yoshitake Kobayashi, placed in one of three categories in the 1998 paperback condensed version of the second edition, known as BWV^2a: 1. Fragments, lost works; 2. Works of doubtful authenticity; 3. Works of other composers, falsely attributed to Bach. New additions (Nachträge) to BWV²/BWV^2a involve BWV 1081-1126 and BWV Anh. 190-213. The BWV^2a abbreviated version eliminated the Literatur category which had become unmanageable, referring instead to the listings in the two previous editions.

BWV Third Edition New Features: Anhänge

The new extended third edition, BWV³, edited by Christine Blanken, Christoph Wolff, and Peter Wollny, published by the Bach-Archiv Leipzig, contains several new features (Wikipedia). The old Anhang (BWV Anh.) had become unworkable, "calling for a new approach." BWV App. A-D ³ is found in the new Anhänge section (629ff) with the following categories: <<Appendix A, "J.S. Bach" - Incerta, Doubtful works on stylistic grounds but assigned to J. S. Bach in the 18th century; Appendix B, "Bach" - Incerta, Doubtful works on stylistic grounds that were previously included in BWV^1,2,2a in NBA, transmitted in the 18th century mainly anonymously and variously as by Bach; Appendix C, "Fehlzuschreibungen und Werke ohne Zuschreiben" (Falsely attributed and works without attribution), Unattributed works in copies or arrangements by J. S. Bach or his family (On stylistic grounds unlikely to be by Bach); D. Formerly BWV-listed works/versions NOT by J. S. Bach; since demonstrated to be by other composers or variants/arrangements not from Bach.>> The BWV 3rd edition does not list an Appendix D but following Appendix C provides a new concordance, Neuzuweisungen der Werke aus Anhang BWV^1,2 (722ff) which begins with the apocryphal Bach works BWV 15, 53, 141, 142, 160, 189, 217-224, also listed in Appendix C (703ff) except for BWV 15 and 217 also found in Supplement 2, Bachs Notenbibliothek (BNB, Bach's musical library; Issuu: 76-77, p. 703). With its bilingual introductory materials, variant works versions and added BWV numbers 1127-1177 in the thematic catalogue (pp. 23-628), the BWV 3rd edition provides an extensive coverage of Bach's works and activities.

Topical, Contextual Cantata Studies

The following is a summary of the NBA 3 third edition (source, BCW): <<In the first two decades of this century, Bach print and on-line scholarship has produced a wealth of varied topical and contextual studies. The most significant is the Bach Werke Verzeichnis works catalogue, BWV 3rd edition just published. It sets a new standard for Bach scholarship, going far beyond the first two editions (1950, 1990), which had a straight-forward cataloguing of BWV numbers 1-1126 with extant musical incipits and a standardized format of scoring by movements, text sources, work history, other sources, and scholarly editions (BG, NBA). It "organizes the accompanying data (overviews of works and sources, collections of works, incerta and incorrect attributions, various registers) in a new, user-friendly system" (see Breitkopf), says the publisher, Breitkopf und Härtel. It retains the original BWV numbering, BWV 1-1128, and adds variant versions with decimal/number extension (see Wikipedia as well as the paragraph above, "Secular Cantatas, Drammi per Musica." The formatting of the Works Catalogue is altered to accommodate the additions and changes. The core, accepted sacred and secular cantatas run BWV 1 to 216, followed by an outline of the Anhänge section cantata listings, BWV 217-224. This new edition also adds Bach theoretical settings, BWV 1129-34, and new listings of accepted works where usually only the text or documented reference (not the music) survives, drawn mostly from the BWV Anhang (Appendix) and categorized as sacred cantatas, BWV 1135-47; secular cantatas, BWV 1148-63; miscellaneous sacred works, BWV 1164-66; an organ concerto from a lost Telemann work, BWV 1167; and early organ chorale preludes recently accepted into the BWV canon, 1167-76; and the added March from BWV 207/1, BWV 1177. The new Ahänge section (629-728) has "Supplement 1, collections (Bach music prints, Orgel-Büchlein index 1-182, and family-member Büchlein (Friedemann, Anna Magdalena, Christian). Supplement 2, previous BWV Anh. 1-213, have been reordered into the new Ahänge section (675-728), labeled "Incerta." A new section, Bibliography (729-780), features historical printed texts from Bach and others (published 1713-56), early 19th century prints by musical category, historical literature, music catalogues, secondary literature, and 20th century publications of individual works. Finally, is the Register (Index, 781-835) cataloguing the chorale melodies and texts, musical incipit catalogue, persons, and Bach copyists. These final three sections can be accessed on-line at Issuu: 70-91. Also of significance is the first section of BWV3, introductory overview (VII-XXX) in German and English by the three editors, Christine Blanken, Christoph Wolff, and Peter Wollny (Issuu: 7-30). Next is an abbreviation section (XXXI-XLIV), and a systematic works overview of vocal works by usage (3-13) with instrumental and theoretical works in the general thematic catalogue (13-21).>>

BWV 3rd ed. Replaces Bach Compendium

The BWV third edition with its catalogue genre format and musical incipits replaces the unfinished 1985-89 Bach Compendium (BC, BCW) in four volumes of vocal works listed chronologically (work groups A to H, no I), retaining its significant, added designations of different versions and known works surviving without music, as well as designating instrumental organ works, both the Free Organ Works (work group J) and the Chorale-Based Organ Works (work group K) still being considered.⁴ The BC under its Miscellaneous category (Volume VII) planned the following work groups: 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. The BWV 3rd edition covers the Q didactic works (presumably this could include the four polyphonic publications (see FN 1, Publication of polyphonic works) and exercises (this could cover the Clavier-Übung and the theoretical works, BWV 1129-34 (623f). R - Sketches and drafts are found in the Bach Dokumente (Bärenriter) undesignated 2011 supplement, BA 5291-01, Generalbaß- und Satzlehre, Skizzen, Entwürfe (Figured bass and composition theory, sketches, drafts), editors Peter Wollny and Michael Maul. S - Original collections, is listed in BWV³ (631ff) as Anhänge, Supplement 1, Originalsammlungen (original collections) of the print collections, Clavier-Übung II and III, Musical Offering, BWV 1079; and Art of Fugue, BWV 1080, as well as manuscript collections of the Orgel-Buchlein, Bach Family Büchlein (Friedemann, Anna Magdalena, Christian), and the Alt-Bachusches Archiv in Supplement 2 (641-45): Bachs Notenbibliothek (641ff). The doubtful and spurious works from work groups T to W are covered in the Anhänge, Appendix A to C outlined above, "BWV Third Edition New Features." The BC work groups X and Y, Copies (and essentially straightforward arrangements of vocal and instrumental works by other composers), arranged by NBA and BC genre, most notably listings of the 18 Johann Ludwig Bach cantatas that Bach copied and performed in 1725 during his third annual cantata cycle, and the Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel cycle Bach presented in 1735-36 (BCW: Texts: Stölzel; BCW: LCY 1735, BCW: LCY 1736), as well works of other composers⁵ in cantatas, motets, Latin church music, Passions, worldly cantatas; organ works, clavier works, chamber music, orchestral works; and proof uncertain (669-74) with the sacred works performed in churches and secular works usually with the Leipzig Collegium musicum (see BCW: Other Composers, BCW: Other: Work Perform, BCW: Other Work Library)).

The Bach Compendium numbers are listed in the BWV 3rd edition, for example, the 1725 Marian feast Cantata 1, "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern" (25f, How beautifully shines the morning star), retains the designation BC A (work group, liturgical cantatas) 173. The Bach Compendium catalogue numbers (BCW) begin with the church-year services and feast days from Advent to Trinity 27 plus the special feast days of Marian services (Purification, Annunciation, Visitation), Saint's days (John the Baptist and Michael), and the Reformation. This is the same order as the Neue Bach Ausgabe format of musical texts and critical commentaries (Bärenriter). The Bach Compendium Work Group B (BCW), offers Sacred Works for Special Occasions: Town Council Election, Wedding Mass, Funeral-Memorial Service, Penitential Psalms, Augsburg Confession, Miscellaneous. The Bach Compendium Work Group G, offers Secular Cantatas for Court, Nobility and Bourgeoisie (University-related, faculty, Thomas School, weddings, various; see BCW.

ENDNOTES

¹ Polyphonic publications: Canonic Variations on "Vom Himmel hoch," BWV 769, 1747 (Bach Digital); The Musical Offering, BWV 1070, 1747 (Bach Digital) ; Six Schubler Chorales, BWV 645-50, 1748 (Bach Digital); Art of Fugue, BWV 1080, 1751 (Bach Digital)
² Christoph Wolff, Epilogue, "'Praxis cum theoria', Maxim of the LearneMusician," in Bach's Musical Universe: The Composer and His Work (New York: W. W. Norton, 2020: 340), Amazon.com.
³ BWV 3rd edition, new Anhänge section (629ff), Appendix A-D, see Bach 333, The New Complete Edition, BWV/Index Book (Berlin, Deutsche Grammophon, 2017, pb, no page designation), Bach 333.
⁴ Chorale-Based Organ Works, BCW; Complete List of Bach's Organ Works (free and chorale, BWV with citations from NBA, BGA, BC, Peter Williams), BCW; organ chorale settings added in BWV³ —> p.486 as BWV 1168-76: BWV 1167 (Anh. 213) – Organ concerto in F major after a lost concerto by Georg Philipp Telemann (lost); BWV 1168 (Anh. 200, OB) – O Traurigkeit, o Herzeleid (fragment); BWV 1169 (Anh. 55) – Herr Christ, der einig Gotts Sohn; BWV 1170 (Anh. 55) – Herr Christ, der einig Gotts Sohn; BWV 1171 – Auf meinen lieben Gott (Emans 30)[109]; BWV 1172 – Herr Christ, der einig Gotts Sohn (Emans 85); BWV 1173 – Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ (Emans 111); BWV 1174 – Komm, heiliger Geist, erfüll die Herzen (Emans 122); BWV 1175 – Es ist das Heil uns kommen her (deest); BWV 1176 – Herr Christ, der einig Gottes Sohn (Anh. 77, Choralpartita, Bärenreiter). The NBA Rev. Ed. will publish the following (source, Bärenriter): Organ Chorales I, editor Christine Blanken (BA 5939-01), NBArev. "Organ Chorales II" has no reference or editor listed (source: BCW: paragraph beginning "Some 12 preludes under consideration. . . .).
⁵ Bach & Other Composers Works: BCW; Bach Performed, BCW, in Bach's library, BCW)); works arranged by Bach, BCW.

__________

To Come: BWV 3rd edition, exploring Bach's Sources, Collections, Genres.

New Works Catalogue BWV 3rd edition, Exploring Bach's Sources, Genres.

William L. Hoffman wrote (October 2, 2022):
The Bach Tricentennial of 1985, three centuries following his birth, was a momentous time. Considerable sources in scholarly literature had yielded a wide range of musical and biographical information that challenged previous assumptions since 1950 when his first works catalogue, the Breitkopf & Härtel (B&H) Bach-WerkeVerzeichnis (BWV) of Wolfgang Schmieder, was initially published, listing his music by genre from vocal to instrumental music. This essential publication yielded our initial Bach Mailing List (BML) discussion of September 15, "Cantata Odyssey: Bach Werke Verzeichnis (Works Catalogue) New 3rd edition," BCW. Previous research had identified many questionable compositions now listed as Anhang or appendices, as well as other works which yielded new findings and stimulated recordings of "complete" collections while some works were not quite complete and many others survived only in source-critical references or, in the vocal works, were extant with texts only, the music presumably lost, except for occasional revisions. During the Bach Memorial Year of 1985, with "many new scholarly writings on Bach's works," says Schmieder,¹ he began his second works catalogue edition based on research conducted in the previous 35 years. Schmieder took five years to complete and published this second edition, retaining the original cataloguing while expanding the BWV and Anhang sections. It would take another 35 years to achieve a new third edition with various versions of individual Bach vocal works.

Meanwhile, another new works catalogue, the Bach Compendium,² was undertaken by Hans-Joachim Schulze and Christoph Wolff, with four volumes of vocal works published from 1985 to 1989. In these, the cataloguing identified significant variant versions of the music and designated lost works listed in the original BWV Anhang, The BC vocal works coding, A to H (BCW), was numbered on each occasion that the work version was composed chronologically, from earliest to latest in Bach's lifetime.³ When the BWV 2nd edition was published in 1990, Schmieder cautioned that some of the recent writings on Bach's work could not be considered (Ibid.), as well as some recent questionable works in the Anhang. <<An innovative feature in the BWV is the Anhang (BWV Anh. appendices, Wikipedia.) of questionable works which the new BWV editors, Alfred Dürr and Yoshitake Kobayashi, placed in one of three categories in the 1998 paperback condensed version of the second edition, known as BWV^2a: 1. Fragments, lost works; 2. Works of doubtful authenticity; 3. Works of other composers, falsely attributed to Bach. New additions (Nachträge) to BWV²/BWV^2a involve BWV 1081-1126 and BWV Anh. 190-213. The BWV^2a abbreviated version eliminated the Literatur category, which had become unmanageable, referring instead to the listings in the two previous editions>> (source, BCW: paragraph beginning "Bach Werke Verzeichnis: Background"), in the Bach Bibliography (Bach Bibliography), or else to a forthcoming B&H works catalogue internet portal.

BWV 3rd Edition: New Catalogue Listings, Genre Format, Chorales, Ahänge,

Between 1998 and 2013, new findings across a broad spectrum of Bach research necessitated a new Works Catalogue 3rd edition with extensive new features (see Breitkopf: Translate). The findings in the Bach Compendium were absorbed into the BWV canon, primarily from the previous BWV^1,2 Anhang sections, now catalogued as BWV 1135 to 1177, mostly with vocal texts only (no musical incipits) or extant early organ chorales. The new BWV listings are categorized as sacred cantatas, BWV 1135-47; secular cantatas, BWV 1148-63; miscellaneous sacred works, BWV 1164-66; an organ concerto from a lost Telemann work, BWV 1167; and early organ chorale preludes recently accepted into the BWV canon as 1167-76; and the added March from BWV 207/1 as BWV 1177 (Wikipedia).

Instead of appearing at the end of the Thematic Catalogue, the new listings are integrated into the catalogue genre format and summarized at the end of the catalogue in the Overview (623f; Issuu: Breitkopf: pp.68-69): Neue vergebene Nummern in BWV^2,2a,3 (New assigned numbers: pp.625-28). The works catalogue genre format follows the NBA and BC formats (see Inhalt, Issuu: Breitkopf: pp.6-7): Kantaten und verwandte Werke (Cantatas and related works); Motets, Masses/Magnificat; Passions/Oratorios; Four-Part Chorales (BWV 253-438), Lieder and Arias with Figured Bass (BWV 439-523), Quodlibet (BWV 524) (vocal chamber music); and instrumental Works for Organ, Clavier, Lute and Lute-Keyboard, Chamber Music and Orchestra Works, and studies (Canons; Musical Offering, The Art of the Fugue), followed by Notes on theoretical matters (BWV 1129-34). The initial Inhalt section is completed with the Special Abbreviation section (XXXI-XL) of instruments, sources, works catalogues, libraries, and Bach Family copyists.

Following is the catalogue proper beginning with the Systematic Overview (Ibid.: 1) of Bach's Church Cantatas and Related Works (3-13) by service or occasion, followed by Bachian instrumental and theoretical works in the various genre (13-21). Each of the vocal entries in the main section (Ibid. 25ff, BWV 1-249) has the following criteria: 1. Work title/occasion and Besetzung (scoring), 2. Music incipits (movements), 3. Vocal text/original text printing (individual, collections), 4. Work history (first performance), 5. manuscript Sources (score, parts set, provenance, 19th century print sources & editions, Bach Digital [Bach Digital]; Complete editions (BGA, NBA, NBA^rev; Literature (very limited; see Bach Bibliography, Bach Bibliography, or BWV^1,2. The editors provide brief commentary in each of the genres with attention to new findings which may alter critical perspectives.

Introductory Overview, Cantatas

Of special significance is the first section of BWV3, introductory Inhalt (contents) overview (On the Entries in the Main Section: VII-XXX), beginning with the Vorwort/Preface involving the catalogue genesis and personnel, in German and English by the three editors, Christine Blanken, Christoph Wolff, and Peter Wollny (Issuu: Breitkopf: VII-XXX). The main section in English (XX-XXX) offers "Notes on Layout, Contents, and Use." Under the first main category, are "Cantatas and Related Works" (XXIff), followed by Motets; Masses, Mass Movements, and Magnificat; Passions, Oratorios (XXIII), and Four-Part Chorales, Lieder and Arias with Figured Bass, Quodlibet (XXIV) and instrumental music and Bach's Musical Library (Supplement 2) (XXIV-XXIX), and the Special Abbreviations Section (XXXIf), including Works Catalogues (XXXIIIf), Library Sigala (after RISM, XXXV-XXXIX), and a Writer Concordance of Bach Family members and student copyists (XXXIX-XLIV). While cantatas and sacred songs are the largest categories of Bach's vocal work, the Motets, Latin Church Music, and Passions/Oratorios yield an array of related works known under the rubric of church pieces (Kirchenstücke) which include Bach adaptations and pasticcios. Under "Cantatas and Related Works" are the lost works catalogued "for the first time those that were verifiable or most likely composed by Bach" (Ibid.: XXII), particularly the lost secular cantatas documented through printed texts involving Leipzig University commissions for the visiting Saxon Court (Universtät Leipzig), notably BWV Anh. 9=1156, 193a=193.1, Anh. 11=1157, Anh. 12=1158, and Anh. 13=1161. "Not included are works that Bach could have written," such as found in Weimar text prints 1714-17 (Salomo Franck; 1714/1715: Evangelisches Andachts-Opffer (Ibid.: 736), 1715/1716: Evangelische Seelen-Lust) and the Picander cycle of 1728/1729 ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picander_cycle_of_1728–29, scan & Google paste), which is the putative Bach 4th cantata cycle, "though he seems to have set to music only some of the texts in the volume published in 1728," says BWV³ (Ibid: XXII, such as BWV 188, 197a(.1) (Carus-Verlag), BWV 171, 156, Anh. 190, 145, 174, 149, 1137=Anh. 2. "There are still large gaps in the identification of the librettists" in the Jahrgang I (1723/24) and II (1724/25), with respective dating.

Still being studied are occasional sacred cantatas, Für verschiedene Bestimmungen (For different purposes, Ibid: 9f), with new listings: Town Council (BWV 1137-41), Wedding Mass (144-46), Funeral Service (1136, 1142-3), Psalm Cantatas, Augsburg Confession Jubilee (BWV 1139.2), various (organ consecration, princely birthdays, day of honor [BWV 1148]), University-Church (BWV 191), Without Designation/For Any Time (BWV 21.1-2, 54, 199, 100, 117, 192, 97, 51); and Unknown Designation (BWV 200, 50, 248.1). Also categorized are the occasional secular cantatas by location or for other purposes such as Saxon nobility (Anhalt-Köthen [BWV 1150-53], Anhalt-Zerbst [BWV 1154]), Saxony-Poland [BWV 1157-59, 1161), Other nobility (BWV 1160), Leipzig University (BWV 1155), Thomas School (BWV 1162), Weddings (BWV 1163), and Various Occasions (BWV 1164). Repeat performances of sacred repertoire pieces are authenticated, notably where "the chorale cantatas were largely revised in the 1740s" (Ibid.: XXII). The Leipzig cantata scoring Bach adapted to new instruments such as transverse flute, violoncello piccolo (viola pomposa), viola 'amore, oboe da caccia, and bassono grosso), the editors note (Ibid.: XXIII). Dating of the Jahrgang cycles is clarified in BWV³ at the beginning of the thematic catalogue section, called Systematische Werkübersicht (Systematic work overview, Ibid: 1); Issuu: Breitkopf: 28-29), Kirchenkatantaten und verwandte Werke (Church cantatas and related works: without designation, chronology, affiliation) by church-year service: L Leipzig, without assignment (1723-50); L I Leipzig, cantata cycle I (1723/24); L II Leipzig, cantata cycle II (1724-25); L IIa chorale cantatas in L II; L IIb post-composed chorale cantatas (BWV 58, 14, 112, 129, 177, 9, 137, 140); L III cantata cycle III (1725-27); and L IV, Picander settings (1728-29 and later).

Early Vocal Works

The succeeding vocal works outlines after cantatas (XXIIIf) provide some special insights. In the brief Motets category (XXIII), the unaccompanied vocal genre of embellished fugues and imitation set to biblical texts was expanded by Bach and others with chorales and arias to include German early cantata-like pieces such as the 1708 Mühlhausen Town Council (Ratswahl) Election Cantata BWV 71 (BCW: "Cantata 71: Fugitive Notes"), described in its title page as "Motetto" (Bach Digital). It was the first of three successive Bach works commissioned by the council, the other two now lost but Bach authorship documented, now designated as 1709 Ratswahl Cantata BWV 1138=Anh. 192, formerly designated BWV 138.1, and 1710 Ratswahl Cantata BWV 1138, formerly designated BWV 1138.2 (Ibid.: 208; see Wikipedia). There has been some speculation concerning other early Bach cantata movements that may have survived: Cantata BWV 223, "Meine Seele soll Gott loben" "My soul shall God Praise), now relegated in the new catalogue to Appendix C as "Pseudo-Händel," HWV Anh. B 207 (Ibid.: 704), and the "Per Ogni Tempo" Cantata 21 with four old-style prelude and fugue choruses: No. 2. "Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis" (I had much affliction, YouTube), No. 6. "Was betrübst du dich, meine Seele" (Why are you distressed, my soul, YouTube), No. 9. "Sei nun wieder zufrieden, meine Seele" (Be satisfied again now, my soul, YouTube), and No. 11. "Das Lamm, das erwürget" (The lamb that was slain, YouTube). The pre-Weimar cantatas (BWV 21, 106, 131, 150) will be discussed in the new NBA Rev. Ed., Peter Wollny, BA 5940-01), still in preparation (Kassel: Bärenreiter), based on new scholarship. The early undesignated psalm Cantata 143, "Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele" (Praise the Lord, my soul, YaouTube) is now dated "presumably to about 1709-11 (to Mühltown council)," says BWV³ (Ibid.: 189), citing the presumed C Major earliest version, published in 2012 in the NBA Rev. Ed. by Andreas Glöckner (Bärenriter). Both "textually and musically the composition reveals several features typical of Bach's early cantatas," says Glöckner (Ibid.: XIX). One is the echo effect in the opening chorus similar to BWV 71/1 and 71/7 and BWV 106/4. The bass aria, No. 5, "Der Herr ist König" (The Lord is king), "is thematically related to the opening movement of" Cantata 71 and the alto aria, BWV 71/5, "Durch mächtige Kraft" (Through mighty strength) "from the same work," says Glöckner (Ibid.). These Bach town council election cantatas taken together constitute a significant group of occasional music of joy, along with weddings and other celebrations.

Bach Family Motets, Chorales; Bach Works

Bach, primarily through the Alt Bachisches Archiv in his Notenbibliothek (Musical Library (Ibid.: Supplement 2: 641ff), preserved and performed a variety of Bach Family motets, mostly for funerals or memorial services (see Vox Luminis). The most notable is Johann Christoph Bach (BCW: "Works," "Motets" ), composed about 1676, primarily for double chorus or five voices (SSATB), the exception being the double chorus "Ich lasse dich nicht,⁴ du segnet mich denn" (I will not let you go before you bless me), BWV 1165=Anh. 159, now attributed to Bach in BWV³ (Ibid.: 300f). Christoph's brother, Johann Michael Bach (BCW: "Works," "Motets") also composed chorale motets, mostly for five voices as funeral works. One of the most common chorale used in their funeral motets is "Ach wie nichtig, ach wie flüchtig ist das Leben" (Oh how vain, oh how fleeting is life), which Bach set as late Trinity Time chorale cantata No. 26 (BCW). Other chorale uses are "Gute Nacht, o Wesen" (Good night, existence), the fifth stanza of Michael Franck's "Jesu, meine Freude," and "Christus, der ist mein Leben" (Christ is my life). Sebastian uses this hymn (BCW) to open Cantata 95 for the 16th Sunday after Trinity 1723, as two four-part chorales, BWV 281, 282, and as two verse settings in his 1716 extended funeral cantata for Weimar Prince Johann Ernst, "Was ist, das wir Leben nennen" (What is this that we call life?), BWV 1142.⁵ Sebastian also set motet arrangements of the chorale "O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht," BWV 118 (BCW), in the Johann Christoph Schmidt Psalm 36 setting, "Auf Gott hoffe ich" (Auf Gott hoffe ich), found in Supplement 2, Bachs Notenbibliothek (Ibid.: 651), and his parody of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, "Tilge, Höchester, meine Sünden" (Blot, out, Highest, my sins), BWV 1083 Penitential Psalm 51 (BCW). His cantata movement "Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft," BWV 50, has no date or occasion. Bach also made other arrangements/pasticcios involving "Der Gerechte kömmt um" (The Righteous come in), BWV 1149, a contrafaction of the Johann Kuhnau motet "Tristis est anima mea," in the Graun Pasticcio Passion, BWV 1167 (BCW), and the pasticcio motet, Jauchzet dem Herrn alle Welt" (All the world rejoices in the Lord), BWV Anh. 160 (BWV³ Appendix C: 718; Wikipedia, music from Telemann motet, TWV 8:10; BWV 28/2a=231; and Telemann "Amen," TWV 1:1066). The Bach Family also presented motets at Passion-tide and Christmas-tide. Sebastian also presented the following motets: Telemann's "Der Herr ist König" (The Lord is King), TVW 8:6," Easter 1725; ?Johann Ludwig Bach's "Merk auf, mein Herz, und sich dorthin" (Pay attention, my heart, and go there), BWV Anh. 163, Christmas nd); and Sebastian Knüpfer's "Erforsche mich, Gott, und erfahre mein Herz" (Search me, O God, and know my heart, BCW). Two later Bach Family members contributed motets: son-in-law Johann Christoph Altnikol's "Nun danket alle Gott" (Now thank we all our God), BWV Anh. 164, which Sebastian performed c.1748, and Johann Ernst Bach's "Unser Wandel ist im Himmel," BWV Anh. 165. Bach also composed vocal motet-like movements with biblical texts in BWV 21/2, 64/1, 68/5, 71/3, 108/4, 144/1, and 179/1, as well as motet-chorales in BWV 2.1, 4/5, 14/1, 28/2, 38/1, 80/1, 121/1, and 182/7, says Daniel R. Melamed.⁶ Bach's Weimar-Leipzig Occasional Music of Sorrow (BCW) constitutes another major, still-unrecognized category of significant vocal works.

ENDNOTES

¹ Wolfgang Schmieder, "Preface to the second edition," Eng. trans. Roger Clement, Bach-WerkeVerzeichnis (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1990: XXXVI), Request scanned document at wlhoffman@....
² Bach Compendium: Analytisch-bibliographisches Reportorium der Werke Johann Sebastian, eds. Hans-Joachim Schulze, Christoph Wolff (Frankfurt: Edition Peters, 1985-89), Volume I, Sacred Cantatas, Part 1, A 1 to A 100, Advent to 3rd Sunday after Trinity; Volume II, Sacred Cantatas, Part 2, A 101 to A 194, 4th Sunday after Trinity to Trinity +27; festive Marian, Saints, Reformation cantatas; unspecified occasions, for any time (BCW). Volume III, Sacred Vocal Works, Part 3, B. Church Pieces for Special Occasions: Town Council Election, B-1 to B-10; Wedding Mass, B 11 to B 17; Funeral/Memorial, B-18 to B 23b; Penitential/Psalm, B-24 to B-26; Augsburg Confession Jubilee, B-27 to B-29; and Miscellaneous, B-30 to B 32 (BCW); C. Motets (BCW); D. Passions & Oratorios (BCW). Volume IV, Vocal Works, Part 4, E. Latin Church Music (BCW); F. Choräle & Sacred Songs (BCW); G. Secular Cantatas for Courts, Nobility, Bourgeoisie (BCW); H. Vocal Chamber Music, BCW.
³ Bach Compendium Vocal Works Coding: for example (BCW), sacred cantatas began with the church year, 1st Sunday in Advent: A 1, BWV 61, 1714; A 2, BWV 62, 1724; A 3, BWV 36(.4), 1726-30 (early version), A 4, BWV 36(.5) (later version).
⁴ "Ich lasse dich nicht": manuscript, Bach Digital; score, IMSLP; recording, YouTube; commentary, BCW.
⁵ Funeral Cantata, "Was ist, das wir Leben nennen," BWV 1142, Bach Digital.
⁶ Daniel R. Melamed, J. S. Bach and the German Motet (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1995: 113), Amazon.com.

—————

To Come: Works Catalogue BWV³: Vocal Genre, Collections, Resources

New Works Catalogue BWV3: Latin Church Music

William L. Hoffman wrote (October 12, 2022):
The Bach Work's Catalogue (Bach Werke Verzeichnis) shows that vocal music makes up the largest section and in the new third edition, BWV³, the cantatas constitute the largest number of additions to the catalogue of new listings added to the canon since the 1998 edition, BWV^2a, that is BWV 1135 to 1177, with numbers BWV 1134 to 1149 as sacred cantatas, numbers 1150 to 1164 as secular cantatas. All of these new canonical listings previously had been part of the BWV Anhang (Appendix) separate section of the catalogue since virtually no music survived, only the text or a source-critical reference to the work's one-time existence. In the new edition, these additions were integrated into the end of each genre format from vocal cantata to instrumental/theoretical records (BWV 1129-34), rather than at the end of the BWV numerical canon. Although rigid scholarly purists could continue to ignore these new listings, they as well as new catalogue materials involving Bach's works such as adaptations, collections, and citations reveal a more complete and enriched portrait of Bach the composer. In the previously Bach Mailing Listing (BML) discussion, New Works Catalogue BWV 3rd edition, Exploring Bach's Sources, Genres, BWV³ added "for the first time those that were verifiable or most likely composed by Bach" (Ibid.: XXII). Meanwhile, "Not included are works that Bach could have written," such as 1714-17 text prints of Weimer court poet Salomo Franck, which Bach could have set to music, and the Picander 1728/29 cycle where also only a small portion actually was set.

Beyond the vocal cantata and motet genres just discussed, which reveal new facets of Bach's compositional practice, the genres of Latin Church Music, Passions/Oratorios, and Sacred Songs also demonstrate Bach's intense interest and involvement in the rubric of church pieces (Kirchenstücke) and related occasional profane works which invariably he adapted through the process of parody (new-text underlay) into sacred liturgical works. Collectively, this music in the new works edition with new, related materials, shows Bach with a profound interest and commitment to performing a vast tapestry of his own Latin Church works, as well as other composers ranging from Palestrina and the Bach Family to contemporary members found at the Dresden court. This music also reveals Bach's life-long interest in the various genres as they are related to the cantata format, as well as the profound influence of Martin Luther and the German chorale, the stile antico and stile moderno musical styles, and the compositional techniques this Learned Musician imparted to his students.

Bach's Latin Church Music

The next vocal music category following motets in the Notes section is Latin Church Music (XXIII) involving liturgical Masses, Mass Movements, and Magnificat.¹ In Leipzig, the Latin liturgy (Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus) were presented at all main services, while on High Holy Days the Missae: Kyrie and Gloria and the Sanctus as well as the Magnificat "were to be played musically" as figural works in the Sunday vespers service, says the BWV³ Notes (Ibid.: XXIII). Bach presented his Latin compositions and those of other composers throughout most of his composing career. He used the three Sanctus settings (BWV 237, 238, and 232.1) and the Magnificat BWV 243, "composed during his first years in Leipzig as repertoire pieces," during appropriate services. Bach's Latin Church works are listed in the BWV, Messen, Magnificat (Ibid.: 302-320: BWV 232 individual movements: 232.1 Sanctus in D (1724), 232.2 Missa: Kyrie-Gloria (1733), 232.3 Credo-Intonation in G (after 1740); 232.4 Mass in B Minor (1748-49); (late 1740s); BWV 233 Missa: Kyrie-Gloria in F: 233.1=233a Kyrie "Christe, du Lamm Gottes" (Weimar time), 233.2, Missa: Kyrie-Gloria (late 1730s); BWV 234 Missa: Kyrie-Gloria in A (score c1738, 1748-49 parts rev.); BWV 235 Missa: Kyrie-Gloria in g (late 1730s); BWV 236 Missa: Kyrie-Gloria in G (c1738); BWV 1081 Credo Intonation in F for Giovanni Batista Bassini Mass (1747-48); BWV 237 Sanctus in C (1723); BWV 238 Sanctus in D (1723 or later, repeat 1736/37); BWV 241, Sanctus in E (arr. after Johann Caspar Kerll, 1723); BWV 242 Christe eleison in g (added to Mass in c of Francesco Durante (1727-31); BWV 243 Magnificat: 243.1 E-Flat version (1723-07-02 Visitation feast) with four Christmas interpolations (1723-25-12); BWV 243.2 new version in D (?1733-02-07 Visitation feast); BWV 1082, Suscepit Israel puerum suum (arr. after Antonio Caldara Magnificat in C (1740-42); BWV 1083 Tilge, Höchster, Meine Sünden (arr. of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's Stabat mater; c1746-47, ?Good Friday Vespers).

Earliest Bach Missa Setting, Others Missa Brevis

Bach's earliest Missa setting was the opening Kyrie in F, BWV 233.1,² dating as early as a Good Friday penitential service (1708-06-04) in Mülhausen (Bach Digital), which was unique in that Bach used the Kyrie Eleison setting with the added German Agnus Dei chorale trope, "Christe, du Lamm Gottes" as a five-part motet. Recent studies have found that Bach's Musical Library (Notenbibliothek) had a parts set (Weimar 1705/09) copy of Marco Giuseppe Peranda's full Kyrie/Christe/Kyrie in C (BWV³ Ibid.: 658). As Bach began to shape his vocal music in Mülhausen, he came under the influence of the German cantata, itself greatly influenced by Italian opera, with poetic texts set to the movements of chorus, aria, and recitative, with the addition of the German chorale melody and text. Beginning in 1733, Bach composed his first Missa: Kyrie-Gloria, BWV 232.2, setting for the Lutheran service, borrowing madrigalian music from earlier German cantata arias and choruses, set through parody (new-text underlay) contrafaction from German to the fixed Latin Mass liturgy. Between 1708 and 1733, Bach began experimenting with the use of other composer's Kyrie/Gloria settings, also known as Missa Brevis (see BWV³, Supplement 2, Bachs Notenbibliothek (other composers), Ibid.: 654-59): Johann Baal Missa in A (Kyrie/Gloria, 1714-17), Johann Ludwig Bach, Missa in e (score copy Kyrie/Gloria, 1716) with the soprano German Gloria canto, "Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr" (BCW, YouTube); Johann Christoph Pez, Missa in a, "Missa S. Lamberti (Kyrie/Gloria parts set, 1715-17); and Anonymous, Missa in c (Kyrie/Gloria, Bach violoncello part 1714-17). These Catholic composers' Mass settings provided Bach with the opportunity in Weimar to introduce concerted liturgical settings into the main services when he also presented his own cantatas as musical sermons every fourth Sunday (1714-16). Bach's initial main Mass materials source may have been the Dresden secondary court at Halle-Wessenfels which had an extensive music library of Catholic Masses from the Dresden Court Church³ and beyond to Viennese Masses and Neopolitan opera, and which also had connections to Bach's cantor predecessors and which Bach probably encountered during his first visit to Dresden in late 1717 and fully utilized during his visits as a court honorary Kapellmeister beginning in the mid 1730s.

Others' Mature Missa Settings; Bach's Opportunities

Bach added to his library of Mass movements beginning in the late 1720s with more recent stile misto (mixed style) progressive works found at the Dresden Court Church (Hofkirche) by Antonio Caldara, Giovanni Batista Bassini, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, and others, which he selectively imitin his B-Minor Mass. The music listed in the BWV³, Supplement 2: Bach's Notenbibiothek (BNB), Messen (Messesätze) und Magnificat: 654-659) involves Bassani's Six Missa, Acroma missale, with the Credo-Imitation in Mass No. 5 in F, BWV 1081; Caldara Sanctus in D, BWV 239 (1738-41, YouTube); Caldara Magnificat in C (1740-42); Francesco Bartolomeo Conti Missa: Kyrie-Gloria in C, BWV Anh. 25⁴ (JSB undesignated score copy 1740-42); Francesco Durante Missa: Kyrie-Gloria in c, BWV Anh. 26 (JSB undesignated score copy 1727-31; Bach Christe SA duet, BWV 242); Francesco Gasparini Missa: Kyrie-Gloria in G, Missa canonica (JSB parts copy, 1739-42, nit BNB); Johann Caspar Kerll Missa in D, Missa superba (JSB score copy, 1747/48); Antonio Lotti Missa: Kyrie-Gloria in g, Missa sapientiae (JSB score copy, 1732-35); Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Seven Missa (score copy, JSB Thuringia early 18c, not BNB); Palestrina Missa in d, Missa sine nomine (Bach parts, c1742); Palestrina Missa in G, Missa Ecce sacredos Magnus (Bach parts, c1744/45); Pietro Torri, Magnificat in C, BWV Anh. 30 (score copy thru JSB c1742); Johann Hugo von Wilderer, Missa: Kyrie-Gloria in g (score copy JSB, 1731; Kyrie I model for BWV 232/1); Anonymous Missa: Kyrie-Gloria in G, BWV Anh. 167 (score copy, 1732/35 to 1738/39; YouTube); Anonymous Sanctus in G, BWV 240 (Bach, score copy, c1742; YouTube).

There were five important occasions in Leipzig when Bach composed original Latin Mass liturgical settings: 1. Christmas 1724, Sanctus in D Major, early version,⁵ BWV 232.1^III, and the Magnificat in E-Flat, BWV 243.1; 2. July 1733, Missa: Kyrie-Gloria, BWV 232.2^I; 3. late 1730s, four Missae: Kyrie-Gloria, BWV 233-236; 4. early 1740s, while Bach was experimenting with full Mass settings of Bassani, Kerll, and Palestrina, he composed Credo intonations as part of a long-standing liturgical practice of chanting the opening "Credo in unum Deum," followed by a setting of "Patrem omnipotentem," composing his own contrafaction setting of the Credo (with 45-measure intonation) in G Major, early version BWV 232.3^II, and later the Bassini Credo Intonation in F (16 measures), BWV 1081 (1747-48); 5. Mass in B-Minor (Missa tota, Parts II-IV), August 1748 to October 1749 (autograph score). Bach in the mid-1740s also created a three-movement Latin festive music contrafaction for Christmas Day, BWV 191 (YouTube), 1. Chorus "Gloria in excelsis Deo" (Greater Doxology opening movement, same as BWV 232.2^I, "Gloria"; and Lesser Doxology, 2. Duet "Gloria Patri (contrafaction from Domine Deus, BWV 232/8), and 3. Chorus "Sicut erat in principio" (contrafaction of BWV 232/12, Cum Sancto Spiritu). <<A collection of the four Missae, BWV 233-236, was copied by Bach son-in-law, Johann Christoph Altnikol, c.1747/48 and found in the Emmanuel Bach 1790 estate catalogue. The original autograph score of all four probably was inherited by Friedemann Bach and was listed in the Breitkopf fall 1761 catalogue under “Missae” with instrumentation, with the “Missa,” BWV 236 copied on 29 October 1761 by Bach student and copyist Christian Friedrich Penzel. Writing in 1754, theorist Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg, part of the Berlin School that included Emmanuel Bach, cited the opening BWV 233 “Kyrie” in his “Treatise on the Fugue,” as a fine example of contrapuntal writing. As early as 1779, Johann Philipp Kirnberger in his treatise “The Art of Strict Musical Composition), cited the “Christe eleison” section of this Mass. The collection was first published by Breitkopf in 1807 at the beginning of the so-called Bach Revival>> (source: BCW: "Chronological Bibliography, Missae Brevae, BWV 233-236").

Fugitive Notes on the Mass in B-Minor: Parody Sources

Recent Bach Mailing List Discussions and monographs on the Mass in B-Minor have provided fresh insights into various important facets of Bach's masterpiece, especially related to parody considerations, related Mass plain-chorale and Deutsche Messe settings, its genesis and musical sources, and a "B-Minor Mass: Contemporary Perspective," in Daniel R. Melamed's recent (2018) monograph⁶ ( BCW). Of special note in this context is the possible contrafaction sources (not confirmed) now part of the Bach BWV³ canon: No. I, Missa: Kyrie-Gloria, No. 2, "Christe eleison, source BWV 1156=Anh. 9/8, 1727 Augustus serenade, "Entfernet euch, ihr heitern Sterne" [Disperse yourselves, ye stars serenely]; No. 3, Kyrie II, source BWV 1143=244a, 1729 Köthener Trauermusik, "Klagt, Kinder, klagt es aller Welt" (Toll, children, toll to all the world); No. 4, "Gloria in excelsis Deo, source "Lobet den Herrn, alle seine Heerscharen," BWV 1147=Anh. 5; No. 5, Laudaumus te; possibly BWV 1144=Anh. 14/1, “Sein Segen fließt daher wie ein Strom”; No. 8, "Domine Deus," source 1727 Augustus serenade, "Ihr Häuser des Himmels, ihr scheinenden Lichter" (Ye houses of heaven, ye radiant torches), BWV 193.1=193a; No. 10, "Qui sedes," source also BWV 1156=Anh. 9/12; No. 11, Quoniam tu solus sanctus," possibly BWV 1144=Anh. 14/3, "Wohl Dir, da zur erwünschten Stunde; No. 12, "Cum Sancto Spiritu," possibly "Gott, gib dein Gerichte dem Könige” (God, give the king Thy judgment), BWV 1140=Anh. 3/1, Ratswahl 1730. The No. II Symbolum Nicenum "Credo" has two original movements, No. 1, Credo, and No. 8 "Confiteor unum baptisma (I confess one baptism), as well as well as a model from another composer: No. 4, "Et incarnatus est," possibly a Dresden Mass of Jan Dismas Zelenka (YouTube), No. 6, "Et resurrexit," possibly BWV 1156=Anh.9/1, "Entfernet euch, ihr heitern Sterne"; No. 7, "Et in Spiritum sanctum," possibly BWV 1144=Anh. 14/6, "So tritt in dieses Paradieß." No. IV, "Osana" etc., No. 1, "Osanna in excelsis," source BWV 1157/1, "Es lebe der König, der Vater im Lande" and BWV 215/1, "Preise deine Glücke"; No. 2 "Benedictus," possibly BWV 1144=Anh. 14/4, "Ein, Mara weicht von Dir"; No. 4, "Agnus Dei," BWV 1163/3=Anh. 196/3, “Entfernet euch, ihr kalten Hertzen” and BWV 11/4, "Ach, bleibe doch." The remainder of the sources were previously confirmed: Gloria No. 7 "Gratias agimus tibi" is the 1731 Council Cantata 29 chorus, "Wir danken dir, Gott" (We thank thee, God), and No. 9, "Qui tollis" is Cantata 46, "Schauet doch und sehet"(Behold and see). In the III Credo is No. 2, "Patrem omnipotentum" source BWV 171/1, chorus “Gott wie dein Nahme” (New Year, 1729); No. 3, "Et in unum Dominum" possibly SA Neopolitan duet BWV 213/11 “Ich bin deine”; No. 5, "Crucifixus" is chorus BWV 12/2a, “Weinen, klagen”; and No. 9, "Et expecto" is BWV 120.1/2 chorus "Jauchzet, ihr erfreuten Stimmen" (Rejoice, you joyful voices). The closing IV No. 5 "Dona nobis pacem" is a repeat of I No. 7, BWV 29/2.

Two B-Minor Mass Recent Monographs

Besides Melamed's contemporary perspective on the B-Minor Mass are two other recent monographs. Exploring Bach's B-minor Mass,⁷ an exemplary collection of essays from the 2007 international symposium, "Understanding Bach's B-minor Mass,"⁸ at Queen's University Belfast, 2-4 November 2007. The 14 essays involve four categories: Historical Background and Contexts, Structure and Proportion, Sources, and Critical Reception. The symposium offers two published resources: Discussion Book 1. Full Papers by the Speakers at the Symposium on 2, 3 and 4 November 2007, and Discussion Book, Volume II: Resource Book by Yo Tomita and Tanja Kovacevic. Noted Bach scholar Christoph Wolff' provides on overview with his introductory essay, "Past, present, and future perspectives on Bach's B-minor Mass" (Ibid.: 3ff; see the first six pages in Footnote 7: "Look inside"). The topics by subtitles are "The Performance history of the B-minor Mas," "The B-minor Mass in the mirror of Bach Scholarship," "The genesis of the B-minor Mass and the musical genre of the Mass," and "Textual Meaning and musical design: time and space as devices:" Sanctus, 'Credo,' 'Et expecto.' The other recent monograph is Harry White's The Musical Discourse of Servitude: Authority, Autonomy, and the Work-Concept in Fux, Bach and Handel. Here us the cover front flap: <<Examining, for the first time, the compositions of Johann Joseph Fux in relation to his contemporaries J.S. Bach and G.F. Handel, The Musical Discourse of Servitude presents a new theory of the late baroque musical imagination. Author Harry White contrasts musical "servility" and "freedom" in his analysis, with Fux tied to the prevailing servitude of the day's musical imagination, particularly the hegemonic flowering of North Italian partimento method across Europe. In contrast, both J.S. Bach and G.F. Handel represented an autonomy of musical discourse, with J.S. Bach exhausting generic models in the mass and G.F. Handel inventing a new genre in the oratorio. A potent critique of Lydia Goehr's seminal The Imaginary Museum of Musical Works, The Musical Discourse of Servitude draws on Goehr's formulation of the "work-concept" as an imaginary construct which, according to Goehr, is an invention of nineteenth-century reception history. White locates this concept as a defining agent of automony in J.S. Bach's late works, and contextualized the "work-concept" itself by exploring rival concepts of political, religious, and musical authority which define the European musical imagination in the first half of the eighteenth century. A major revisionist statement about the musical imagination in Western art music, The Musical Discourse of Servitude will be of interest to scholars of the Baroque, particularly of J.S. Bach and G.F. Handel.>> White establishes a significantly new perspective on the influences on Bach of other composers, which generally are taboo by other scholars. <<In a recent personal communication, White observes: "I am especially grateful that you identified my very last point about the need for a comparative study of Bach (a notoriously difficult prospect, I know), because I have attempted to redress this lacuna in The Musical Discourse of Servitude, which countenances a comparison between Bach's arias and those of Johann Joseph Fux, as well as a generic and stylistic comparison between BWV 232 and the mass settings of Fux and Antonio Caldara>> (source: BCW: penultimate paragraph).

One topic that needs mention is that Bach's first feast-day oratorio, the Easter Oratorio, BWV 249.3, of 1725, a parody in the Italian oratorio style of the original profane dialogue Shepherds Cantata BWV 249.1=249a, “Entfliehet, verschwindet, entweichet, ihr Sorgen” (Flee now, vanish, yield now, you sorrows), also had 11 movements with four mythological characters celebrating the birthday of Duke Christian of Saxe-Weißenfels, five weeks before Easter Sunday. Given this profane pastoral perspective, Bach converted the four characters into biblical persona, the two shepherdesses become Mary Magdalene and the Mary, Mother of the Apostle James, both who had witnessed the Crucifixion of Jesus and now come to anoint the body in the tomb. The two shepherds become the apostles Peter, who denied Jesus at his trial, and John, who also witnessed the Crucifixion in the Gospel of John. Other profane elements include the lack of biblical narrative in recitative and turbae choruses found in Bach's German feast-day oratorios for Christmas, BWV 248, Ascension, BWV 11, and possibly Pentecost, BWV deest, as well as no chorales settings for chorus or as tropes.

ENDNOTES

¹ Bach Latin Church Works: BWV, Wikipedia; Bach Compendium, BCW; bibliography, BCW: "Bach Latin Church Music, Select Bibliography"; Bach Bibliography, Bach-Bibliography.
² Kyrie "Christe, du Lamm Gottes, BWV 233.1=233a, (see BCW: Bach "Kyrie/Christe, du Lamm Gottes," BWV 233a); recording, YouTube; score, BCW; Bach Digital, Bach Digital.
³ An understanding of the Dresden Court's Mass music was first explored by Bach scholar George B. Stauffer in his section, "Mass Writing in Dresden," in Bach The Mass in B Minor: The Great Catholic Mass (New Haven CN: Yale Univ. Press, 2003: 16-23), Amazon.com; this is an exemplary monograph, rich in history and important contextual matters often missing in tedious, blow-by-blow (bar-by-bar) musical descriptions.
⁴ Conti Missa: Kyrie-Gloria in C, BWV Anh. 25 (YouTube); Durante Missa: Kyrie-Gloria in c, BWV Anh. 26 (YouTube); discussion, BCW.
⁵ Early Versions of the Mass in B Minor: 1. Sanctus 1724, 2. Missa 1733, 4. Credo early 1740s (see Bärenreiter, Bärenreiter); The Latin Credo may have been presented during Trinity Sunday as well as during the main service communion with the final portion of III. Sanctus, and IV. Osanna, Benedictus, Agnus Dei, Dona nobis pacem.
⁶ Daniel R. Melamed, Listening to Bach: the Mass in B Minor and the Christmas Oratorio (Oxford Univ. Press, 2018), Amazon.com.
⁷ Exploring Bach's B-minor Mass, eds. Yo Tomita, Robin A. Leaver, and Jan Smazny (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2013), Amazon.com; contents: "Look inside," scroll down to Contents: viif.
⁸ Understanding Bach's B-Minor Mass: Discussion Book 1, Research Gate: International Symposium Understanding Bach's B-minor Mass Discussion Book 1 Full Papers by the Speakers at the Symposium on 2 3 and_4 November 2007; Discussion Book II, Research Gate: International Symposium Understanding Bach's B-minor Mass Discussion Book Volume II Resource Book.
⁹ Harry White, The Musical Discourse of Servitude: Authority, Autonomy, and the Work-Concept in Fux, Bach and Handel (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020), Amazon.com; commentary, BCW.

—————

To come: Works Catalogue BWV3: Passion oratorio settings, chorale collections

Works Catalogue BWV3: Passion Settings

William L. Hoffman wrote (October 29, 2022):
The new Bach Werke Verzeichnis (Works Catalogue), third edition (BWV³⁾, has important new materials that relate to his vocal music of sorrow and joy, particularly the Passion oratorios and chorale music, especially regarding source-critical information involving printed texts, chorale collections, Bach's musical library, and bibliographical materials. From his earliest time in Mühlhausen in 1707-08 Bach experimented with Passion-like materials in two funeral cantatas, BWV 131 and 106 and the use of chorales in his cantatas. By his time in Weimar composing monthly cantatas, Bach had perfected the art of presenting Passion music of others, notably the Gottfried Keiser St. Mark Passion oratorio, BWV 1166.1 (c1710/11), and an extended funeral cantata for Sachsen-Weimar Prince Johann Ernst, "Was ist, das wir Leben nennen," BWV 1142 (1716), as well as Bach's so-called Weimar/Gotha oratorio Passion, BC D-1, BWV deest (1717), still not accepted into the BWV³ canon (source, BCW: "Weimar Music of Sorrow"). Bach in Mühlhausen had composed chorale tropes, notably a miniature Lukan Passion setting of 23:43, the bass aria, “Heute wirst du mit mir im Paradies sein” (Today thou shalt be with me in Paradise), accompanied by Luther’s Nunc dimittis chorale, “Mit Fried und Freud” (With Peace and Joy, YouTube: scroll to 1:57 timing of 5:46).

Bach's Four Passion Types

Bach in Leipzig presented the Good Friday Passions and Town Council cantatas annually — the only such musical forms recorded, the former based on his church duties as cantor and the latter as town music director and employee of the town council. The Good Friday Vespers with complete liturgical oratorio Passions begun in 1717 "became under Bach the main event of the year," "alternating between the two principal churches," St. Nicholas and St. Thomas, say the "Passions, Oratorios," BWV³ editors (Ibid.: XXIII). Bach reperformed the "Kaiser" St. Mark Passion, BWV 1166.2, in 1726 (YouTube). Bach composed liturgical Passion oratorios for annual Good Friday presentations and, found in recent scholarship, he presented poetic oratorio Passions, the second type of Passion, involving Telemann's poetic Passion, Seliges Erwagen (Blissful consideration), in 1728 and 1735, and Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel's poetic oratorio Passion, "Ein Lämmlein geht und trägt die Schuld" (A little lamb goes and takes the blame), in 1734. Handel's "Brockes Passion," score in Bach's hand in his Music Library dates to c1746-47, and after August 1748 (additions of Johann Nathanael Bammler) but "cannot be assigned to a performance year during Bach's Leipzig tenure," say the BWV³ editors (Ibid.: XXIV). Bach may have performed the Telemann "Brockes Passion," TVWV 5:1, on March 27, 1739 (source Christoph Wolff: Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician (New York: W. W. Norton, 2000: 295].

A third type of Passion in oratorio style is the hybrid Anonymous St. Luke Passion, BWV 246, which Bach presented in 1732 and 1743 or 1745, as confirmed in BWV³. It is a liturgical Passion oratorio with a multiplicity of simple pietist chorales which Bach and Emanuel copied out in score. <<The more traditional, biblically-based oratorio-Passion had become well-established in Germany. Georg Böhm (1661-1733) of Lüneberg composed some of the earliest modern oratorio Passions, often vested with many chorales. The Postel St. John Passion text of 1704 has been attributed to him, although it has no chorale settings. Böhm's St. Luke Passion, 1711, survives, as well as the librettos for a St. Matthew Passion, 1714, and a St. John Passion, about 1720. Spitta JSBII:510f, lists various liturgical chorale Passions (texts only), similar to Kuhnau's <St. Mark Passion> and the Bach apocryphal <St. Luke Passion>. They are the Rudolstadt St. Matthew Passion, 1729 (28 chorales); Gera Passion, nd (25 chorales); Gotha St. Matthew Passion, 1707 (19); Schleiz Passion, 1729 (27 chorales); and Weißenfels Passion, 1733 (33). In these settings in various German towns, no composer is listed and the lyrics involve hymns as well as Litany and <Te Deum> passages, also found in the apocryphal "St. Luke Passion" >> (source: BCW). The 32 chorale settings in the apocryphal "St. Luke Passion" are described in the source last section, "Chorale Settings."¹ Besides the chorale-laden "St. Luke Passion," Bach also fashioned the parody St. Mark Passion, BWV 247, with 16 chorales but only eight arias. In the later 1740s, he relied presumably on Johann Christoph Altnikol to fashion the added six plain chorale settings of various verses from the Passion vespers chorale, "Christus, der uns selig macht."

A fourth type of Passion is the patchwork pasticcio when Bach in the 1740s fashioned and presented two. The hybrid version of the "Kaiser" narrative St. Mark Passion, BWV 1166.2, added seven arias from Handel's poetic "Brockes Passion," BWV 1166.3, BNB I/H/1, c1747 ("Kaiser" Markus-Passion (Carus-Verlag) [PDF, YouTube), similar to Bach's St. John Passion with biblical narrative and poetic arias from the Brockes Passion oratorio libretto. The other was a patchwork poetic Graun Pasticcio Oratorio Passion² as a veritable encyclopedia of Passion music emphasizing the popular literary and musical styles that came to dominate German music at mid-18th century. This involved music from Johann Kuhnau's motet, "Der Gerechte kömmt um" (the righteous come in) Carl Heinrich Graun Passion "sentimental" (empfindsam) style cantata, "Wer ist der, so von Edom kömmt" (Who is he that comes from Edom), the Telemann gallant style Palm Sunday Cantata, "Wer ist der, so von Edom kömmt"(Who is this that cometh from Edom [Sodom]), and two Bach works to open the second part of the Graun etc. Pasticcio Passion, the opening chorus of Chorale Cantata BWV 127, "Herr Jesu Christ, wahr' Mensch und Gott" (Lord Jesus Christ, truly man and God) from the 1725 Quinquagesima cantata, and the bass arioso, "So heb ich denn mein Auge sehnlich auf" (I lift my longing eye to Heav'n above), BWV 1088.

Bach's Leipzig Passion Performance Calendar

The period of 1729-32 was an important time in Passion music for Bach when he presented in succession the four liturgical Gospel Passions: St. Matthew, BWV 244.1; St. John Passion, BWV 245.3; St. Mark Passion, BWV 247.1; and St. Luke Passion, BWV 246. This pattern was similar to Telemann's four liturgical Passions presented in succession in Hamburg throughout his career there (1722-68, see Wikipedia). The best-known poetic Brockes Passion, set by Telemann, had been performed at the progressive Leipzig New Church in 1717 and repeated in 1729 during Holy Week. Besides the Telemann Seliges Erwagen, Bach in 1734 presented the Stölzel poetic harmony Passion "Ein Lämmlein geht und trägt die Schuld." Here is the Passion repertory for Bach in Leipzig, 1724-50, as compiled by the BWV³ editors (Ibid.: XXIV):

4/7/24 St. John Passion, BWV 245.1
3/30/25 St. Johan Passion, BWV 245.2 II
4/19/26 "Kaiser" St. Mark Passion
4/11/St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244.1(=244b)
4/25/28 Telemann Seliges Erwägen
4/15/29 St. Matthew Passion, BWV244.1
4/7/30 St. John Passion, BWV 245.3
3/23/31 St. Mark Passion, BWV 247.1
4/11/32 Anon. St. Luke Passion, BWV 246
4/3/33 - (National Mourning)
4/23/34 Stölzel “Ein Lämmlein geht”
4/8/35 Telemann Seliges Erwägen
3/30/36 St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244.2
4/10/37 St. John Passion, BWV 245.4 (unfinished; or 1739)
4/4/38 ?
3/27/39 St. John Passion, BWV 245.4 (unfinished; or 1737)
or ?Telemann Brockes Passion, TVWV 5:1
4/15/40 St. Mark Passion, 247.2
3/31/41 ?
32/23/42 St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244.2
4/12/43 Anon. St. Luke Passion (or 1745)
3/27/44 St. Mark Passion, BWV 247.2
4/16/45 Anon St. Luke Passion (or 1743)
4/8/46 St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244.2
3/31/47 "Kaiser"/Handel, Pasticcio, BWV 1166.3
4/12/48 Graun, Pasticcio, BWV 1167?
4/4/49 St. John Passion, BWV 245.5
3/27/50 Graun, Pasticcio, BWV 1167?

Earlier, BWV³ Passion Findings

The first significant effort to determine Bach's annual performances of Passion music is found in the Andreas Glöckner³ “Bach and the Passion music of his contemporaries (Musical Times Vol. 116, 1975: 613-16), which he expanded and updated in his “Joh. Seb. Bachs Aufführungen zeitgenössischer Passionsmusiken” (Bach's Performances of Contemporary Passion Music), in Bach-Jahrbuch 1977: 75-118. Key Glöckner articles are found in the Bibliography section, Secondary Literature (Ibid.: 764), on relevant vocal music and historical sources (see Bach Bibliography for Glöckner's most recent articles).³ There are several significant findings in the new BWV³. Poetic Passion harmonies (non-liturgical) are classified as oratorio Passions in contrast to liturgical Passion oratorios. Bach's performance in 1734 of the Stölzel “Ein Lämmlein geht,” first confirmed by Tatjana Schabalina⁴ in 2008 when the church libretto book was found, showed that poetic Passions were performed. This led to similar findings during Bach's Leipzig tenure involving Telemann's Seliges Erwägen (1728, 1735) and the Stölzel Passion (1734), possible Bach performances of Telemann and Handel's Brockes Passion (still being studied), as well as Pasticcio Passions of Kaiser/Handel (1747) and Graun (1748-1750). The other significant finding, Schabalina's 2009 sequel⁵ finally confirmed the existence of Bach's third original liturgical Passion, according to Mark, with Picander's libretto as his second for Bach following the St. Matthew Passion. Previously, rigid literalist Bach scholars had demanded source-critical musical evidence of its existence, beyond a complete published text, suggesting that other evidence such as a 1735 St. Mark Passion performance in Delitzsch near Leipzig (with Picander's text; BWV³ Ibid., historical printed texts: 735) and the Breitkopf catalogue 1761 entry of an Anonymous St. Mark Passion manuscript (BWV³ Ibid., historical catalogues: 759) with virtually the same orchestration as the Funeral Ode, BWV 198 (the core music of the Bach's St. Mark Passion), did not show Bach's authorship. Virtually all of the BWV³ vocal music additions BWV 1135-64, involve texts or contemporary references to which the Bach-Archiv Leipzig editors have added important source-critical sections (Ibid: 629-835) of Anhänge (Attachments), Bibliographie (historical printed texts from Bach and others (published 1713-56), early 19th century prints by musical category, historical literature, music catalogues, secondary literature, and 20th century publications of individual works) and Register cataloguing the chorale melodies and texts, musical incipit catalogue, persons, and Bach copyists).

Other performances recently have been confirmed: the St. Mark Passion second version, BWV 247.2 in 1744, which actually was premiered in 1740 following further research; the St. John Passion, BWV 247.3 third version in 1730; the St. Luke Passion in 1732 and repeat in 1743; the St. John Passion, BWV 245.4 unfinished version in 1737 or 1739); the St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244.2 definitive version repeated in 1742 and 1746; and the fourth version of the St. John Passion, BWV 245.5, in 1749). Only two dates remain to be determined, 1738 and 1741, when it is possible that the Telemann and Handel Brockes Passions were performed.

ENDNOTES

¹ "Chorale Settings," BCW, Discussions in the Week of May 8, 2011, William L. Hoffman wrote (May 9, 2011): Apocryphal St. Luke Passion, BWV 246: Introduction).
² Graun Pasticcio Oratorio Passion: description, Wikipedia; music, MusicWeb; discussion; BCW; manuscript, Bach Digital.
³ Andreas Glöckner, Bach Bibliography, Bach Bibliography; biography, Wikipedia
⁴ Tatjana Schabalina, "Texte zur Music" in Sankt Petersburg. Neue Quellen zur Leipziger Musikgeschichte sowie zur Kompositions- und Aufführungstätigkeit Johann Sebastian Bachs ("Texts on Music" in Saint Petersburg. New sources on the history of music in Leipzig and on the composition and performance of Johann Sebastian Bach), in Bach Jahrbüch 94 (2008: 77-84); text Bach-Jahhrbüch (Journals). Says Marcus Rathey: "Until 2008, it had been accepted knowledge that the conservative liturgical traditions in Leipzig only allowed the performance of oratorio passions," " . . . we still do not know much about Bach's passion performances in the second half of the 1730s and the 1740s," source: Rathey, "Johann Sebastian Bach's Passions: Recent Publications and Trends in Current Scholarship," in BACH: Journal of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute (vol. 43/1: 65-83); brief excerpt of the content, BACH: Journal of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute (Muse).
⁵ Schabalina sequel, "Texte zur Music" in Sankt Petersburg — Weitere Funde (Other finds), in Bach Jahrbüch 95 (2009: 30-48); text Bach-Jahhrbüch (Journals)

—————

To Come: Works Catalogue BWV³: Chorale Collections, Resources

Works Catalogue BWV3: Chorale Collections, Sources, Usages; Sacred Songs

William L. Hoffman wrote (November 11, 2022)\:
Bach's chorales constitute a significant portion of his creative endeavors in his vocal music and the new Bach Works Catalogue, the BWV 3rd edition just published¹ provides significant new chorale resources. Initially Lutheran vernacular sacred songs and hymn books were established at the beginning of the Reformation.² The pedagogical purposes of liturgical settings for the church year, omnes tempore settings of church life, and theological themes during Bach's time in Leipzig (1723-50) yielded 18th century collections of Bach chorales and the recent discovery of concurrent collections by student-members of Bach's circle, as well as his early chorale template for the church year in his Orgel-Büchlein, as outlined in the new BWV edition (Ibid: 384ff, 632ff respectively; see Issuu: 1/94 scroll to 50/51/94, 1/94 to 72-73/94). There also are two key catalogue items: the Four-Part Chorales, BWV 250-438 etc. (BCW) (Verstimmige Choräle) and Register, Catalogue of the Chorale Melodies and Their Texts (Verzeichnis der Choralmelodien und ihre Texte) found at Issuu: 365ff, 783ff). In addition, the works catalogue classifies the related Sacred Songs and Arias, BWV 435-507 (Geistliche Lieder und Arien, Ibid.: 402ff; BCW), as well as the non-textual organ chorale melody settings, BWV 599-771 (Ibid.: 443ff), and later additions BWV 1085, 1090–1120 (Neumeister Chorales) and 1128. The Bach Cantatas Website (BCW) catalogues the chorale melodies alphabetically which Bach used (BCW), including all textual and non-textual works, and the full German text with English translations (BCW). The BCW also lists Motets & Chorales for Events in the Lutheran Church Year ass well as Chorales by Theme in 16 articles (BCW).

Bach Early Chorale Usages

"The typical character of the chorales in Bach's vocal works from his first Leipzig years was clearly evident, though unlike the four-part chorale settings in Bach's time," say the BWV editors,³ for example, settings found in Bach's Leipzig hymnbook, Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch (New Leipzig hymnal, Wikipedia). Bach's unique harmonization was part of his pedagogical practice "as the best method for learning composition, quoad Harmoniam" (Dok. VII No. B 6). It is suggested that Bach c.1713 began the four-part harmonization process with the closing chorale of the Sexagesima Cantata 18,⁴ which also included a vocal trio with the recitative for tenor, "Mein Gott, hier wird mein Herze sein" (My God, here will my heart be, and bass, "Nur wehre, treuer Vater, wehre" (Defend, faithful father, defend [us]) embellished by the soprano chorale trope, Martin Luther's Litany, Kyrie Eleison, YouTube). Earlier, Bach had begun using chorale tropes in his sacred solos in the 1707 memorial Cantata 106, "Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit" (God's time is the very best time, Acts 17: 28), with a dramatic scena of the Gospel quotation from the Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross, the bass Vox Chrsti arioso, "Heute wirst du mit mir im Paradies sein" (Today you will be with me in paradise, Luke 23:43), to the alto chorale, "Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin" (With peace and joy I travel there), Luther's setting of Simeon's canticle, the Nunc Dimittis, Luke 2:29 (YouTube. Even earlier, Bach had set chorale tunes to concise settings of organ chorale preludes for the church services, most notably the Neumeister Chorales, BWV 1090-1120 (Wikipedia, YouTube). Clearly, Bach was mastering the compositional form using prescribed melodies set in instrumental introductions, vocal solos, and four-part hymns.

In Weimar, Bach began to teach students in composition and keyboard performance while he mastered both. Beginning in Leipzig with a commitment to composing sacred cantatas and oratorios as musical sermons for church year services, almost always ending in four-part chorales, Bach in 1724-25 created a unique (incomplete) cycle of substantial chorale cantatas with internal stanza poetic paraphrases; complex chorale tropes and extended chorale choruses in his St. John and St. Matthew Passions; and other compositional techniques, mixing three Passion chorales in the monumental opening chorus (YouTube) of the Quinquagesima Estomihi pre-Lenten 1725 chorale Cantata 127, "Herr Jesu Christ, wahr' Mensch und Gott" (Lord Jesus Christ, true God and man), a four-part chorale fantasia; chorale "Befiehl du deine Wege" (Entrust your way), melody in the basso continuo; and "Christe, du Lamm Gottes" (Christ, you Lamb of God), as a wordless canto of the German Agnus Dei. Soon after, for Good Friday vespers in 1725, Bach presented a chorale version of his St. John Passion, BWV 245.2, with a new opening chorale fantasia, “O Mensch, bewein dein Sunde groß" (O man, bewail thy great sins); closing chorale chorus, Christe, du Lamm Gottes"; and a new internal chorale trope, bass aria, "Himmel reiße" (Heaven rends) with canto, "Jesu,deine Passion." By 1730, when Bach had virtually completed his sacred cantatas he may have begun to compose liturgical free-standing four-part chorales, BWV 253-438. Meanwhile, some of his colleagues published two-part cantional chorale collections: Christoph Graupner's Darmstadt Choral-Buch in 1728 (http://tudigit.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de/tmp/pdf/Mus-1875.pdf), and Georg Philipp Telemann's 1730 Fast allgemeines Evangelisch-Musicalisches Lieder-Buch (Google Books). Two other, similar two-part choralbücher from this same period are the publications of Cornelius Heinrich Dretzel (Nuremburg, 1731) and Johann Balthazar König (Frankfurt 1738).

Bach Chorale Collections

"No evidence exists that Bach himself created an independent collection of four-part chorales, but chorale collections have been excerpted from his works" by his students and as well as son Emanuel in two printed editions by Birnstiel and Breitkopf, say the BWV³ editors (Ibid.). There were manifold reasons for Bach particularly to compile Lutheran hymn and sacred song settings related to the church year as well as for home use. In the initial case, the chorale in its various guises as congregational settings for voices and organ was a compendium of 200 years of church-year hymns for both the de tempore (proper time) and omnes tempore (ordinary time) halves of the church year, the organ settings were a template of chorale preludes to introduce the hymn-singing in the services, and Bach's exemplary four-voice harmonizations were his primary method of teaching composition to his students. In early 1735, Bach's student and main copyist Johann Ludwig Dietel (1713-1773, BCW, Bach Digital) compiled a collection of 149 plain-chorale settings without texts (BCW), as he completed his studies as a cantor. This collection first surfaced in the Leipzig Breitkopf publisher's 1761 Fall Catalogue under the category "Hymnen, Lieder, Gesänge" of "150 chorales in four-parts," presumably on loan from Dietel for copying at a fee (see University of Mennesota Duluth: Library: "149 Choralsätze der Sammlung Dietel").⁵ A listing shows chorales from cantatas, oratorios, motets, and 45 free-standing settings (BWV 257-436) as well as four previously unknown Bach settings now catalogued c.2000 as BWV 1122-1125, added to the Bach Work's Catalogue (BWV 1950; YouTube), as part of 20 chorales that do not appear in Breitfkopf (1784-87) or Riemenschneider (1941).⁶ These also include 11 chorales from the Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248, presented in 1734-35, and as many as 10 chorales possibly from the St. Mark Passion, BWV 247 of 1731>> (source, BCW, "Chorales, Devotional Songs, Student Copies"). These chorale settings in the Christmas Oratorio and St. Mark Passion show Bach in his most progressive style, with internal-voice counterpoint and the increasing use of more recent pietistic text authors. While Bach's four-voice harmonizations became the pedagogical standard, his emphasis on text-painting in the "word-tone relationship intended by the composer" plays "no role at all, as can be seen in the transcription into piano notation" [two-stave], "with the absence of text underlay" found in Birnstiel and Breitkopf, says BWV³ (Ibid.: xxiv).

1736 Schemelli Gesangbuch, Other BWV Chorale Sources

A year after Dietel's four-voice chorale compilation, Bach was involved in the omSchemelli Gesangbuch with Breitkopf in 1736 of Georg Christian Schemelli (Wikipedia and Wikipedia, BCW), including a group of 69 engraved two-part devotional (cantional) songs set to newer melodies with a personal, pietist perspective, BWV 439-507 (Wikipedia), as well as the completion of the family album, Anna Magdalena Notenbüchlein, BWV 508-518 begun in 1725 (Wikipedia). The omnibus Breitkopf 1736 songbook involved 954 spiritual songs and arias for the church year involving well-known chorales as well as recent pietist sacred songs in the style of Freylinghausen usually set to well-known melodies (source, BCW: "Schemelli Gesangbuch, 1736"). The category of "Songs, Arias and Quodlibet," BWV 439-524 (Wikipedia), also involves mostly devotional or special songs from the Schemellis Songbook, BWV 439-507; the second Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, BWV 508-518; the Five Sacred Songs from a manuscript by Johann Ludwig Krebs, BWV 519–523, and the wedding Quodlibet, BWV 524 (Wikipedia). Fünf geistliche Lieder are sacred songs (solo voice, continuo, BCW) as collected by Johann Ludwig Krebs (1713–1780, Bach Digital), now found in BWV³, Appendix B (Ibid.: 686). Krebs was a Bach student, player and copyist from 1726 to 1738 and finished his father Tobias' manuscript begun in Weimar, c.1710-14 with Johann Gottfried Walther.
The devotional sacred songs had followed a parallel tradition at the beginning of the Reformation with personal settings of the Bohemian Brethren and Martyrs (MDPI) notably the 1531 hymnbook, Ein New Gesengbuchlen (Jung Bunzlau), of Michael Weiße (c1488-1534, Wikipedia),⁷ whom Luther championed, followed in the mid-1650s with the devotional settings of Paul Gerhardt (Wikipedia) and subsequently the Freylinghausen hymnbook in 1704 (Wikipedia), which crystalized the songs of the pietist wing of the Lutheran Church (Wikipedia). Sacred song settings of Stölzel and others are found in the Anna Magdalena Notenbüchlein, begun in 1725, primarily with keyboard partita settings, while the sacred songs were entered mostly c.1734 (source, BCW, "Devotional/Pietist Songs").

Beginning in the last half of the 1730s, Bach composed more substantial tempore organ chorale prelude groupings, some possibly designed in the main service for performance during Holy Communion. They are the liturgical Clavier-Übung III, BWV 669–689, German Organ Mass and Catechism (Wikipedia , copy and browser paste), for Catechism or feast-day services; the Great Eighteen Chorale Preludes, BWV 651-668 (Wikipedia), begun in Weimar and revised and considered for publication in the 1740s but left unfinished; the six Schübler Chorales, BWV 645–650 (Wikipedia), arranged from cantata trio arias; and Canonic Variations on "Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her," BWV 769 (Wikipedia).
Reception History: Chorale Copies, Arrangements
In the 50 years following Bach's death in 1750, Bach's students and members of Bach circles spawned a cottage industry of vocal and organ chorale copies, alternate versions, and arrangements.⁸ One of Bach's last cantor students and an important copyist, Friedrich Christian Penzel (1737-1801, BCW, Bach Digital), beginning about 1770 as cantor at Merseberg to compile a collection of 226, of which 30 sacred songs⁹ were published in the NBA III/3¹⁰ and are the final Nos. 195 to 226 in the Penzel collection. This group, found in BWV³ Appendix B (Ibid.: 685; Issuu: scroll 1/94 to 76-77/94), includes 18 from Bach student sources which have not been authenticated by Bach scholars and bear the designation BWV deest, while of the other 12, eight were copied from the Schemelli Gesangbuch, five from the NLGB (Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch) as Leipzig sources, and three from other sources.¹¹ Recently discovered is the 1762 collection of 167 Bach chorales in the hand of Carl Friedrich Fasch (1736-1800, Wikipedia), deputy at the Prussian Court to harpsichordist Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach. Its "significance lies in the fact that it not only predates other collections of Bach chorales such as the Birnstiel and Breitkopf editions, but it appears to have possibly been used as a source for such subsequent collections," says Luke Dahn (Bach-Chorales).¹² The Sebastian Bach chorale copies include settings from the cantatas, Passions, and oratorios, as well as free-standing arrangements (Bach Digital).

Other Voice, Organ Chorale Collection

Other collections of presumed Bach chorales have been studied in recent years. These include "Sebastian Bach's Choral Book" (Project Muse) of 238 melodies with figured bass, possibly dating to the 1740s connections to Dresden and Bach students that appears to be "a workbook for learning how to create four-part settings" from two-part arrangements, says Robin A. Leaver.¹³ In the Breitkopf New Years catalogue of 1764 to the Dietel collection was added the listing, "Complete Choral Book with notes set with Figured Bass comprising 240 melodies in use in Leipzig" (Leaver trans. 24; BDOK III, 165-66 [No. 711]), lost and unknown source. Leaver suggests (Ibid.: 24) that this source is the Sibley Choralbuch based on four common features: it is a comprehensive anthology for congregational use in the church year; the melodies with figured bass are in two-parts, the Choralbuch comprises 240 melodies while booksellers' catalogues of the 1730s contains 238, a close proximity; and Breitkopf's entry links "the repertory with Leipzig use."
Another area of interest are the organ chorale prelude collections of Bach, beginning with the early Neumeister Chorales, BWV 1090-1120 (Wikipedia, copy & browser paste), and the unfinished, mostly de tempore Orgelbüchlein, BWV 599-644 Wikipedia, copy & browser paste). The early, so-called "Miscellaneous" chorale preludes have been difficult to authenticate and date, despite corecent research,¹⁴ according to BWV³ (Ibid.: xxivf), Notes . . . , "Works for Organ" (Issuu: scroll 1/94 to 20-21/94). Two early, questionable groupings are now sorted and reclassified, based on the Breitkopf Catalogue of 1764, "among which, in the meantime, various incerta and incorrect attributions have now been identified (see App. A-C), say the BWV³ editors (Ibid.: xxv). The two early collections are the 24 chorale preludes, formerly known as "from the Kirnberger collection" (BWV 690–713, Wikipedia, copy & browser paste), and the Miscellaneous chorale preludes (BWV 714–765, Wikipedia, copy & browser paste). Considered Gebrauchsmusik ("utility" music) for religious services, resulting in variants and revisions of the music text going back to organists-copyists," such as manuscript collectors and later generation students Johann Peter Kellner (1705-1772) Johann Christian Lebrecht Kittel (1732-1809), and Johann Christian Heinrich Rinck (1770-1846). Because no Bach authenticity could be established, many of these "early" Bach organ chorale preludes were listed in the BWV as Anhang (Appendix) and are found in the BWV³ new Anhänge Appendix A-C (Ibid.: 675ff).¹⁵ Many of the original BWV Anh. (Anhang) listings of chorale preludes are found in Appendix C, BWV Anh. 47-75 (Ibid.: 712-14). The J. C. H. Rinck Collection has yielded four chorales now found in the BWV third edition: BWV 1171, Auf meinen lieben Gott (Emans 30); BWV 1172, Herr Christ, der einig Gotts Sohn (Emans 85); BWV 1173, Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ (Emans 111); and BWV 1174Komm, heiliger Geist, erfüll die Herzen (Emans 122).

ENDNOTES

¹ Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis: BWV³, Thematische-systematisches Verzeichnis der musikalischen Werke von Johann Sebastian Bach (Thematic and systematic index of the musical works of Johann Sebastian Bach), Dritte, erweiterte Neuausgabe (Third revised edition); eds. Christine Blanken, Christoph Wolff, Peter Wollny (Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 2022), (Breitkopf; see critique, BCW.
² A history of the Lutheran chorale is found in Carl F. Schalk, "German Hymnody," in Marilyn K. Stulken, Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship (Philadelphia PA: Fortress Press, 1981: 19-33); text, BCW.
³ See Notes on Layout, Contents, and Use: "Four-Part Chorales, Lieder and Arias with Figured Bass, Quodlibet" (Ibid.: xxiiv; Issuu: 1/94 scroll to 20-21/94).
⁴ Cantata 18, "Gleichwie der Regen und Schnee vom Himmel fällt" (Just as the rain and snow fall from heaven, Isaiah 55: 10-12; trans. Frances Browne), Chorale No. 5, "Ich bitt, O Herr, aus Herzensgrund" (I pray, o Lord, from the depths of my heart), Stanza 8, Lazarus Spengler, "Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verderbt" (Through Adam’s fall human nature; music, YouTube.
⁵ See also, Hans-Joachim Schulze, "150 Stück von den Bachischen Erben": zur Überlieferung der vierstimmigen Choräle Johann Sebastian Bachs, Bach Jahrbuch, vol. 69 (1983: 81ff).
⁶ Also see, Bach-Chorales, J. S. BACH CHORALES, ed. Luke Dahn (Salt Lake City: LuxSitPress, 2017: Indices I, Cross Indices, 14, Dietel-to Riemenschneider / Riemenschneider to Dietel: 209).
⁷ Gesangbuch der böhmischen Brüder (BWV³ Ibid.: 661); Emanuel in 1772 in Hamburg gave Charles Burney this only chorale book from Bach's Musical Library.
⁸ See Die frühen Sammlungem der vierstiemmigen Choräle (BWV³: Ibid.: 384ff); Issuu: 1/94 scroll to 50-51/94); the manuscript collections (in BWV and Bach Compendium) with their numbering are: Dietel; Penzel; Sara Levy (unknown copyist before 1800, 72 chorales); Carl Friedrich Christian Fasch (1762, 135 chorales); Amalien Bibliotek 1 (anonymous collector, copyist Kirnberger, c.1770, 164 chorales; Amalien Bibliotek 2 (anonymous collector, c.1770, 88 chorales); Birnstiel (Berlin, 1765/69, 2300 chorales); and Breitkopf (Leipzig, 1784-1787, 370 chorales).
⁹ Friedrich Christian Penzel: "Dreißsig Choral- und Liedsätze aus der Sammlung von Christian Friedrich Penzel"; See Wolfgang Wiemer, Johann Sebastian Bach und seine Schule: neu entdeckte Choral- und Liedsätze aus der Bach-Choral-Sammlung (1780) von Christian Friedrich Penzel, Wiemer ed. (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1985), music, contents (2 sacred songs, 12 Schemelli-Gesange, 18 chorales Bach students) Bach-Bibliographie; Stretta Music.
¹⁰ Bach, Choräle und Geistliche Lieder, NBA KB 3.1 (Frieder Rempp 1991; Bärenriter, details University of Minnesota: Library; 149 Choralsätze der Sammlung Dietel (Bach Digital) about 1735; Dreißsig Choral- und Liedsätze aus der Sammlung von Christian Friedrich Penzel (Monarchieliga, translation: Google Translate).
¹¹ See Wolfgang Wiemer, "Ein Bach-Doppelfund: verschollene Gerber-Abschrift (BWV 914 und 996) und unbekannte Choralsammlung Christian Friedrich Penzels," Bach-Jahrbuch 73 (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1987: 72f.
¹² Luke Dahn, "Timeline of Events Related to the Transmission of Bach Chorales," Bach-Chorales; "QUICK KEY TO THE EARLY CHORALE COLLECTIONS," Bach-Chorales; "Resources & Databases," Bach-Chorales; "Articles & Research," including "Chorale Scholarship Bibliography," Bach-Chorales.
¹³ Robin A. Leaver, "Bach’s Choral-Buch? The Significance of a Manuscript in the Sibley Library," in Bach Perspectives 12, Bach and the Organ, ed. Matthew Dirst (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2016: 16-38), series publication of the American Bach Society.
¹⁴ Chorale prelude research: Reinmar Emans, Organ Chorales from Miscellaneous Sources, Urtext of New Bach Edition; Series IV, Vol. 10 (Kassel: Bärenreiter-Verlag, 2008); Sheet Music Plus); Christine Blanken, Organ Chorales I, New Edition of the Complete Works - Revised Edition, BA 5939 (Kassel: Bärenreiter-Verlag, in preparation).
¹⁵ Anhänge (Attachments): Appendix A, "J.S. Bach" - Incerta, Doubworks on stylistic grounds but assigned to J. S. Bach in the 18th century; Appendix B, "Bach" - Incerta, Doubtful works on stylistic grounds that were previously included in BWV^1,2,2a in NBA, transmitted in the 18th century mainly anonymously and variously as by Bach; Appendix C, "Fehlzuschreibungen und Werke ohne Zuschreiben" (Falsely attributed and works without attribution), Unattributed works in copies or arrangements by J. S. Bach or his family (On stylistic grounds unlikely to be by Bach).

—————

To Come: Bach Cantatas Website: Chorale Topics, Themes, Sources, Usages, Translations.

BWV3 Catalogue, BCW Chorale Resources

William L. Hoffman wrote (November 27, 2022)\:
The Bach Cantatas Website (BCW, BCW) is a veritable treasure-trove or repository of research materials on Bach's chorale (hymn) sacred song settings. The BCW resources include articles on chorale topics, themes, sources, and usages, as well as unique compilations of translations of chorale texts in various languages and chorale melodies with their various usages in Bach's vocal and instrumental works. These ranged from vocal two- (hymn-book cantional) and four-part harmonizations (Wikipedia)

to four-part chorale fantasias that opened his chorale cantata cycle and extended chorale choruses as well as chorale canto tropes both vocal and instrumental in choruses, arias, and accompanied recitatives, and chant psalm tones in Latin church music to various purely instrumental adaptations of the canto in organ chorale preludes and partitas, both brief and extended (Wikipedia). The chorale settings are found in the new Bach Works Catalogue, Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis, BWV³.¹ Topics below involve "Bach Chorale Resource Publications, Manuscript," "Church Year, Thematic Chorales," "Chorales by Church Year Seasons, Times," "BCW Chorale Texts, Melodies," "Organ Chorale Preludes," and "Chorale History, Breitkopf; Chorale Texts, Melodies; Sources."

Sacred Song Harmonizations

The most common of Bach's sacred song settings are the four-part harmonizations of 185 free-standing chorales, BWV 253-438 (Wikipedia) and hymn settings in his cantatas, BWV 1-197a (Wikipeda), scan & Goggle paste)

As well as major vocal works, BWV 225-248 (list BCW, texts BCW. Also included in the new BWV3 Bach Works Catalogue are "Songs, Arias and Quodlibet," BWV 439-524 (Wikipedia). The list of chorale harmonizations compiled before the BWV 3rd edition (Wikipedia) involve those in Cantatas BWV 1-197a; the larger vocal works (motets; Matthew, John, Luke Passions, and the Christmas and Ascension Oratorios); the three Wedding Chorales, BWV 250-52; the free-standing four-voice chorales, BWV 253-438 (mostly by alpha); and select miscellaneous settings, BWV 441 to deest). Four-part chorale settings are found in some of Bach's motets, BWV 226/2, "Komm, Heiliger Geist, Herre Gott"; BWV 227/1,3,5,7,9,11, "Jesu, meine Freude"; and BWV 1165/2=Anh. 159/2, Warum betrübst du dich, Mein Herz" St. 3.

Bach Chorale Resource Publications, Manuscript

The total number of four-part chorales varies from the initial Breitkopf publication of 370 (1784-87, BCW) to the most recent listings of 420 (see "Bach Recent Chorale Studies, Resources," BCW), although some listings are duplicates, alternate variants, or questionable. There are three publications and one manuscript that governed Bach's Leipzig use of sacred songs. 1. Bach's guide for the use of chorales in Leipzig services was the Gottfried Vopelius Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch (NLGB) of 1682, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gottfried_Vopelius. 2. A chorale template for specific church services was his manuscript for his Orgelbüchlein, BWV 599-644 (https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00001229, https://groups.io/g/Bach/topic/95100877) begun about 1713/15, organized by church year events from de tempore Life of Christ beginning at Advent to omnes tempore church themes to the end of Trinity Time, projecting 164 chorale settings (see https://issuu.com/breitkopf/docs/bv_400_issuu: see 1/94, scroll to 72-73/94, BWV 3: 632-35), and with one incipit on each page while only 46 chorales (mostly for de tempore services) were set. 3. Another valuable textual resource was the so-called "Wagner Gesangbuch" (A Zeidler: Leipzig, 1697), an extensive compendium of German-language sacred songs in eight volumes with 4,723 texts in Bach's personal library, says Thomas Braatz.² Another valuable resource was the Schmelli Gesangbuch (Breitkopf: Leipzig, 1736; Wikipedia, MDZ). As music editor of the edition, Bach set 69 songs to music of melody and bass line out of 954 hymns, classified as BWV 439-507. It was a veritable compendium of old and new hymns, both orthodox and pietist, and was intended for personal, devotional use rather than at church services.

Church Year, Thematic Chorales

Observing the church year service template of the Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch, Bach set hymns from Advent to the Last Sunday in Trinity for 34 de tempore services, 27 for omnes tempore Trinity Time, and six for single Marian, saints, and Reformation feast days (BCW). Details of the Chorales by Theme (Church Year Orgelbüchlein [OB] template are found at the following:
1. Passiontide Devotional Chorales, Other Weiße Hymns: See "Weiße Advent Hymn Bach settings"
Bach Chorales, Church Year Orgelbüchlein [OB] template (BWV³ Ibid: 632-35, https://groups.io/g/Bach/message/1039); Advent, Christmas (OB 1-18), Epiphany Jesus Hymns (no OB #s), Purification feast (OB 19-20).
2. Holy Week Passion Chorales, Good Friday Chorales (OB 21-33).
Easter Season Chorales (to Trinityfest, OB 34-54), Marian & saint feasts (OB 55-60).
3. Clavierübung III, German Organ Mass/Catechism Chorales, BWV 669-689, Liturgy (CÜIII);
Luther's Deutsche Messe, Other Liturgical Chorales.
4. Christological Cycle: Penitential/Communion Chorales: Omne Tempore, Catechism (10 Commandments to Holy Communion (OB 61-86).
5. Chorales: Psalms, Christian Life, Troubles, Thanks, Weddings (OB 87-119), Word of God (OB 120-26).
6. Trinity 21-23, Death & Dying Chorales (OB 127-142); Last Trinity Time Sundays' Cantatas, Chorales.
7. Devotional Hymns: Morning, Evening Songs (OB 143-151).
8. Blessing & Thanks Hymns as Chorales at Meals; Tafelmusik (OB 152-156).
9. Eschatological Chorales, Coming in Judgement (OB 157-164).
10. Chorale-Song Collections, Student Work).

Chorales by Church Year Seasons, Times

In addition to BCW Discussions of chorales by theme are the classification of chorales by church year seasons or times, from Advent to Trinity Time (BCW):

De tempore:
1. Chorales for Sundays in Advent (BCW); also BCW;
|2. Chorales for Christmas (BCW);
3. Chorales for Turning Time (BCW);
4. Chorales for Epiphany Time (Jesus Hymns, BCW);
5. Chorales for Gesima Sundays (Pre-Lent, BCW);
6. Chorales for Sundays in Lent (BCW);
7. Chorales for Palm Sunday, Holy Week (BCW);
8. Chorales for Easter Festival (BCW);
9. Chorales for Easter Season (BCW);
10. Chorales for Ascension Day (BCW);
11. Chorales for Pentecost Festival (BCW);
12. Chorales for Trinity Sunday Festival (BCW).

Omnes tempore (Trinity Time)
In contrast to the de tempore first half of the church year on themes and events in the life of Jesus Christ, the omnes tempore second half of the church year deals with the thematic readings of the church (BCW) as found in the Gospel parables, miracles, and teachings mini-cycles from the 1st to the 19th Sunday after Trinity: Thematic Patterns in Bach's Gospels: 1) Trinity 1-4 is a four-week sequence of parables; 2) Trinity 5-8 has a series of paired miracles and teachings; 3) Trinity 9-19 generally alternates a parable with a teaching or miracle (source: BCW, scroll down to "Douglas Cowling wrote (May 3, 2011): THEMATIC PATTERNS IN BACH¹S GOSPELS"). The final quarter of the Trinity Time mini-cycles (Trinity 20-27) on the meaning of being a Christian emphasizes the "last things" (eschatology) couched in symbols of the annual Coming and Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The final cycle theme is the "Completion of the Kingdom of Righteousness" involving fulfillment and rewards. This Cycle of Last Things closes a complete year of instruction and emphasizes the promises/warnings of eternal life, says Paul Zeller Strodach.³ The individual Trinity Time Sunday chorales are found at Motets & Chorales for Events in the Lutheran Church Year (BCW, scroll down to 1st Sunday after Trinity [Trinity 1]).

In addition to these main service chorales, the Church Year in Bach's time (single composite lectionary) included the following main services, Events with fixed date:
1. Feast of Purification of Mary (Feb 2) [Purification]:
Motets & Chorales for Feast of Purification of Mary;
2. Feast of Annunciation of Mary (Mar 25) [Annunciation]:
Motets & Chorales for Feast of Annunciation of Mary;
3. Feast of Nativity of St John the Baptist (Jun 24) [St John]:
Motets & Chorales for Feast of John the Baptist;
4. Feast of Visitation of Mary (Jul 2) [Visitation]:
Motets & Chorales for Feast of Visitation of Mary;
5. Feast of St Michael and All Angels (Sep 29) [St Michael]:
Motets & Chorales for St. Michael and All Angels;
6. Feast of Reformation (Oct 31) [Reformation]:
Motets & Chorales for Feast of Reformation.

CW Chorale Texts, Melodies

Beyond the Bach Cantatas Website numerous chorale Church Year and Thematic articles are a wealth of articles on the chorale texts (CT) and chorale melodies (CM), with various translations in a variety of languages — a resource found nowhere else, on-line or otherwise. It should be noted that the chorales are traditionally identified by melody, which may include alternate melodies, as well as the associated (same title) text as well as alternate texts. A classic case of alternate melodies and texts is the Passion Chorale "Befiehl du deine Wege," BCW. For this complex of alternate texts and melodies connected with: Befiehl du deine Wege, see Paul Gerhardt (1653); Ach Herr, mich armen Sünder, by Cyriakus Schneegaß (1597), based on Psalm 6; Herzlich tut mich verlangen, by Christoph Knoll (1611); Ihr Christen, auserkoren, by Georg Werner (1648); O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden, by Paul Gerhardt (1656); Wie soll ich dich empfangen, by Paul Gerhardt (1653)

Lobet Gott, unsern Herren, by Author?. The Passion Chorale, "O Sacred Head now wounded," text by Catherine Winkworth, is derived from "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden" (Oh head, full of blood and wounds). The BCW Chorale Melodies used in Bach's Vocal Works can be found at BCW, sorted alphabetically with various alternate texts and melodies. The following are groupings of sacred songs by BWV collections: 1. large vocal works, BWV 225-249, BCW; 2. freestanding chorales, BWV 250-438, BCW, article, Gloria Settings, BWV 260; Free-Standing Chorales, BWV 253-438; 3. Schemelli Songbook cantional sacred songs, BWV 439-507 BCW; 4. Anna Magdalena Notenbüchlein, Sacred Songs & Quodlibet BWV 508-524, BCW. Recently added to the BWV are the following, "Other Vocal Works BWV 1081-1164," BCW, with chorales BWV 1084, 1089, 1122-26, 1135, 1142, and 1164.

Organ Chorale Preludes

Another extensive group of Bach chorale settings, besides the sacred songs, are the organ chorale preludes found in collections at Wikipedia: 7 Chorale Preludes.⁴ As with the sacred songs, there are various versions of the organ chorales, previously listed with the designation "a" after the BWV number but removed in the BWV 3rd edition (see instead Bach Compendium [BC] Complete List of Bach's Organ Works, BWV 599-771, category BC K, Chorale-based Organ Works). Here, the old BWV Anhang and BWV deest and listings of chorale preludes do not carry a BC K number. The new BWV³ edition has new, reorganized (reassigned) Anhänge (Attachments) Appendices A to C (Ibid.: 675-721):
*Appendix A (organ & clavier works), "J. S. Bach" - Incerta (uncertain), Doubtful works on stylistic grounds but assigned to J. S. Bach in the 18th century;
*Appendix B (Penzel chorale collection, organ & clavier works), "Bach" - Incerta (uncertain), Doubtful works on stylistic grounds that were previously included in BWV^1,2,2a in NBA, transmitted in the 18th century mainly anonymously and variously as by Bach; and
*Appendix C, "Fehlzuschreibungen und Werke ohne Zuschreiben" (Falsely attributed and works without attribution; see Issuu: scroll from 1/94 to 76-77/94: p. 703), unattributed works in copies or arrangements by J. S. Bach or his family (On stylistic grounds unlikely to be by Bach); citing the following categories: BWV^1,2,, beginning with apocryphal Bach works BWV 15, 53, 141, 142, 160, 189, 217-224, followed by apocryphal chorales BWV 262, 272, 342, 367, 419, 433; apocryphal organ chorales BWV 692(a), 723, 740, 743, 744, 745, 746, 748(a), 751, 759, 760, 761, 771); and Anh. apocryphal organ chorales 32-39, 47, 48, 56, 57, 61, 66, 73-75, 171, 172, 201-204, 206. The remaining categories in Appendix C are 2. title, composer; 3. attribution to JSB: sources, literature; and 4. not attributed to JSB: sources, literature, NBA.
*Appendix D from BWV^2,2a, involves "Formerly BWV-listed works/versions NOT by J. S. Bach; since demonstrated to be by other composers or variant/arrangements not from Bach," as cited in Bach 333.⁵ Following Appendix C (BWV³ Ibid: 722ff) is a new concordance, Neuzuweisungen der Werke aus Anhang (Reassignments of works from appendix), BWV^1,2 (722ff; see Issuu: scroll from 1/94 to 78-79/94: p. 722). The previous BWV editions listed the organ chorales in Anhang as BWV Anh. 42-79, 171-178, 200, 206, 208, 213 now found at pp. 725, 727, 728 in the new concordance. There also are recent BWV³ organ chorale additions: BWV 957, 1085, 1128, 1169-70, as well as the early Neumeister Collection, BWV 1090-1120; Rinck Collection, BWV 1171-74; BWV1175, and chorale partitas BWV 770 and 1176. The new BWV³ catalogue removes from the BWV³ main section descriptions of "Organ chorales of different traditions" (Ibid.: 455-487, BWV 690-771), and places them in Appendices A-C with newly assigned Appendices A & B App. numbers and composer attributions*: BWV 692* (C: 705), 705 (B 48), 708 (A 12), 716 (A 10), 723*? (C: 706), 726 (B 52), 743-746 (C: 706), 748* (C: 707), 749 (B 70), 750 (B 71), 752 (A 13), 754 (B 55), 755 (A 15), 756 (B 74), 757 (B 56), 758 (B 57), 758 (B 57), 759* (C: 707), 760-61* (*C: 707), 762 *(A 16), 763 (B 60), 1169=Anh. 200 (p.445 between BWV 624 and 625). A historical introduction to Bach's organ chorales is found at BCW, scroll down to William L. Hoffman wrote (July 25, 2009): "Geistliche Lieder und Arien BWV 439-507: Fugitive Note."

Chorale History, Breitkopf; Chorale Texts, Melodies; Sources

The Bach Cantatas Website (BCW) has a History of the Breitkopf Collection of J. S. Bach's Four-Part Chorales, Thomas Braatz, BCW, 2006 (BCW) with the Breitkopf numbering found at (BCW). Notable is the involvement of Emanuel Bach, Johann Philipp Kirnberger, and the Leipzig publisher Breitkopf, who had manuscript collections of Bach four-part chorales in its catalogues, beginning in 1761, while Emanuel and Kirnberger were part of the Berlin circle which collected Bach chorales housed in the Amalien Bibliothek.⁶ The BCW has a listing of Chorale Texts Used in Bach's Vocal Works (BCW), sorted alphabetically, with the text author and Bach's works, as well as a listing of Chorale Melodies Used in Bach's Vocal Works (BCW), sorted alphabetically, with the melody author and Bach works.

The Bach Cantatas Website sources of Bach's chorale settings are extensive. A wide range of on-line, print publication, data-based, Lutheran hymnals, and other resources are found at Chorale Melodies & Chorale Texts used in Bach's Vocal Works, BCW. Another valuable resource are "Hymnals with which Bach possibly may have been acquainted," by Thomas Braatz, at BCW. Recent publications and found manuscripts as well as a chorale bibliography and articles are discussed in Bach Books, BCW. An extensive discography of the free-standing chorales, BWV 250-438, is found at BCW, BCW. For discographies of the other chorale collections go to BCW on-line (BCW), and do a Google search (top left corner) by collection title. To navigate Bach's chorales, a useful tool is the BCW list of Technical & Musical Terms & Abbreviations, Part 6: Abbreviations used for the Chorales, BCW. The Charles F. Terry (Wikipedia chorale publications involve the three-volume studies of Bach's Chorales found at Liberry Fund, his Four-Part Chorales of J.S. Bach, texts and translations (London: Travis & Emery, 2009) found at Amazon.com); and Terry's J.S. Bach's Original Hymn-tunes for Congregational Use, found at Google Boogs. Bach Bibliography recent articles are found at Baach-Bibliographie. My BCW "Bach Recent Chorale Studies, Resources," is found at BCW. The NBA New Edition of the Complete Works of Bach — Revised Edition, is preparing two volumes of Organ Chorales: BA 5939-01, Volume 1 edited by Christine Blanken (Bärenreiter, while "Organ Chorales II" has no reference or editor listed. My BCW Discussion, "Organ Transcriptions, Part 2, 1750-1800, Transmission, Reception," is found at BCW.

ENDNOTES

¹ Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis: BWV³, Thematische-systematisches Verzeichnis der musikalischen Werke von Johann Sebastian Bach (Thematic and systematic index of the musical works of Johann Sebastian Bach), Dritte, erweiterte Neuausgabe (Third revised edition); eds. Christine Blanken, Christoph Wolff, Peter Wollny (Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 2022), (Breitkopf; see critique, BCW. Source, bcw, scan & Goggle paste). Chorale template for the church year in his Orgel-Büchlein, is outlined in the new BWV edition (Ibid: 384ff, Issuu: 1/94 scroll to 50/51/94) and another new BWV³ source is Die frühen Sammlungen der vierstimmigen Choräle, 632ff 1/94 to 72-73/94). There also are two key catalogue items: the Four-Part Chorales, BWV 250-438 etc. (Verstimmige Choräle: 365ff, Issuu: 1/94 scroll to 48-49/94) and Register, Catalogue of the Chorale Melodies and Their Texts (Verzeichnis der Choralmelodien und ihre Texte) found at Issuu: 783ff: 1/94 scroll to 86-87/94).
² Thomas Braatz, Bach’s “Wagner Hymnal” or the Most Complete Collection of German Chorale Texts at the End of the 17th Century (BCW, 2019, BCW: scroll down to "Introduction" for alpha list of chorale texts with Bach's settings.
³ Paul Zeller Strodach, The Church Year: Studies in the Introits, Collects, Epistles and Gospels (United Lutheran Publication House, Philadelphia PA, 1924: 239)]. The progressive Protestant churches today follow the 20th century Roman Catholic concept of the last Sunday of the Church Year as "Christ the King" Sunday (Wikipedia) with three Bach cantatas appropriate for this service in today's three-year Revised Common Lectionary: Year A, Cantata 116, "Du Friedefürst, Herr Jesu Christ" (You prince of peace, Lord Jesus Christ; trans. Francis Browne);
Yaer B, Cantata 117, "Sei Lob und Ehr dem höchsten Gut" (Let there be praise and honour for the highest good); Year C, Cantata 182, "Himmelskönig, sei willkommen" (King of heaven, welcome), source John S. Setterlund, Bach Through the Year: The Church Music of Johann Sebastian Bach and the Revised Common Lectionary (Minneapolis: Lutheran Univ. Press: 2013), Amazon.com: "Look inside").

⁴ Chorale Prelude collections:
1. Orgelbüchlein, BWV 599-644 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organ_compositions_by_Johann_Sebastian_Bach#Orgelbüchlein_(Little_Organ_Book,_BWV_599–644: copy & Google paste);
2. Schübler Chorales (six cantata aria trios), BWV 645-650 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organ_compositions_by_Johann_Sebastian_Bach#Schübler_Chorales_(BWV_645–650): copy & Google paste);
3. Great 18 (Leipzig) Chorale Preludes, BWV 651-668 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organ_compositions_by_Johann_Sebastian_Bach#Great_Eighteen_Chorale_Preludes,_a.k.a._Leipzig_Chorales_(BWV_651–668): copy & Google paste);
4. Clavier-Übung III German Organ Mass, Catechism, BWV 669–689(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organ_compositions_by_Johann_Sebastian_Bach#Chorale_preludes_in_Clavier-Übung_III_(BWV_669–689)): copy & Google paste);
5. Breitkopf Chorales (Organ chorales of different traditions, BWV³ Ibid.: 455ff): formerly Kirnberger collection, BWV 690-713 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organ_compositions_by_Johann_Sebastian_Bach#24_chorale_preludes,_formerly_known_as_%22from_the_Kirnberger_collection%22_(BWV_690–713): copy & Google paste), and miscellaneous chorale preludes, BWV 714-765 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organ_compositions_by_Johann_Sebastian_Bach#Miscellaneous_chorale_preludes_(BWV_714–765): copy & Google paste);
6. Chorale Partitas, BWV 766-768, and 7. Canonic Variations on "Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her", BWV 769 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organ_compositions_by_Johann_Sebastian_Bach#Chorale_partitas_(BWV_766–768)): copy & Google paste).
⁵ Bach 333, J. S. Bach: The New Complete Edition, BWV/Index Book, BWV numerical listing and chronology (using new BWV3 research), A–Z work and artist indexes (Berlin: Deutsche Grammophon, 2018: np), Bach333, Amazon.com.
⁶ See Die frühen Sammlungen der vierstimmigen Choräle (The early collections of the four-part chorales, BWV³: Ibid.: 384ff); Issuu: 1/94 scroll to 50-51/94); the manuscript collections (in BWV and Bach Compendium) with their numbering are: Dietel; Penzel; Sara Levy (unknown copyist before 1800, 72 chorales); Carl Friedrich Christian Fasch (1762, 135 chorales); Amalien Bibliothek 1 (anonymous collector, copyist Kirnberger, c.1770, 164 chorales; Amalien Bibliothek 2 (anonymous collector, c.1770, 88 chorales); Birnstiel (Berlin, 1765/69, 2300 chorales); and Breitkopf (Leipzig, 1784-1787, 370 chorales).