The Complete Chorales are an Urtext edition of all four-part chorales by Johann Sebastian Bach and the new standard in editing for this genre. Musicologist Thomas Daniel, a well-known specialist for the topic of Bach chorales, divided the chorales in two parts of about equal length: Chorales from cantatas, motets, and passions that were confirmedly written by Bach are found in the first part, while the second part includes chorales from later sources and printings, e.g. the four-volume edition published by Breitkopf in 1784 to 1787. Thereby, the authentic chorales are clearly separated from the chorales of partly dubious authorship for the first time. Drawing on new sources, e.g. from the archive of the Berliner Sing-Akademie, some settings can even be attributed to Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach – contrary to his claim in the preface of the Breitkopf edition that all “songs” were “created by my dear late father”.
The volume includes an informative preface and a separate introduction on the edition for both parts while giving editorial remarks for each chorale for the first time, directly below the score. Additionally, it provides helpful indices that allow searches for text incipits, BWV numbers, melody composers, and lyricists.
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