Book Review: Bach Complete Chorales Urtext Edition

William L. Hoffman wrote (November 17, 2021):
As a significant contribution to Bach hymnology, Bach's complete, harmonized chorales have just been published in an Urtext musical edition,¹ edited by Thomas Daniel from Breitkopf & Härtel in two-parts with informative German-English texts. It enumerates all of his plain (four-part) chorales in cantional style (Statelite-One.net), involving settings of the Lutheran congregational hymns, beginning in Part I from the sacred (cyclical) vocal works (i.e. cantatas, motets, passions, BWV 1-252), alphabetically listed in numerical designation Nos. 1-198, with BWV numbers (i.e., from No. 1, "Ach Gott und Herr," found in BWV 48/3 = Cantata 48, movement 3, internal chorale). This paperback publication for the first time separates the authentic chorales in Part I from those with suspicious, "partly dubious authorship" (Breitkopf.com: Description) in Part II,² "Chorales from the Posthumous Printings and Sources by Other Hands," also listed alpha-numerically, involving Nos. 201-381 (i.e. beginning No. 201, "Ach bleib bei uns, Herr Jesu Christ," BWV 253), some 186 independent, free-standing plain chorales, BWV 253-438 (BGA Vol.39, see Wikipedia), followed by Appendices.³ Part II involves "individual settings from the prints lacking an authentic source," says Daniel in "Preface" (4), beginning with the Birnstiel 1765/69 print collection of 200 Bach chorales, followed by the complete publication of 370 chorales by Leipzig publisher Breitkopf in four volumes (1784-87), without texts, only the incipit, suggesting these were for study rather than performance.⁴ Earlier were the manuscript collections of Bach student(s) Johann Ludwig Dietel (BCW, Wikipedia) and Carl Friedrich Fasch (Wikipedia),

The Bach Complete Chorales complements and advances previous materials and documents involving Bach's four-part congregational hymns, a genre which he used extensively in his vocal music for church services. Part 1 "collects those primarily deriving from his cyclical vocal works and for which largely authentic original sources exist," says Daniel in Part I, On the Edition (8). Each chorale is printed in a two-part (soprano-bass staves) keyboard system following the formatting of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, second-oldest son (BCW), who edited and oversaw the Birnstiel and Breitkopf editions. The Bach Gesellschaft Ausgabe published the authoritative collection, Vol. 39, Franz Wüllner editor, in 1892, followed by the performing paperback edition of Bernhardt Friedrich Richter in 1898.⁵ Richter printed the first stanza of each chorale between the staves with the total number of stanzas, listed the melody author or hymnal source and text author, as well as the applicable, cyclical musical source; Daniel provides appended subtexts below the staves with more detailed information in place of a critical report.

Free-Standing Chorales

Part II of the Bach Complete Chorales provides the most extensive new source-critical information on the sources of the free-standing, four-part hymnal chorales, BWV 253-438, etc., also called “independent,” “unattached” or “orphan” chorales, as Charles S. Terry noted.⁶ Originally, these prints and copies from other sources, which could not be found in Bach's extant vocal works, were presumed to be from the some 100 "lost" Bach sacred cantatas of five church-year cycles (5x60=300, 200 extant).⁷ Some of the chorale settings are free-standing hymns for service liturgy, such as the Mass and Catechism chorales in the Clavierübung III (BCW). There are four collections of third-party settings, beginning with the Dietel manuscript collection c.1735 and the Fasch collection in 1762, followed by the collection publications of the Birnsteil and Breitkopf. In early 1735, Bach's student and main copyist Dietel (1713-1773, BCW, Bach Digital) compiled a collection of 149 plain-chorale settings without texts 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" on loan from Dietel for copying at a fee. A listing (BCW) shows chorales from cantatas, oratorios, motets, and 45 free-standing settings (BWV 257-436), notated for the first time, as well as three 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). The Dietel collection also includes 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.

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 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: Resources).⁸ These Sebastian Bach chorale copies include settings from the cantatas, Passions, and oratorios, as well as free-standing arrangements (Bach Digital). "Occasionally, two other sources are drawn upon," says Daniel (186), the 1780 Amalien library of Wolfenbüttel, "largely taken from Dietel," and the chorale collection copied by Christian Friedrich Penzel (1780, BCW). Beginning about 1780 as cantor at Merseberg, Penzel compiled a collection of 226 chorales, of which 30 were published in the NBA III/3⁹ and are the final Nos. 195 to 226 in the Penzel collection. This group includes 18 from other 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 Schemelli, five from the Neu Leizpger Gesangbuch of 1684 as Leipzig sources, and three from other sources.¹⁰

Internet Chorale Sources: Bach Cantatas Website, etc.

In addition to the sources cited above and in the Endnotes below, there are two major study sources of Bach chorale studies: the internet, most notably the Bach Cantatas Website ( BCW https://bach-cantatas.com/index.htm) and the print medium (bibliography). The following is the BCW listing of topics in the plain chorale category: <<Chorales BWV 250-438: Details and Recordings
Individual Recordings: Hilliard - Morimur | Chorales - N. Matt | Chorales - H. Rilling | Preludi ai Corali - Quartetto Italiani di Viola Da Gamba
Discussions: Motets & Chorales for Events in the LCY / Chorales by Theme | General Discussions: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Chorales in Bach Cantatas: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Passion Chorale
References: Chorales BWV 250-300 | Chorales BWV 301-350 | Chorales BWV 351-400 | Chorales BWV 401-438 | 371 4-Part Chorales sorted by Breitkopf Number | Texts & Translations of Chorales BWV 250-438
Chorale Texts: Sorted by Title | Chorale Melodies: Sorted by Title | Explanation
MIDI files of the Chorales: Cantatas BWV 1-197 | Other Vocal Works BWV 225-248 | Chorales BWV 250-438
Articles: The Origin of the Texts of the Chorales [A. Schweitzer] | The Origin of the Melodies of the Chorales [A. Schweitzer] | The Chorale in the Church Service [A. Schweitzer] | Choral / Chorale [C.S. Terry] | Hidden Chorale Melody Allusions [T. Braatz] | The History of the Breitkopf Collection of J. S. Bach’s Four-Part Chorales [T. Braatz]
Hymnals: Hymnals used by Bach | Wagner Hymnal 1697 | Evangelisches Gesangbuch 1995 | Dietel Chorale List c1734.
Abbreviations used for the Chorales | Links to other Sites about the Chorales.>>

The most significant sources are Motets & Chorales for Events in the LCY / Chorales by Theme, from New Year's Day through the Reformation Feast, as well as Chorales by Theme: Passion Chorale (November 16-18, 2004); Clavierübung III, German Organ Mass/Catechism Chorales, BWV 669-689 (July 9+16, 2017); Luther's Deutsche Messe, Other Liturgical Chorales (July 21, 2017); Christological Cycle: Penitential/Communion Chorales (July 25, 2017); Chorales: Psalms, Christian Life, Troubles, Thanks, Weddings (July 28, 2017); Gloria Settings, BWV 260; Free-Standing Chorales, BWV 253-438 (September 23, 2017); Trinity 21-23, Death & Dying Chorales (December 3, 2017); Last Trinity Time Sundays' Cantatas, Chorales (December 7, 2017); Devotional Hymns: Morning, Evening Songs (December 14, 2017); Blessing & Thanks Hymns as Chorales at Meals; Tafelmusik (December 21, 2017); Eschatological Chorales, Coming in Judgement (December 24, 2017); Passiontide Devotional Chorales, Other Weiße Hymns (February 20, 2018); Holy Week Passion Chorales (March 25, 2018)

Good Friday Chorales (March 31, 2018); Easter Season Chorales (April 11, 2018); and
Chorale-Song Collections, Student Work (October 14, 2018). The other major category of BCW chorale studies are: Chorale Texts: Sorted by Title, A to Z, English usually translated by Francis Browne, with other translations in Catalan-1 | Dutch-3 | English-1 | English-3I | English-3P | English-6 | French-4 | French-6 | Hebrew-1 | Indonesian | Italian-2 | Russian-1 | Spanish-2 | Spanish-3, and Bach's vocal works with text; and the associated, variant Chorale Melodies: Sorted by Title | Explanation, with variant texts/melodies and Bach's uses.

Other accessible on-line chorale source are: 1. Charles S. Terry, Footnote 6, Liberty Fund Network (Bach’s Chorals, vol. 1 The Hymns and Hymn Melodies of the “Passions” and Oratorios (OLL)); 2. Luke Dahn's bach-chorales.com, The Four–Part Chorales of J.S. Bach; 3, Baerenreiter, Bach New Edition of Complete Works, contents ( Bärenriter); and 4. Bach Digital, Bach Archiv Leipzig, by BWV ( Bach Digital).

Chorale Bibliography (Print)

The print bibliographical references for chorales are divided into two categories: Monographs and Articles. The monographs involve special publications and studies:

BC (Bach Compendium): Analytisch-bibliographisches Repertorium der Werke Johann Sebastian Bachs; Hans-Joachim Schulze, Christoph Wolff (Frankfurt, Peters: 1989), Work Group F, Chorales and Sacred Songs (BCW); 1. Group Descriptions in headings: Four-Part Chorales, Chorales and Sacred Songs with Basso Continuo, The Transmission, Origins, and Functions of the Chorales, and The Hymnological References; 2. Synopsis of Four-Part Chorales (Alpha); Abe Books.

NBA (Neue Bach-Ausgabe), Johann-Sebastian-Bach Institute Göttingen, Bach-Archiv Leipzig; New Edition, Complete Works: Series III, Motets, Chorales, Lieder; Critical Commentary, Frieder Rempp (Bärenriter): 1. 2/1, Chorales and Sacred Songs, Part 1, repertoires from before 1750 (1991, Bäenriter), Content: wedding chorales, BWV 250-252; Johann Ludwig Dietel Collection; Sacred Songs and Arias from the Schemelli Gesangbuch, BWV 439-507. 2. 2/2, Chorales and Sacred Songs, Part 2, C.P.E. Bach Collection, Breitkopf Leipzig, 1784-87, BWV 253-438 (1996, Bärenriter); 3. 2/3, Chorale Settings and Songs of Doubtful Authenticity with Critical reports on works which were mistakenly attributed to J.S. Bach as well as an appendix to the critical commentary Volume III/2 (2002, Bärenriter), Content: 30 chorales & songs from the Christian Friedrich Penzel collection; 11 chorales and sacred songs from the Carl Ferdinand Becker edition (Die Choralsammlungen der verschiedenen christlichen Kirchen [Leipzig: Verlag Fleischer, 1845]); chorale, "Herr Gott, dich loben alle wir," BWV Anh. 31; chorale, "So gibst du nun, mein Jesu, gutte nacht, BWV deest, after Johann Christian Köpping copy.

Luke Dahn, J. S. Bach Chorales: A new comprehensive edition arranged by BWV catalogue (with text and historical contextual information included for each chorale, with numerous indices included in the appendix; Salt Lake City: LuxSit Press, 2017), bach-chorales.com.

Chorale Articles

Elisabeth Graft, "A Book of Chorale-Settings for Johann Sebastian Bach," conductor Helmut Rilling (BCW); history of Bach chorale publication, complete plain-chorales by church year and themes (with chorale prelude settings).

Robin A. Leaver, Chapter 14, "Chorales," The Routledge Research Companion to J. S. Bach, ed. Leaver (London & New York: Routledge, 2017: 358-376), Amazon.com; emphasis in sections, "Bach's Earliest Chorale Repertory," "Bach's Figured Bass Chorales in Leipzig," and "Bach's Pupils and Pedagogy."

Robin A. Leaver, "chorale," in Oxford Composer Companions: J. S. Bach, ed. Malcolm Boyd (New York, Oxford University Press, 1999: 92-94), Amazon.com; theology and musical importance, characteristics and uses in services and catechism.

Werner Neumann, 4. Chorale-Arrangement Forms in the Cantatas, 5. Chorale Melodies in the Cantatas, in Handbuch Der Kantaten Joh. Seb. Bachs, 5th ed. (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1984: 273-276); vocal (solo, chorus), instrumental arrangements; cantata hymns (alpha); Abe Books.

Carl F. Schalk, "German Hymnody," in Marilyn K. Stulken, Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship (Philadelphia PA: Fortress Press, 1981: 190-31); BCW, scan and Google paste; periods impacting Bach most: "The Period of Paul Gerhardt, the Thirty Years' War, and the Development of New Literary Concerns (c1618-75)" (26) and "The Period of Pietism (c1675-1750)

Christoph Wolff, "On the Recognition of Bach and `the Bach Chorale': Eighteenth-Century Perspectives," in Bach Essays on his Life and Music (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1991: 383ff; the half century after Bach's death in 1750 shows musicians recognizing Bach, especially plain chorale published teaching harmony and counterpoint.

Christoph Wolff, "Choräle," in The World of the Bach Cantatas, Vol. 3, Leipzig Church Cantatas, ed. Christoph Wolff (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2000: 213-222), German only, Bärenriter.

ENDNOTES

¹ Bach, Complete Chorales for Four-Part Mixed Choir, ed. Thomas Daniel (Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 2021), ChB5377, Breikopf & Hartel; Look inside.
² Part II also includes three variant settin(BWV 375a, 421a, 422a) and alternate titles ("Wo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns hält," BWV 256-258, 438).
³ Appendices: A, Single settings from the posthumous printing of Birnstiel (1765) and the manuscript chorale collections of Dietel and Penzel, Nos. 382-388 (BWV 1089, 1122-23, 1125-26; deest=BWV 441), B, Arrangements of chorales by Bach omitting the individual instrumental parts, Nos. 389-393, with three from the cyclical Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248/42, /9, /23; also lists Chorales by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (Appendix C, 338ff, Nos. 394-6), and Spezielle Anmerkungen (Special Notes, deviations, details; 342ff) in German only, as well as List of Chorales (347ff), and Indices (353ff) involving alpha text incipits, BWV numbers (357ff), and alpha melody composers and lyricists (361ff).
⁴ See Thomas Braatz, "The History of the Breitkopf Collection of J. S. Bach’s Four-Part Chorales" (Bach Cantatas Website, September 2006), BCW).
⁵ Bernhard Friedrich Richter, Joh. Seb. Bach, 389 Choral-Gesänge für gemischten Chor (Wiesbaden; Breitkopf & Härtel, 1898), EB3765, Presto Music; Concordance EB3765-ChB5377, Breitkopf.
⁶ Charles S. Terry, The Four-Part Chorales of J. S. Bach, With the German Text of the Hymns and English Translations; Edited, with an historical Introduction, Notes, and critical Appendices (London: Oxford University Press, 1929 (reprinted 1954), Amazon.com; also see on line Terry’s Bach Chorales, 3 vols.: vol. 1 The Hymns and Hymn Melodies of the “Passions” and Oratorios (1915), Bach’s Chorals, vol. 1 The Hymns and Hymn Melodies of the “Passions” and Oratorios (OLL), vol. 2 The Hymns and Hymn Melodies of the Cantatas and Motetts (1917), Bach’s Chorals, vol. 2 The Hymns and Hymn Melodies of the Cantatas and Motetts (OLL); source, BCW.
⁷ See Luke Dahn, bach-chorales.com, Speculations Regarding the Original Liturgical Occasions of the Individual BWV 253–438 Chorales.
⁸ See also, Luke Dahn, "Timeline of Events Related to the Transmission of Bach Chorales"; "QUICK KEY TO THE EARLY CHORALE COLLECTIONS," "Resources & Databases"; "Articles & Research," including "Chorale Scholarship Bibliography".
⁹ Bach, Choräle und Geistliche Lieder, NBA KB 3.1 (Frieder Rempp 1991; Bärenriter, details University of Minnesota Deluth; 149 Choralsätze der Sammlung Dietel (Bach Digital) about 1735; Dreißsig Choral- und Liedsätze aus der Sammlung von Christian Friedrich Penzel (Monarchieliga, translation: Google Translate).
¹⁰ Wolfgang Wiemer, J.S. Bach und seine Schule: Neu entdeckte Choral- und Liedsätze (Kassel; Bärenreiter, 2002), Stretta Music.