The Bach-Archiv Leipzig or Bach-Archiv is an institution for the documentation and research of the life and work of

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (German: Help:IPA/Standard German, �joːhan zeˈbasti̯an baχ ( – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque music, Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety ...

. The Bach-Archiv also researches the

Bach family The Bach family is a family of notable composers of the baroque and classical periods of music, the best-known of whom was Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750). A family genealogy was drawn up by Johann Sebastian Bach himself in 1735 when he was ...

, especially their music. Based in

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

, the city where Bach lived from 1723 until his death, the Archiv is recognised by the German government as a "cultural beacon" of national importance. Since 2008 the Bach-Archiv has been part of the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

History

The Bach-Archiv was founded on the occasion of the bicentennial of Bach's death in 1950 by

Werner Neumann Werner Neumann (21 January 1905, Königstein – 24 April 1991, Leipzig) was a German musicologist. He founded the Bach-Archiv Leipzig on 20 November 1950 and was a principal editor of the Neue Bach-Ausgabe, the second edition of the complete ...

, who remained its director until 1973. It served as a central archive for manuscripts and historic documents connected to the composer and a central research center related to him and his family. At the time of the institution's foundation Leipzig was in

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

. Prior to German unification there was collaboration with Bach experts in

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

. For example, the second edition of Bach's complete works, the

Neue Bach-Ausgabe The New Bach Edition (NBE) (; NBA), is the second complete edition of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, published by Bärenreiter. The name is short for Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750): New Edition of the Complete Works (''Johann Sebastian ...

, was a joint project between the Bach-Archiv and the

Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Institut The Johann Sebastian Bach Institute (German: Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Institut) was an institute dedicated to Johann Sebastian Bach in Göttingen, Germany. It was founded in 1951 as one of two institutes preparing the New Bach Edition, the second compl ...

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

, West Germany.

Uwe Wolf Uwe Wolf (born 10 August 1967 in Neustadt an der Weinstraße) is a German football coach and former professional player. Honours Necaxa * Primera División de México Liga MX, also known as Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is a profess ...

(editor); Contributions by

Georg von Dadelsen Georg von Dadelsen (17 November 1918 – 25 May 2007) was a German musicologist, who taught at the University of Hamburg and the University of Tübingen. He focused on Johann Sebastian Bach, his family and his environment, and the chronology of hi ...

Alfred Dürr Alfred Dürr (3 March 1918 – 7 April 2011) was a German musicologist. He was a principal editor of the Neue Bach-Ausgabe, the second edition of the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Professional career Dürr studied musicology and Clas ...

Hans-Joachim Schulze Hans-Joachim Schulze (born 3 December 1934) is a German musicologist, a Bach scholar who served as the director of the Bach Archive in Leipzig from 1992 to 2000. With Christoph Wolff, he was editor of the ''Bach-Jahrbuch'' (Bach yearbook) from 19 ...

Frieder Zschoch Frieder Zschoch (30 March 1932 – 3 March 2016) was a German musicologist. Life Zschoch was born in Großenhain as the second son of the Lutheran pastor Reinhold Zschoch and his wife Hildegard. He grew up in a musical home and received piano ...

and others
''Die Neue Bach-Ausgabe 1954–2007: Eine Dokumentation''.

Bärenreiter Bärenreiter (Bärenreiter-Verlag) is a German classical music publishing house based in Kassel. The firm was founded by Karl Vötterle (1903–1975) in Augsburg in 1923, and moved to Kassel in 1927, where it still has its headquarters; it ...

, 2007. P3. 3ff After unification the Bach-Archiv became part of the

Konferenz Nationaler Kultureinrichtungen The Konferenz Nationaler Kultureinrichtungen (KNK) or Conference of National Cultural Institutions is a union of more than twenty cultural organizations in the New states of Germany, former East Germany. It was established in 2002 in Halle, Saxony- ...

, a union of more than twenty cultural organizations in the former East Germany which are deemed to be nationally significant. The Göttingen Institute closed in 2006. Since 23 November 2008 the Bach-Archiv has been an institute of the

Location

The Bach Archive moved in 1985 from the

Gohlis Palace The Gohlis Palace (in German language, German: ''Gohliser Schlösschen'') is a Rococo architecture, Rococo building in the Leipzig borough of Gohlis, Germany, built as a representative bourgeois country house. It is one of the city's sights. Loca ...

into the historic

Bosehaus The Bosehaus is a historic house in the Thomaskirchhof, Leipzig, Germany. The building is of 16th century origin, but was updated in baroque style by Georg Heinrich Bose. It currently houses the Bach-Archiv Leipzig and its Bach Museum along with ...

opposite the

Thomaskirche The St. Thomas Church () is a Lutheran church in Leipzig, Germany, located at the western part of the inner city ring road in Leipzig's central district. Martin Luther preached in the church in 1539. It is associated with several well-known ...

. The site was restored from 2008 to 2010 to comply with the latest safety requirements, and was opened again on 20 March 2010 by the

President of Germany The president of Germany, officially titled the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany (),The official title within Germany is ', with ' being added in international correspondence; the official English title is President of the F ...

Horst Köhler Horst Köhler (; 22 February 1943 – 1 February 2025) was a German politician who served as President of Germany from 2004 to 2010. As the candidate of the two Christian Democratic sister parties, the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, CDU ...

. The

Neue Bachgesellschaft The Neue Bachgesellschaft, or New Bach Society, is an organisation based in Leipzig, Germany, devoted to the music of the composer Johann Sebastian Bach. It was founded in 1900 as the successor to the Bach Gesellschaft, which between 1850 and 19 ...

shares the premises, which also houses a Bach Museum.The Bach Museum Leipzig
/ref>

Management

Directors: * 1950–1973:

* 1974–1979:

* 1979–1991:

Werner Felix Werner Felix (30 July 1927 – 24 September 1998) was a German music historian and Bach scholar. He was rector of the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt, Weimar and the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig as well as president of the of the ...

* 1992–2000:

* 2001–2013:

Christoph Wolff Christoph Wolff (born 24 May 1940) is a German musicologist. He is best known for his works on the music, life, and period of Johann Sebastian Bach. Christoph Wolff is an emeritus professor of Harvard University, and was part of the faculty sinc ...

* :

Peter Wollny Peter Wollny (born 29 June 1961) is a German musicologist, a Bach scholar who has served the Bach Archive Leipzig beginning in 1993, and as its director from 2014. Wollny has contributed to the Neue Bach-Ausgabe, and has been an editor of '' Ca ...

Presidents (new position as of 2014; Presidents are appointed for a five-year term): * 2014–2019:

Sir John Eliot Gardiner Sir John Eliot Gardiner (born 20 April 1943) is an English conductor, particularly known for his performances of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, especially the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage of 2000, performing Bach's church cantatas in liturgica ...

* :

Ton Koopman Antonius Gerhardus Michael "Ton" Koopman (; born 2 October 1944) is a Dutch conductor, organist, harpsichordist, and musicologist, primarily known for being the founder and director of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir. He is a professor ...

Projects

Projects with a major participation by the Bach Archive: *

New Bach Edition The New Bach Edition (NBE) (; NBA), is the second complete edition of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, published by Bärenreiter. The name is short for Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750): New Edition of the Complete Works (''Johann Sebastian ...

(critical

Urtext edition An urtext edition (from German prefix wikt:ur-, ur- ''original'') of a work of classical music is a printed version intended to reproduce the original intention of the composer as exactly as possible, without any added or changed material. Other ...

of all of Johann Sebastian Bach's extant works, published between 1954 and 2007) *

Bach Digital Bach Digital (German: ), developed by the Bach Archive in Leipzig, is an online database which gives access to information on compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach and members of his family. Early manuscripts of such compositions are a major foc ...

(portal website, launched in 2010, with data and digital facsimiles of compositions by members of the

)Legal note
at Bach Digital website. * Online Bach Bibliography (merger, operated since 2012, of the data of the former Bach Bibliography website by , which had been online since 1997, into the bibliographical data of the Archive, accessible via a web interface) * jsbach biografie online (multimedia calendar documenting Bach's life story) * Bach 333 (complete recordings set of Johann Sebastian Bach's works, with detailed documentation, released in 2018)''Bach 333'' website
(26 October 2018)

Acquisitions

In 2021, the Bach Archive acquired

Gustav Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic music, Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and ...

's Bach edition, 59 of the 61 volumes of the

Bach-Gesellschaft-Ausgabe Joh. Seb. Bach's Werke () is the Bach Gesellschaft's collected edition of Johann Sebastian Bach's compositions, published in 61 volumes in the second half of the 19th century. The series is also known as Bach-Gesellschaft edition (; BGA), or as ''B ...

, the first collected edition of Bach's works, with handwritten annotations by Mahler> and his arrangement of the Gavotte from Bach's Orchestral Suite, BWV 1068. The edition had been in private possession, and will become open to musicologists and the public for the first time, as Wollny told the press.

Relevance

Today the Bach-Archiv is a renowned center of Bach research with a scientific library for Bach topics. There is engagement with a wider public via the Bach-Museum and via performances of Bach's music, especially the ''

Bachfest Leipzig The Bachfest Leipzig (Leipzig Bach Festival) is a music festival which takes place annually, in the month of June, in the city of Leipzig, where J. S. Bach worked as the Thomaskantor from 1723 until his death in 1750. The current artistic direct ...

'' (an international festival) and the ''Internationaler Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Wettbewerb'' (an international music competition).

References

External links

Website of the Bach Archive

Bach-Archiv in Leipzig
Leipzig
Bach-Archiv Leipzig zieht positive Jahresbilanz 2010
Bach-Archiv, Leipzig, 23 December 2010 (in German) {{Authority control Music archives in Germany Music in Leipzig East German music Johann Sebastian Bach 1950 establishments in East Germany Leipzig University