A society founded on the centenary of Bach's death (1850) to publish a complete critical edition of his works. By that time all the principal keyboard works had been printed, but it was obvious that a non-commercial scheme was needed for the vocal works.
The notion of a Bach-Gesellschaft, dating back to the 1830s, can be linked with Mendelssohn's efforts on the composer's behalf. A further stimulus came in 1843 when the English Handel Society was founded in London. In July 1850 Otto Jahn, together with Robert Schumann, C.F. Becker, Mortiz Hauptmann and the Leipzig firm of Breitkopf & Härtel, issued a preliminary announcement which was sent to a number of prospective supporters. By the end of the same month it had gained the support, in various periodicals, of Liszt, Spohr and many others. The society's inaugural meeting took place in Leipzig on 15 December 1850.
As the first German musicological project of such vast scope, the Bach edition encountered many problems over the following years. The main difficulty was in obtaining a comprehensive overview of the composer's surviving output. A catalogue of his works begun in the 1830s by Franz Hauser was a basic source of information on Bach's compositions and the location of autographs and other relevant manuscripts. Individual volumes were delayed because the owners of various sources denied the editors access to important material. For example, the edition of the B minor Mass was deferred several times because Hermann Nägeli would allow no-one to inspect the autograph in his possession; it was not until Friedrich Chrysander had obtained the source that the volume could be completed. There were also differences of opinion among the members of the committee as to how far the edition should cater for the needs of practical music-making; it was debated, for example, whether the scores of the vocal works should be provided with piano reductions. When the idea was rejected, Moscheles, who had championed the cause of the performing musician, resigned from the committee. The first volume of the Bach edition, containing cantatas nos.1–10, appeared in December 1851; it was edited by Hauptmann, who over the next few years shared the responsibility for a number of volumes with Julius Rietz and Wilhelm Rust. From 1859 Rust assumed sole charge, which he finally relinquished in 1882 after disagreements with Philipp Spitta. The later volumes were again supervised by several different editors.
The complete Bach edition initiated a significant change in contemporary attitudes to early music, and paved the way for comparable editions of the works of Handel, Schütz, Palestrina and Lassus. Although it does not match contemporary standards of source criticism, the editors' approach was remarkably scrupulous and scientific for its time. The whole edition is free of editorial accretions. Rust prefaced numerous volumes with forewords discussing the sources and performance practice, and in volume xliv the editors provided a thorough documentation of the composer's handwriting. Only a few of Bach's works are missing, while a few compositions now known to be by other composers were erroneously included.
With the completion of volume lxvi, presented to the committee on 27 January 1900, the Bach-Gesellschaft was dissolved, in accordance with its statutes. On the same day the Neue Bachgesellschaft (NBG) was founded in order to disseminate and research into the composer's works, and from the early years of the century held regular Bach festivals. In its first years, especially, it published a large quantity of music, including collections of arias and arrangements aimed at the needs of performing musicians. Its journal, the Bach-Jahrbuch, has appeared almost every year since 1904. In 1906 the society acquired the house in Eisenach where the composer was once thought to have been born, and opened a Bach museum there. Unlike many other German musicological organizations, the NBG survived intact during the period of the country's division.
‘Aufforderung zur Stiftung einer Bach-Gesellschaft’, Signale für die musikalische Welt, viii (1850), 289–91
H. Kretzschmar: ‘Die Bach-Gesellschaft: Bericht im Auftrage des Directoriums’, Johann Sebastian Bach's Werke, xlvi (Leipzig, 1900), pp.xv–lxi
‘Die alte und die neue Bachgesellschaft’, Die Grenzboten: Zeitschrift für Politik, Litteratur und Kunst, lix (1900), 535–40
Passionsmusiken im Umfeld Johann Sebastian Bachs: Leipzig 1994
L. Klingberg: Politisch fest in unseren Händen: musikalische und musikwissenschaftliche Gesellschaften in der DDR (Kassel, 1997), 76–101
BARBARA WIERMANN