Bach Bibliography
RECENT UPDATES

27 April 2014

The transfer of database to Leipzig is now complete. From now on, the main database will be maintened at the library of Bach-Archiv Leipzig, whereas the database at Belfast will now focuse on collecting information of the pre-1950 printed music. A new website dedicated to "The Bach Primted Music" is currently in preparation. For the ideas behind the Bach Printed Music project, see my article published in Understanding Bach 7 (2012).

We are proud to announce that the Review Section of the Bach Bibliography has resumed activity after a period of dormancy. The section has undergone a substantial makeover, with new features including a fresh, crisp design and reviews accessible in PDF format. The latest review – Exploring Bach's B-minor Mass, edited by Yo Tomita, Robin A. Leaver and Jan Smaczny (Cambridge University Press, 2013) – can be found here.

The number of records has reached 56,787.

24 February 2012

The newly added information in the database has been sent to Leipzig for the preparation (including testing) for the official new launch of the Bach Bibliography from Leipzig towards the end of the year. Until then no further update of the data is planned.

During the last six months, new data were collected for the printed music published between 1880 and 1935. The systematic updating of the Series database (carried out by Mr Nobuaki Ebata) has finally completed.

The number of records has reached 51,904.

11 September 2011

The additions as well as revision of records have been focused around the editions published between 1880 and 1950. For this work, I am particularly grateful to the staff at the Royal College of Music Library in London for allowing me to consult their vast and valuable collection of music during my visit in late August 2011. The number of records has reached 48,293.

The Series database has also been undergoing for thorough and systematic update by Mr Nobuaki Ebata for a several months, which is approaching completion.

1 August 2011

As reported previously, we are currently working on the compilation of all the editions of Bach's music published before 1950, and we have just reached 1881. The number of records has reached 46,665.

26 April 2011

During this Easter vacation, a major revision on search scripts has been carried out.
Since last reported update, the number of records has reached 43,167. Nearly half of those newly added records are the editions published during the 19th century collected from Kenney's Catalog of the Emilie and Karl Riemenschneider Memorial Bach Library, the library of Bach-Archiv Leipzig, as well as the collections of the libraries that are searcheable via HeBIS and COPAC, which were then compared with Deutsch's Musikverlags Nummern and Hofmeister's Monatsberichte for ascertaining the date of publication. This process is still ongoing.

10 August 2010

Data collection work was done at Bach-Archiv Leipzig (mid June, focusing on recently published monographs) and at Kunitachi College of Music Library (mid July, focusing on late 19th-century journal articles), and the number of records has reached 39,203.

Other adidtions at this phase include items mentioned in the Bach Dokumente volumes 3 and 5, and the list of theoretical publications listed in the sales catalogue of Hoffmeister & Kühnel (1805).

14 May 2010

Data conversion at Leipzig apparently takes quite some time, and so the updating of the database continued, now reached 38,308.
Since the previous update, a significant number of early sources dating from 18th and 19th centures were acquired. A particular emphasis is made to the reception of Bach's works by Mendelssohn, and the future work is set to cover other composers.

The display format of search result has been reviewed. Main changes are:
  1. Icons are shown on the left edge to describe the type of publication (bookbooks, articlearticles, editioneditions, etc.). It is useful when viewing a series such as NBA which has both book and music volumes;
  2. The state of updatedness is shown by small icon on the left edge: new = today; new = in the last 3 days.
  3. Active link to Full Record View is now given to the Output List Numbering at the start of each item (rather than to the Title), so that the text of "Title" can be selected with mouse for copy/paste.

28 September 2009

This afternoon the database was sent to Leipzig where a new version is being developed. The number of records has reached 35,481.

Since the previous report, major work on early journals was undertaken at the Musikbibliothek der Stadt Leipzig and Trinity College Library in Dublin. I would like to thank their staff for granting me access to their holdings and assistance I received.

The assitance to clear some query items was gratefully received from the following people: Mr Hans Beek, Mr Douglas Hollick, Dr Armin Koch, Mr Geert Jan Pottjewijd, Dr Maxim Serebrennikov, and Dr Jan Siemons.

My most sincere thanks goes to Mr Nobuaki Ebata who worked with me on an almost daily basis in the last couple of years. He not only resolved numerous queries and systematically revised the abbreviations used in the periodical database, but also discovered more than several hundreds of new records. 

16 August 2009

The transfer of the database from Belfast to Leipzig takes place in early September when the data conversion begins. It is hoped that the process of data conversion and the creation of new interface will be completed within 9 months. During this period, there will be no update of main databases, but the other departments such as 'new publications' and 'reviews' should run normally.

Since the previous report, efforts were made to improve both the accuracy and the scope of data collection particularly in the area of the 19th century Bach Reception, covering not only books and articles, but also early editions, reviews, and advertisements. For this work, I would like to thank Mr Nobuaki Ebata particularly for his help in gathering information and identifying errors in the records. I also would like to acknowledge with gratitude the assistance received from the staff of the following libraries: the Bach-Archiv Leipzig, Musikbibliothek der Stadt Leipzig, and Kunitachi College of Music Library.

The number of records reached:  34518

29 June 2008

In the last two months the database has been proofread by Mr Nobuaki Ebata, and thanks to his help, errors in more than 1000 records have been identified and removed.

Thanks to the staff at the libraries of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig and the Musikbibliothek der Stadt Leipzig earlier this month, I was able to collect ca. 150 new records.

The number of records reached: 26566

15 March 2008

Some minor modifications were made to the scripts to display the information on the volume / number / year of series publications more consistently.

The search limit options have also been revised. This time, users can select "added" or "modified" records in the recent past.

The number of records reached: 26275

17 February 2008

Major modifications are made to both the database and scripts in the past few days:

  1. One new field was added to the database so that 'month' information can be displayed more properly in the initial search results screen (i.e. now shown within the round brackets).
  2. Two further limit options have been added to the Simple Search, viz. language and item type. The behaviour of the existing filter (i.e. added / modified records) was changed to 'added' records only (due to the fact that all records were modified in the last week with the work mentioned under 1).
  3. Several minor bugs in the search & display scripts have been corrected.
  4. Music index entries for 'chorale preludes for organ' and 'canonic variations' were revised, and Comprehensive Search can now produce better results.
  5. The database now contains the advertisements of the works of Bach family appeared in the Musikalisch-literarischer Monatsbericht neuer Musikalien, musikalischer Schriften und Abbildungen (1829-1900), a very useful publication which helps us to establish the publication dates of 19th-century editions.

The number of records reached: 26208

27 January 2008

It has been agreed that the operation of the Bach Bibliography is to be moved to Leipzig later this year. While the review section remain in Belfast (under the new editorship of Tanja Kovačević), the main database will be primarily maintained by the expert team of the Bach-Archiv. A number of new features are currently considered to be implemented, such as the following:

  1. An international team of advisors will be set up for more effective data collection from various parts of the world
  2. Unicode will be used for displaying multi-lingual characters
  3. Dynamic link to the Bach-Archiv's library collection

The actual work of the transfer will commence in summer 2008, with the aim to begin its operation from Leipzig from the beginning of 2009.

The number of records reached: 24720

21 March 2007

A Happy Bach's 322nd birthday! The recent additions to the database include:

  1. Recently completed PhD/DMA/MA/MMus dissertations using UMI database;
  2. Conference papers read at American Musicological Society, as reported in their Newsletters from 1984 to the present. (The earlier papers are yet to be added in the near future.)
  3. Articles listed in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin's online publication list

In addition, I also sourced many other records from usual places such as Bach-Archiv's Libero catalogue, RILM, publishers/booksellers' catalogues and websites, as well as the actual volumes of journals and books recently acquired.

The number of records reached: 24010

26 June 2006

A major revision of database is carried out in the last two weeks:

  1. ca. 40 records were corrected and 360 new records were added, thanks to the most generous assistance of Marion Söhnel of the Bach-Archiv who compiled the "Das Bach-Schrifttum 1996 bis 2000" for the Bach-Jahrbuch 91 (2005).
  2. 132 new records were added by using the Bach-Archiv's Libero catalogue, primarily supplementing the missing records, focusing particularly on the following series: Triangel, LeipzigerBl, Bach Wochen in Ansbach, Thüringen, and Wiesbaden.
  3. 56 new records about the debate and reports on the procedure of restoring Bach's autograph manuscript in Berlin by splitting the paper, which were taken from the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin's website.
  4. Systematic revision of series: Bach Magazin, Bachfest Leipzig.

In addition, there were also more than 500 new records gathered from various sources. This includes conference in Leipzig, Dortmund; series Understanding Bach i, Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art. Annual Bulletin, Leipziger Beiträge zur Bach-Forschung viii, Edition Bach-Archiv Leipzig iii+iv.

The number of records reached: 23235

1 January 2006

The New Year weekend was spent on the following improvements:

  1. changing database structure to accommodate the language information of more than one country. Accordingly, the search scripts were modified to display multiple languages used in the publication
  2. revised the entries of the facsimile editions of Bach's works using NBA IX/2 and OMI website. Over 40 entries were added, as the entries of the former East German editions (FaksRBachWS) and the West (DocumentaMcol) were split into separate entries. For this work I am indebted to Nobuaki Ebata who supplied me with numerous corrections and additions.
  3. Review entries of MLetters were systematically reviewed.

The number of records reached: 22082

26 December 2005

The Christmas weekend was spent on the updating on the following aspects:

  1. Search scripts (from both Simple and Complex searches) are revised to generate the list with the language information (using a flag icon).
  2. About 200 records of recent publication were added by using the Bach-Archiv's Libero catalogue.

The number of records reached: 22040

2 December 2005

While no major revision was made to the functionality of the system since last major update, a number of minor improvements were made in the following areas:

  1. Systematic examination of selected periodicals, viz. JbStaatInstMf, Notes (1st series), RevueMcol, SambdIMg and ZsIMg
  2. A large number of entries with "query" flag has been re-examined, and subsequently corrected.

The number of records reached: 21849

20 January 2005

For the series short-listed for "Essential Collections", I have been reviewing the all the entries so that the entries are listed in the order that appears in the volume.

The number of records reached: 21419

12 January 2005

Search scripts have been under review in the last few days, and the revised scripts are now mounted at BW server for further tests. Main changes are:

  1. You can now choose the mode of displaying the search results either alphabetically (1.author, 2.title) or chronologically (1.year, 2. page numbers). Please note that the page number sort is not always accurate, as the numbers are treated as text: e.g. "5" will come after "10".
  2. From "Simple Search", you have an option to display the bibliographical information as well as review entries.
  3. From "State of Research into Periodicals", further search on either main or review entries will list the output in chronological order.
  4. New sleek looks! Click the Bach monogram icon on the top to close or go back to the previous stages of operation.

6 January 2005

My last two weeks were spent on updating the databases, for which I concentrated on the expansion of records to include the references published between 1960 and 1990 that discuss the life and works of Bach family musicians and their legacy.

The work on the periodical database will have to be continued for some time to complete the overhaul of information structure.

The number of records now reached: 21147

5 December 2004

The search results (bach1.pl) now display the volume of series in Roman numerals (instead of Arabic). All the double-quote characters are converted to single-quote to avoid occasional erratic responses from the search scripts.

In the last months, numerous errors have been corrected thanks to the help of Marion Söhnel of Bach-Archiv Leipzig.

The number of records now reached: 20367

15 June 2004

I decided to include the non-refereed articles posted on the internet if (1) they are judged to be of sufficient scholarly merit, and (2) their host websites offer stable URL (otherwise alternative arrangements will have to be made, e.g. having a copy at my site).

The number of records now reached: 19917.

30 May 2004

Last week, I examined Die Musik (1927-1932) in Stadtbibliothek Leipzig, and added 12 new records, and amended 10 records. A number of newly-published books were also added in the last two months.

The number of records now reached: 19777.

21 March 2004

The records of those published between 1992 and 2003 have been compared systematically against the RILM database.

Since the summer of 2003, I widened the scope of the database, now accommodating the literature discussing the life and works of Bach families, which is a major policy change.

The number of records now reached: 19662.

30 August 2003

You can now submit correction to the database (via Record Form View) by using an online form.

27 August 2003

Five search engines have been upgraded with the view to seamlessly integrate two databases (main "bibliography" and "periodical").

25 August 2003

The "List of Journals" page is currently undergoing a major overhaul, following the revision made to the structure of the periodical database. While the contents of this database will be enriched in the coming weeks, the following features have been implemented:

The number of records now reached: 19171.

1 August 2003

Cosmetic improvements are made on the interface, including active hyperlinks (done away with underlines), colour schemes, numerical list (instead of bullets).

The number of records now reached: 19135.

10 June 2003

About 130 new items about the books published in Japanese language between 1984 and 2003 were added to the database.

The number of records now reached: 19018.

Click here to view the details of major updates between 1999 and 2002.