Digitized Scores of Johann Sebastian Bach

Content

Our site features the following digital scores:

• BWV 439–507 Aus Schemelli's Gesangbuch
• BWV 508–518 Arien und Lieder aus dem 2ten Notenbuch der Anna Magdalena Bach
• BWV 519–523 Fünf geistliche Lieder
• BWV 553–560 Kleine Praeludien und Fugen, Johann Tobias/Ludwig Krebs
• BWV 645–650 Schübler-Choraele
• BWV 925–943 Neun, Sechs, und Fünf kleine Praeludien
• BWV 989 Aria Variata
• BWV 992–994 Capriccios
• BWV 1014–1019 Sonaten für Violine und Cembalo
• BWV 1079 Musikalisches Opfer

The purpose of our machine-readable music score collection is to complement the existing collections on the Internet:

Host	Provider	Editions	Format
musedata.org	Center for Computer Assisted Research in the Humanities Stanford University	Cantatas Chorales Motets Inventionen Sinfonias Well-Tempered Clavier 1 Well-Tempered Clavier 2 Violin Concertos Brandenburg Concertos	Musedata Stage-1 Stage-2
jsbach.net	Sequences by David J. Grossman	Goldberg Variationen Violin Solo Cello Solo Kunst der Fuge Canons	MIDI
Mutopia	The Mutopia Project: Free sheet music for everyone	Kleines Orgelbüchlein	MIDI
musescore.com	MuseScore.com - Share your sheet music managed by Thomas Bonte, Nicolas Froment, Werner Schweer	English Suites French Suites	Music-XML
imslp.org	IMSLP Petrucci Music Library	Neumeister Chorales	Finale Sibelius
humdrum.org	Cognitive and Systematic Musicology Laboratory The Ohio State University School of Music	Chorales	Kern

Format

The scores from our site are available in Music-XML format. The MXL files are compressed Music-XML. Music-XML is the standard open format for exchanging digital sheet music. The format is supported by all major commercial notation softwares.

An excellent free viewer for MXL-files is MuseScore. From there you can generate PDF sheet music documents, and export the score to MIDI.

Objectives

• The scores extend our database for data-driven music composition.
• Mathias Müller has arranged the midi into audio. We get a chance to experiment with new playback. For instance, the rendition of the Sonatas for Violine and Cembalo are strings only. Enjoy!
• The scores BWV 439–507 inspired the production Schemellis-Gesangbuch.

Remarks

In isolated cases, differences from the original scores are intended. For instance:

• If a score has 3 voices throughout except for 4 simultaneous notes at a single location, one of the four notes will be omitted.
• The score is split into segments with constant time signature.
• Repetitions are not encoded; if applicable, the final measures of the first pass are dropped.

The locations of intentional deviation from the reference are indicated. Please report any other mistakes in the scores.

Jan Hakenberg