Mass in B minor as a hybrid edition
Carus-Verlag has published an edition of Bach's masterpiece which offers both the musical text, including the latest research findings, and a DVD with all the relevant sources.
Although the Mass in B minor The autograph score by Johann Sebastian Bach is one of his most frequently performed works, yet it is full of riddles and tricky questions. Poor paper quality and aggressive ink make the autograph almost illegible in many places today. In addition, the original manuscript was extensively altered after Bach's death by his son Carl Philipp Emanuel. He clarified unclear details, but also made unauthorized changes at several stages.
With the autograph score of this mass, the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin is preserving a unique legacy of music history. Together with the digital edition project Edirom, Carus and the Staatsbibliothek are publishing the first volume of the new series Edition Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin presents a new edition of Bach's opus ultimum.
In addition to the scholarly edited musical text, the central sources are made digitally accessible as high-resolution color scans together with the Critical Report in a linked presentation. Linked bar by bar, sources and new engravings can be viewed in parallel or specific bars and passages can be selected. Comments and annotations can be assigned to source measures and parallel passages can be compared with each other.
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Passages such as bars 97-99 in "Et resurrexit", which are virtually indecipherable due to subsequent alterations and ink erosion both in the autograph score (left) and in the facsimile edition of 1924 (right), are easier to decipher when compared with Hering's copy (below right).
Johann Sebastian Bach, Mass in B minor, BWV 232, with all relevant sources (autograph score, Dresden parts, Insel facsimile edition, copy of the score by J. F. Hering and from the estate of J. P. Kirnberger, Carus-Neustich with critical report) on DVD, edited by Ulrich Leisinger; score (linen with source DVD), € 31.232/01. Kirnberger, Carus-Neustich with critical report) on DVD, edited by Ulrich Leisinger; score (cloth) with source DVD, CV 31.232/01, € 139.00 (from 1.1.2015 € 199.00); score (paperback), CV 31.232,
€ 75.00; piano reduction, CV 31.232/03, € 12.50; orchestral material on request; Carus, Stuttgart 2014
