About this edition
Bach's Mass in B minor, BWV 232, stands as one of the supreme achievements of Western music — a monumental setting of the Latin Ordinary that the composer assembled in the final years of his life, drawing together newly composed movements with carefully revised material from earlier cantatas and his 1733 Missa for the Dresden court. Across its twenty-seven movements, Bach surveys virtually every vocal and contrapuntal technique he had mastered, from the radiant five-voice "Sanctus" to the architectural splendor of the "Credo" and the profound stillness of the "Crucifixus." That a Lutheran composer should have devoted such labor to a complete Catholic Mass remains one of the great enigmas — and gifts — of music history.
This printing reproduces the score as it appears in Band 6 of the Bach-Gesellschaft Ausgabe, published by Breitkopf und Härtel in Leipzig in 1856 and edited by Julius Rietz (1812–1877), then Kapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus. The Bach-Gesellschaft edition, undertaken between 1851 and 1900, was the first complete critical edition of Bach's works and remained the foundational reference for performers and scholars for over a century. Rietz's volume drew on the autograph manuscript and the earliest available sources, presenting the Mass with the clarity and engraving quality that made the Bach-Gesellschaft volumes a landmark in nineteenth-century musicology.
About this edition:
- Full orchestral and choral score with Latin text
- Page size: 8.5 x 11 inches
- Reproduced from a public domain historical edition
- Source: Bach-Gesellschaft Ausgabe, Band 6 (Breitkopf und Härtel, 1856), edited by Julius Rietz
- Published by Purple 4R Publishing
This volume reproduces a historical edition that has long since entered the public domain, offered here to put a foundational document of the choral-orchestral repertoire into the hands of conductors, singers, instrumentalists, and students at an accessible price. We hope it serves you well in study, rehearsal, and performance.
