Bach digital is a research database on works of the Bach family, existing sources as well as further information on preserved watermarks, related persons, performances and much more. This scientific data is made available to researchers in a structured way.
With a focus on the works and good usability for mobile devices, the presentation application Bach digital smart also offers interested music lovers an insight into the research data.
Project description
Back in 2000, the URZ was already involved in a project to digitise and present the J. S. Bach autographs. After initial great success, technical problems forced the end of this application. In the meantime, a database on the works of Johann Sebastian Bach and all known sources was created in Göttingen at the GWDG, which, however, did not contain any images of sheet music pages.
This database was transferred to Leipzig at the end of the project and has since been hosted by the URZ in the MyCoRe application Bach digital. Until 2011, with the support of a DFG-funded project worker in collaboration with the Bach Archive Leipzig, the system was expanded to include images of autograph sources of J. S. Bach and so-called original parts as well as Bach's copies of works by his ancestors (from the largest public Bach collections in Germany). Updates to the now existing system are carried out with the support of the URZ. A follow-up application to the DFG secured the expansion of Bach digital from 2012 with the digitisation of further important sources of J. S. Bach (copies by his sons and pupils and their generation). In February 2017, a third project stage was approved by the DFG and implemented until 2021. Now, in addition to the works of J. S. Bach, works and main sources (digitised copies of autographs and original parts in German public libraries) of the composing sons Carl Philipp Emanuel, Wilhelm Friedemann, Johann Christoph Friedrich and Johann Christian are online. In addition, a focus was placed on the successive expansion of the structured person and watermark modules as well as on the creation of and linking to the DNB's work norm data.
Project goal
The Bach digital database portal is intended to provide Bach researchers, practising musicians and music-interested laypersons throughout the world with scientifically sound information on the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, his sons W. F. Bach, C. P. E. Bach, J. C. F. Bach and J. C. Bach and other composers of the Bach family, as well as on the transmission of this body of work. It presents the results of Bach research, which can be researched quickly, in detail and comprehensively via various search masks. Wherever possible, this constantly updated information is additionally provided with high-resolution scans of the surviving sources. The added value that research within such a database offers compared to the traditional working methods of analogue Bach research consists, among other things, in the fact that collections of sources that once belonged together, which are now kept separately and are in some cases scattered throughout the world's libraries, can be brought together virtually to form a library that is accessible to everyone at all times. It is to be expected that this possibility of a synopsis will give impulses to different areas of Bach research. In addition, the workload of the owning libraries will be reduced and the originals themselves will be preserved through reduced use.
Bach digital is a joint project of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz, the Sächsische Landes- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden and the Bach-Archiv Leipzig. (2017-2021 also State and University Library Hamburg). It is substantially funded by the DFG. In terms of content, the database was created on the basis of the so-called Göttingen Bach Catalogue (released on the internet in 2001) and relies on the free document and publishing solution for digital content MyCoRe. This enables the sustainable storage of data and the uncomplicated exchange of research results through XML technologies and almost any data export.
Currently, the project is being continued as a cooperation between the Bach Archives Leipzig and the URZ, whereby the focus in terms of content is primarily on the work texts and their presentation. Furthermore, the relationships of works, sources, texts and composers as well as writers are to be better represented. Also, further editions of works of the Bach family will be integrated into the data stock.
