Neue Bachgesellschaft


The Neue Bachgesellschaft, or New Bach Society, is an organisation based in Leipzig, Germany, devoted to the music of the composer Johann Sebastian Bach. It was founded in 1900 as the successor to the Bach Gesellschaft, which between 1850 and 1900 produced a complete edition of Bach's works, publishing many pieces for the first time. On completion of these collected works, the original Society dissolved itself.
The new Society approved three enduring projects:
The Society has not been directly involved in publishing scores in the way that its predecessor was. However, in 1950 it recommended that the second complete edition of Bach's music be undertaken, the Neue Bach-Ausgabe. The project was a joint venture of musicologists in Göttingen, then West Germany, and Leipzig, then East Germany, in order to stress that the common cultural heritage was indivisible.