The aim of the project is a historical-critical new edition of all works by Johann Sebastian Bach. This will replace the old Bach-Gesamtausgabe from 1851-1900. The latter had proved to be in urgent need of revision, especially in its source-critical part, but also in its arbitrary selection of certain versions.
The New Bach Edition (NBA) is an urtext edition; it is intended to provide scholars with an impeccable original text of J. S. Bach's works and at the same time serve as a reliable basis for practical performances. It is published in nine series. Approximately 105 volumes of music and critical reports as well as 10 supplementary volumes are planned. Works that have survived as fragments will be included in the volumes of the individual series, as will those that have survived in their entirety; proven lost compositions will be mentioned in the Critical Reports. Works of doubtful authenticity are published in the final volume of each series. Works that are most likely to be fake (e.g. the St Luke Passion) are not included in the edition. A table of contents is included in each volume, including missing works that are part of that volume; for those works not included in the volume, reference is made to the place within the NBA where they are discussed. The Critical Report provides information on smaller variants of a work ("readings"). If a work has been handed down in several sources with deviations of a larger extent, all versions that can be traced back to J. S. Bach with sufficient certainty are printed. This not only sheds light on Bach's compositional procedures: The various versions of the works also provide rich inspiration for today's performance practice. Problems and questions of a different kind are posed by the works of dubious authenticity that have recently been tackled (an estimated 500 works). It is necessary to develop criteria for judging a work whose authenticity is not certain and to weigh up the probability of authenticity. There is still a considerable need for basic research in this area. As a contribution to this, a thematic catalogue of organ chorales of doubtful authenticity has been published.