Johann Sebastian Bach

Record year1707

summaryVocal and liturgical works spanning multiple years, with original performance materials; the entire family is counted once.

M rationaleFollowing M6.1: A multi-century, multi-regional body of vocal works continuously provides polyphonic, narrative, ritual, and aesthetic resources, achieving significant global artistic capability; religious adoption does not automatically equate to truth or net governance effects, and later performances, recordings, and new interpretations are not incorporated. The old M is primarily sustained by the original works' ongoing function.

attribution rationaleBach's primary formation of musical structure, orchestration, and work organization takes 0.62; prehistory of chorales/liturgical texts/cantatas takes 0.18, the text author's contribution to the final vocal form takes 0.12, and unresolved per-work formation responsibility leaves 0.08. Singers, instrumentalists, copyists, preservers, and institutions are not credited as composers based on identity.

overlap boundaryThe object is narrowed to the body of work scores; first performances and later preservation/reperformances are distinct actions. The original works' ongoing performability and learnability are included in this M, while new interpretations require separate review.

Evidence gapsLost works, annual responsibilities, text authors, and premieres.

Record yearc. 1708–1749

summaryA bounded corpus including The Well-Tempered Clavier, non-organ parts of Clavier-Übung, suites and partitas, inventions, and the Goldberg Variations.

M rationaleFollowing M6.0: Multiple complementary collections have long served as important work resources for global keyboard performance, study, and compositional understanding; instrument making, tuning, recording, and later pedagogical additions are not incorporated.

attribution rationaleBach's primary formation of scores, structure, and arrangement takes 0.72; prehistory of keyboard, dance, and fugue takes 0.20, and unresolved per-work attribution/edition leaves 0.08. Instrument making, copying, publishing, student performance, and institutions are enabling or dissemination actions.

overlap boundaryEach work, such as 'The Art of Fugue,' is assigned to only one parent family; the original work's ongoing study is counted in M, while later pedagogical design and interpretation are not part of the original work a.

Evidence gapsBWV³ mutually exclusive catalog, orchestration, and representative work analysis. This round of representative work checks did not obtain per-work parent-child records; the classification of 'The Art of Fugue' and Schübler adaptations are only pending verification clues, not additional M support or separate Q issuance. The work family central value remains an aggregated estimate with gaps, and semantic deduplication is not claimed to be justified.

Record yearc. 1717–1747

summaryUnaccompanied string works and chamber dialogue with keyboard; other instrumental media are excluded.

M rationaleRetains M5.8: works using implied polyphony in solo writing and dialogue in chamber music remain internationally important resources for performance and composition. Their assessed scale is slightly below the keyboard collections. New contributions by later performers, instrument makers and recording producers are excluded.

attribution rationaleBach's contribution to score text and structure takes 0.72; solo string/chamber tradition takes 0.20, with attribution and version uncertainty leaving 0.08. Early performance, instrument-making, score copying, publication preservation, and institutions do not automatically receive compositional share.

overlap boundarySame material counted only once; subsequent performers' new interpretations excluded.

Evidence gapsComplete catalogue and score-by-score analysis.

Record yearc. 1703–1748

summaryThe remaining original works and bounded adaptations specifically for organ.

M rationaleRetains M5.8: the original works and the additional contributions in arrangements have long provided internationally important resources for organ expression and professional repertoire. Their actual use is concentrated in the specialist organ tradition, below the more broadly used main keyboard family. Later recordings, institutions and instrument industries are excluded. Attribution uncertainty affects a only.

attribution rationaleBach receives 0.65 for original composition and compositional changes in adapting works to another medium; earlier organ, chorale and fugue traditions receive 0.20; 0.15 remains unresolved for arrangements, versions and attribution. Source material already credited in the vocal family receives no further share here. Instrument-making, performance, score copying and institutional affiliation are excluded.

overlap boundaryFor the Schübler works and similar arrangements, only the new contribution from reshaping the work for another medium is counted. The original Q of the source vocal works is not counted again. Later performances and recordings require separate assessment.

Evidence gapsGaps remain in analysis of authenticity, arrangements and representative works. This review did not obtain work-by-work links between originals and derivatives. The classification of The Art of Fugue and the Schübler arrangements remain leads for verification, not grounds for additional M or separate Q. The central value for this work family remains an aggregate estimate with gaps; semantic deduplication has not been established.

Record yearc. 1717–1741

summaryBounded concerto/orchestral works and early public performances; general organizational services excluded.

M rationaleFollowing M5.7: The concerto and orchestral suite score corpus forms a continuous international rehearsal and compositional resource; the object is smaller than the keyboard and vocal main families, and no longer incorporates Collegium live deliveries, later performances, and recordings. The old M is primarily sustained by the ongoing function of the works.

attribution rationaleBach's contribution to the score corpus, instrumentation, and concerto structure is assigned 0.65; the concerto/orchestral tradition is assigned 0.20; adaptations, per-work attribution, and unseparated formation inputs are left at 0.15. Orchestras, soloists, organizations, venues, and part production are not credited as original creators by identity.

overlap boundaryThe scope is narrowed from works plus Collegium public performances to the scores themselves. Each source material is assigned to a single parent outcome; live services and subsequent performances require separate assessment.

Evidence gapsAdaptation lineage and premiere roles.

Record year1720–1739

summaryIndependent teaching books, rules, and exercises; work aesthetics excluded.

M rationaleFollowing M4.8: Multiple independent carriers support a set of professional composition teaching methods; only the delivered method functions are recognized, not expanded by students' future achievements, later textbooks, or the learnability of the works themselves. Author-level uncertainty only enters a, not used to depress M.

attribution rationaleRevised. Bach's 0.55 for identifiable rules and exercise design remains unchanged; existing sources lack named rule manuscripts, exercise manuscripts, or itemized explanations of which pre-history actions entered the independent teaching method, so general counterpoint/basso continuo/teaching pre-history is tightened from 0.25 to 0.15, with the difference transferred to unresolved. Students as learners or copyists do not automatically receive a share of method invention.

overlap boundaryThe educational value of studying the works is already credited within the work families. This item counts only the additional, independently formed teaching methods; teaching services are listed separately.

Evidence gapsAuthorship, originality and extent of adoption remain unresolved. Attribution gap: authorship, originality, the documents conveying the methods and their adoption have not been fully established. The 0.30 may belong to Bach, specific predecessors or other contributors to formation. It must not remain fixed simply because it is an older figure; removing a predecessor allocation does not justify increasing Bach’s share.

Record year1723

summaryTeaching, rehearsal, scheduling, and organizational services; specific works and materials excluded.

M rationaleFollowing M3.9: Years of teaching and conducting form a continuous but geographically, institutionally, and beneficiary-scope limited professional service; not elevated by students' subsequent achievements, specific work values, or later Bach reception history.

attribution rationaleRevised. The object is teaching and conducting services; Bach's teaching, rehearsal, and conducting labor as well as the actual joint delivery by teachers/students/musicians can claim a share; schools, churches, cities, and universities only retain small actual support corresponding to venues, positions, organizations, and service conditions. Telemann and other organizational pre-histories did not participate in this service delivery from 1723–1750, the original 0.05 is removed; institutional conditions are tightened from 0.25, after re-evaluation Bach takes 0.40, actual team 0.35, institutions 0.10, unresolved 0.15.

overlap boundarySpecific works and their performances are not repeated in this item; this item only counts teaching and organizational services themselves, and students' future achievements are not fed back.

Evidence gapsStudent status, courses, payments, and service scale. This round's attribution judgment gap: Lack of annual records for courses, student status, sessions, payments, and service scale makes it impossible to fully separate institutional conditions from collective labor; the newly added unknown pool explicitly preserves this responsibility gap.