Forschungsportal BACH

Launched in 2023, the »Forschungsportal BACH« (»BACH Research Portal«) will, for the first time, digitally index all available archival sources on the entire Bach family of musicians over a period of 25 years and make them publicly accessible. The latest methods of digital humanities will be used in this process. The project is based at the Bach Archive in Leipzig and is run by the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig.

From the progenitor Veit Bach to Johann Sebastian Bach's last composing grandson; from the 16th to the early 19th century: an innovative digital portal is gradually making available all surviving documents relating to the most influential musical dynasty in music history. Whether letters, employment contracts, salary notes, or discussions with contemporaries: for the first time in the history of Bach research, the materials scattered across libraries, archives, and private collections are being compiled in their entirety, digitally recorded, indexed according to scientific criteria, annotated, and made available in an online portal. The latest methods in digital humanities are being used, with automatic text recognition for old manuscripts being particularly important to the project and undergoing continuous development. 

New findings on watermarks, paper types, and handwriting recognition can help to clearly identify Bach's surviving works. The correspondence being cataloged in the project spans the whole of Europe. In addition to facsimiles of the original sources, commentaries, and summaries, contextual documents are also being digitized. The “BACH Research Portal” thus offers scholars and interested members of the public a unique collection of sources on the cultural and social history of various centuries, ranging from the living conditions of town pipers in the 17th and 18th centuries to aesthetic discourses from the Enlightenment period.

This research project is part of the Academies' Program, which is currently the largest long-term research program in the humanities and cultural studies in the Federal Republic of Germany and is funded by the federal and state governments. This measure is co-financed by tax revenues on the basis of the budget approved by the Saxon State Parliament.