The impressive collection of sheet music by the Nuremberg organist Leonhard Scholz (1720–1798) has been in the Bach Archive for several years. It comprises more than 250 works by Johann Sebastian Bach, 70 works by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and some music by other composers. It is the largest collection of keyboard music by Johann Sebastian Bach and his sons assembled by a single person in the 18th century. Its southern German provenance is also something special, as hardly any Bach sources have survived from this region.
Leonhard Scholz was a merchant and »part-time« organist of the large main churches in Nuremberg (between around 1766 and 1798). He evidently copied the pieces in his collection for his own use, and his copies are of very different types. In addition to those that correspond to Bach's original, there are numerous, sometimes very idiosyncratic arrangements that are far removed from the original version. The reason for this could have been the poor condition of the Nuremberg organs, on which it was sometimes impossible to play an original Bach organ composition. Scholz, apparently a real Bach lover, arranged the pieces in such a way that he could just about play them on the poor instruments.
The Scholz collection first became known in 1968 when the Johann Sebastian Bach Institute in Göttingen acquired a large part of the collection, which had previously been privately owned. After the Institute was dissolved in 2006, the collection became the property of the Leipzig Bach Archive, which had already acquired further Scholz sources from the same private collection in 2003.
The collection can also be viewed online at Bach digital, where you will find detailed descriptions of the manuscripts in addition to the digital copies.
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He evidently copied the pieces in his collection for his own use, and his copies are of very different types. In addition to those that correspond to Bach's original, there are numerous, sometimes very idiosyncratic arrangements that are far removed from the original version. The reason for this could have been the poor condition of the Nuremberg organs, on which it was sometimes impossible to play an original Bach organ composition. Scholz, apparently a real Bach lover, arranged the pieces in such a way that he could just about play them on the poor instruments.