Bach statistic question...

[p.e.r.i.o.d.i.c.]

Hello,

Can anyone tell me what percentage of
JS Bach's total compositional output does his keyboard
music comprise? Roughly, of course.

[david...@gmail.com]

Roughly.

The BWV catalogue goes from 1 to 1127.

525-771 are organ works
772-994 are harpsichord works
1052-1065 are keyboard concertos
1090-1120 are Neumeister Chorale preludes for organ
1121-1126 are other organ works

Looks like about half. Maybe a little less than half.

Roughly, of course. That's by BWV number. Doesn't take into account
the lengths of pieces. Doesn't account for BWV works that might be
spurious or gaps in the BWV catalogue or transcriptions, or etc etc
etc.

[Tom Hens]

p.e.r.i.o.d.i.c. <mee...@two.com> wrote...

> Can anyone tell me what percentage of
> JS Bach's total compositional output does his keyboard
> music comprise? Roughly, of course.

In terms of length, the easiest way to make such an estimate is looking at
the number of CDs in complete editions.

For instance, the Brilliant Classics edition comprises 160 CDs overall. 97
of those have vocal works, 40 solo keyboard (organ and harpsichord), and 23
other instrumental works. Among that last category there is of course
keyboard music too (the harpsichord concertos, and the sonatas with
harpsichord obbligato). So roughly, a bit over a quarter of Bach's
surviving music is for the keyboard.