Understanding Bach Journal

Understanding Bach, the web journal of Bach Network, was launched in 2006 with the publication of the first volume on 21 March. It is a peer-reviewed, open access journal consisting of twelve volumes published annually between 2006 and 2017.

Main articles in Understanding Bach are doubly peer reviewed: contributors were personally invited to submit articles from papers given at J. S. Bach Dialogue Meetings or at the biennial International Conferences on Baroque Music, and their revised papers sent to an expert reviewer.

Annual publication of Understanding Bach ceased in 2017 with volume 12. In 2018 the council and trustees of Bach Network decided to initiate a new publication venture aimed to begin in 2020.

Anyone who signs up to join Bach Network will receive notification of new publications. We also announce our news through social media and international musicological news lists.

Our latest Journal: Understanding Bach 12 (2017)

ISSN 1750-3078

Front Matter (full text)

Editorial (full text)
RICHARD D. P. JONES

List of abbreviations (full text)

A Compositional Testing Ground: Arias in J. S. Bach’s Weimar Church Cantatas (full text)
STEPHEN A. CRIST

Formal Deviations in the First Kyrie of the B minor Mass (full text)
GERGELY FAZEKAS

‘Having to perform and direct the music in the Capellmeister’s stead for two whole years’: Observations on How Bach Understood His Post during the 1740s (full text)
MICHAEL MAUL (translated by BARBARA M. REUL)

Creating Clarity and Contrast: A Dialogue with Rachel Podger on the Analysis and Performance of Implied Polyphony in Bach’s Unaccompanied Violin Works (full text)
STACEY DAVIS

Evangelists of the Postmodern: Reconfigurations of Bach since 1985 (full text)
HARRY WHITE

Young Scholars’ Forum

Bach and Money: Sources of Salary and Supplemental Income in Leipzig from 1723 to 1750 (full text)
NOELLE HEBER

Bach’s Unsung Champion: Sir Henry J. Wood (full text)
HANNAH FRENCH