A digital edition of the 389 Chorale Settings (Choralgesänge) by J.S. Bach

This repository has been made possible by Gertim Alberda, who ‘manually’ digitalized all the 389 Bach 4-voice chorales, as published by the Breitkopf edition 'nr. 3765'. For this he meticulously transcribed all the notes and lyrics of that edition, by using the music notation editor MuseScore (MS). He checked it against both BGA and NBA (Bach-Gesellschaft Ausgabe and Neue Bach-Ausgabe), if there was any reasonable doubt for it, and even found and improved a couple of mistakes that way (<10). Solely for performance reasons, he also applied many hidden (grey) extras in MS to make the scores and its phrasing sound as realistic as possible; hidden fermatas, tempo changes, breath pauses, phrasing, note-cutbacks, etc. This was all done to 'humanize' the playback and make it sound like a real choir performance (without words), and given the technical limitations at that time (2016-2018). Also see the Info tab on his website.

The full corpus resides on Gertim Alberda’s dedicated website. The scores there have synchronized play back (synthesized and human performances) available and can be downloaded in various formats (mscz/xml/midi/mp3/pdf). Here is an example of his playback page. His intention is to have only human performances available (YT videos and/or mp3’s) for all the scores, but that is still an ongoing process (see the changelog on his website). He has agreed to share his MS files under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. The license prohibits the use of the scores for any commercial purpose, including the training of machine learning models for use in commercial products.

Contents

The "mother of all datasets" is available as two versions, each contained in a separate folder:

• original_complete: Gertim Alberda's original MuseScore files converted to uncompressed MuseScore 3 format (.mscx)
• vocal_parts_only: Alternative version of the dataset containing no instrumental parts.

Score-to-audio alignments

Version 2.3 introduces an additional set of tables of notes in the subfolder vocal_parts_only/note_alignments. They correspond to unfolded/expanded versions of the 303 chorale settings that have a counterpart in and have been aligned with the recordings made by the Chamber Choir Of Europe under Nicol Matt in 1999 (e.g., CDs 122 through 127 (six CDs) of the release https://musicbrainz.org/release/5582b212-aea7-4355-8c4c-531ed438e5fc). Unfolded/expanded, here, means that they correspond to a "playthrough" respecting repeat signs and first/second endings. This representation is a prerequisite for aligning the notes with the corresponding sounding events in the recordings.

First, the MusicBrainz recording IDs contained in the column mb:recording of the file metadata.tsv were used to map the 303 scores (or rather, their unfolded notes TSVs) to the respective audio files (which are commercial and cannot be provided). Silence at the end of the audio files has been truncated beforehand using a 50 ms & -65 dB threshold.

Then, the latest version of the synctoolbox (1.3.2) and this Python script was used to compute start and end points of each note. The timecodes were added as two additional columns, start and end, to the unfolded notes TSVs.

An easy way to verify them (if you happen to have the recording of the Chamber Choir of Europe) is to make a copy of the relevant TSV file in vocal_parts_only/note_alignments, keeping only the last six columns (at the very least, midi, start, and end). This is because the Sonic Visualizer can only load the first few columns of a TSV/CSV file. Then you can load the aligned notes into the Sonic Visualizer like so:

Version history

See the GitHub releases.

Questions, Suggestions, Corrections, Bug Reports

Please create an issue and/or feel free to fork and submit pull requests.

License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

Cite as

Alberda, G. & Hentschel, J. (2024). A digital edition of the 389 Chorale Settings (Choralgesänge) by J.S. Bach (v2.3) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11358762

File naming convention

The chorales are named B### where ### is the chorale number with leading zeros. The numbers are in accordance with the Breitkopf edition which orders them alphabetically by title.

Score properties

This table keeps track of certain characteristics of the scores.

• Measure numbers: In these scores the measure numbers changed from v1.0 to v2.3.
• Parts: These scores contain instrumental parts in the original_complete version, which have been removed in the vocal_parts_only version.
• Instrument staves: The IDs of those staves that contain instrumental parts in the original_complete version which have been removed in the vocal_parts_only version. 1 stands for the uppermost staff. Chorales where the upper staff was removed are marked with a bold 1; these might be missing markup that is typically attached to the upper score, e.g. tempo markings.
• Merge: In the marked chorales, the four voices are written in individual staves in the original_complete version but have been merged into two staves in the vocal_parts_only version for homogeneity. B199 is the only one that remains to be typeset with four staves because it is not homophone.
• Cue notes: In the marked chorales, the vocal staves contain cue note in the original_complete version which have been removed for the vocal_parts_only version.

Chorale	Measure numbers	Parts	Instrument staves	Merge	Cue notes
B001			3
B002			3
B003			3
B004			3		x
B005	x		3
B006	x		3
B007	x		3
B008			3
B009			3
B010			3
B011			3		x
B012	x		3, 4
B013	x		3		x
B014	x	x	1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14		x
B015	x		3, 4
B016	x		3, 4, 5		x
B017			3, 4
B018			3
B019			3
B020	x		3, 4
B021	x		3
B022			3
B023	x		3, 4
B024			3
B025			3
B026			3		x
B027			1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10		x
B028	x		3
B029	x		3
B030	x		3
B031			3, 4, 5, 6, 7		x
B032	x		3, 4, 5, 6, 7
B033			3
B034			3
B035			3
B036	x		3, 4
B037			3
B038			3, 4, 5, 6, 7
B039	x		3
B040	x		3		x
B041	x		3, 4
B042			3, 4		x
B043	x		3
B044	x		3		x
B045			3		x
B046			3, 4, 5, 6, 7
B047			3
B048			3, 4
B049			3		x
B050			3
B051			3, 4, 5
B052			3, 4
B053	x		3
B054	x		3
B055			3, 4
B056			3
B057			3		x
B058			3
B059			3
B060			3
B061			3
B062	x		3
B063			3
B064			3
B065			3, 4, 5, 6, 7
B066			3
B067	x		2, 4
B068	x		3		x
B069	x		3
B070			3, 4, 5, 6, 7
B071			3
B072			3		x
B073	x		3, 4, 5, 6, 7
B074			3, 4, 5, 6, 7
B075	x		3, 4, 5, 6, 7
B076			3, 4, 5, 6, 7
B077	x		3
B078	x		3
B079			3
B080	x		3, 4		x
B081			3
B082		x	5-23	(1,2)(3,4)
B083			3, 4
B084			3
B085			3
B086	x		3
B087	x		3, 4		x
B088	x		3
B089	x		1, 4		x
B090	x		3, 4		x
B091			3		x
B092	x		3, 4, 5, 6, 7
B093	x
B094			3
B095	x		3
B096	x		3
B097	x		1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10		x
B098			3
B099			1, 2, 5
B100			3		x
B101			3
B102			3		x
B103			3		x
B104			3		x
B105			2, 4
B106	x		2, 4
B107
B108			3		x
B109			1, 2, 5, 6
B110			3		x
B111	x		3
B112	x		2, 4, 5
B113			3
B114			3		x
B115			3
B116			3
B117			3
B118			3
B119	x		3
B120			3
B121			3, 4, 5		x
B122			3, 4		x
B123			3
B124	x		3		x
B125	x		3
B126	x		3
B127	x		3
B128	x		3		x
B129			3
B130			1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8
B131			1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13		x
B132			3, 4
B133	x		3
B134			3
B135			3		x
B136			3
B137			3
B138			3
B139			3
B140	x		3
B141	x		3
B142	x		3
B143	x		3
B144	x		3
B145			3
B146			3
B147			3
B148			3
B149	x		3
B150	x		3, 4
B151			3
B152	x		3
B153	x		3		x
B154	x		3
B155	x		1, 4		x
B156	x		3
B157	x		3
B158	x		3
B159	x		3
B160	x		3
B161	x		1, 2, 5
B162	x		3
B163	x		3		x
B164	x		3		x
B165	x		3		x
B166			3		x
B167			3
B168			3		x
B169			3		x
B170			3
B171			3
B172	x		3
B173			3
B174	x		3
B175			3
B176	x		3
B177	x		3
B178	x		3
B179		x	3
B180			3
B181	x		3		x
B182			3
B183	x		3		x
B184	x		1, 4		x
B185		x	3, 4, 5, 6, 7
B186			3
B187			3
B188			3		x
B189			3
B190			3
B191					x
B192			3		x
B193			3
B194			3		x
B195		x	3, 4, 5, 6, 7
B196			3
B197			3
B198			2, 4
B199			5
B200			3
B201			3		x
B202			3
B203	x		3
B204	x		3
B205	x	x	1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15
B206			3
B207			3
B208			3		x
B209			3
B210			3
B211			3
B212	x		1, 4		x
B213			3
B214			3, 4		x
B215			3, 4, 5, 6, 7
B216	x		3		x
B217	x		3
B218			3
B219			1, 4
B220		x	1, 2, 5
B221			3
B222			3, 4
B223			3		x
B224			3		x
B225			3
B226	x		3
B227	x		3		x
B228			3
B229			3
B230		x	1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10		x
B231			3
B232			3
B233			3
B234			3
B235			3		x
B236			1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13
B237	x		3
B238	x		3
B239	x		3		x
B240			3
B241			3
B242			3
B243		x	1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9		x
B244			3		x
B245			3, 4
B246			3		x
B247			3		x
B248			3
B249			3
B250			3
B251			3
B252			3
B253	x		3
B254			3
B255			3
B256			3		x
B257	x		3
B258	x		1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9		x
B259	x		1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14
B260			3
B261	x		3
B262	x		3
B263	x		3, 4
B264			3		x
B265			3		x
B266			3		x
B267			1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12
B268			1, 4
B269	x		3
B270	x		3
B271	x		3
B272	x	x	1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13
B273	x		3
B274			3
B275			3
B276	x		3
B277			3
B278			3		x
B279			1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
B280			2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10
B281			3		x
B282	x		3
B283	x		3, 4		x
B284			3
B285	x		3
B286	x		3
B287			3
B288			3
B289			3
B290			3
B291			3
B292			3, 4, 5, 6, 7
B293			3
B294			3
B295			3		x
B296			3
B297			1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
B298			3
B299			3
B300			3
B301			3
B302			3
B303			3
B304			3
B305			3, 4
B306			3
B307			3
B308			3
B309			3, 4
B310			3
B311			3
B312			3		x
B313	x		3
B314	x		3
B315	x		3, 4
B316			3
B317			3		x
B318			3
B319			3		x
B320			3		x
B321			3		x
B322			3		x
B323			3		x
B324	x		3
B325			3
B326	x		3
B327			3
B328	x		3
B329			3, 4
B330			3		x
B331			3
B332			3
B333			3
B334			3
B335			3		x
B336			3
B337			3
B338	x		3, 4, 5, 6, 7
B339	x		1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8		x
B340	x		1, 4
B341	x		3, 4
B342	x		3
B343	x		3
B344	x		3		x
B345	x		3		x
B346	x		3
B347	x		3
B348	x		3
B349			3
B350			2, 4
B351			3
B352			3
B353			3
B354			3
B355			3
B356			1, 4
B357	x		1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
B358			3
B359			3
B360			3
B361
B362			3
B363			3
B364			3
B365			3
B366			3
B367	x		3
B368	x		3
B369	x		3, 4
B370	x		3
B371	x		3		x
B372	x		3
B373	x		3
B374			3
B375			3		x
B376	x		1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
B377	x		3		x
B378	x		1-7, 12-21	(8,9)(10,11)
B379			3
B380	x		3
B381			3		x
B382			3
B383	x		3
B384	x		3		x
B385	x		3
B386	x		3
B387			1, 4
B388	x		3
B389			3, 4, 5, 6, 7