BACH at 50: Some Anniversary Thoughts

Abstract

B ACH: Journal of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute made a modest first appearance in the winter of 1970, although as the founding editor, Elinore L. Barber, expressed at the time, “we of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute and Library find ourselves in a chronic state of feverish excitement.” In that first issue, readers would find an enthusiastic editorial asserting Bach’s relevance in the “year of the moon”—Barber arrived at Baldwin-Wallace College in 1969, the time of the Apollo 11 moon landing—a previously unpublished paper and analytical charts by Barber’s mentor, Hans T. David, and a descriptive account of some of the holdings in the Riemenschneider Bach Institute (RBI). A number of things in the first issue foreshadow prominent elements in the years ahead, such as the promotion of the cause of Bach, a mindfulness of elder voices in the field, the reprising of earlier writings, the promotion of the RBI, and source studies. If these are familiar throughout the half century, a look at the span of the journal’s first fifty years nevertheless reveals significant change along the way, as well.