Orgelbüchlein
collection of compositions for organ by J.S. Bach
The Orgelbüchlein (Little Organ Book), BWV 599−644, is a set of 46 chorale preludes – one given in two versions – for organ by Johann Sebastian Bach. All but three were written between 1708 and 1717 when Bach served as organist to the ducal court in Weimar; the remainder and a short two-bar fragment came no earlier than 1726, after the composer’s appointment as cantor at the Thomasschule in Leipzig.
Bach's apparent plan was for a collection of 164 settings of chorale tunes sung during the Church year so that each part of the year was represented. However, only 46 of these were completed. The manuscript, which is now in the Staatsbibliothek, leaves a number of tunes as missing or "ghost" pieces. A project to complete the missing chorales called "The Orgelbüchlein Project" has been launched in the 21st century, where the chorales are written in modern styles. This project took nine hours in the first complete performance, giving an idea of the potential scope of Bach's "little" book. The Orgelbüchlein as Bach left it contains about 80 minutes of music which span the liturgical calendar.
Each setting takes a Lutheran chorale, adds a motivic accompaniment, and quite freely explores form. Most of the preludes are short, setting only a single verse of the chorale, and use four contrapuntal voices.
“Orgelbüchlein” enters the record as collection of compositions for organ by J.S. Bach. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Orgelbüchlein, compositions and organ can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2030219. VIAF identifies the subject as 174166928. The Library of Congress control number is n80020487. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1708, 1717 and 1726.
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