William H. Scheide (1914-2014) - who was considered the dean of American Bach scholarship - was
a graduate of Princeton University and later received a master's degree in musicology from
Columbia University. He was also an accomplished pianist and organist. In 1946 he founded the
Bach Aria Group a New York-based performing ensemble that he directed for 35 years. Scheide
was a charter member of the American Bach Society which was founded in 1971 - initially as the
American Chapter of the German Neue Bachgesellschaft he was later made an honorary member of
both societies. In 1990 he took steps to encourage the work of younger Bach scholars by
establishing endowments for the William H. Scheide Prize and the Scheide Research Grant. Over
several decades of his life Scheide added to his grandfather's and father's collection of
bibliophile rarities precious autographs by Bach among other important music manuscripts and
prints of works by Mozart Beethoven Wagner and numerous other composers. In 1953 he acquired
the magnificent oil portrait of Bach by Elias Gottlob Haussmann (Leipzig 1748) which is the
best-preserved original likeness of the composer. For well over half a century Bach himself as
it were watched over him and encouraged him to search research and communicate to engage his
scholarly intellect and to set a lofty standard for critical inquiry. For Scheide the present
study became almost a lifetime companion. Inspired by Alfred Dürr's groundbreaking study on the
chronology of Johann Sebastian Bach's Leipzig vocal works (1957) he recognized its enormous
potential for reconstructing Bach's artistic choices his dramatic plan and stylistic
development. From week to week he followed Bach's arduous task of his first Leipzig cantata
cycle (1723 24) in his own highly meticulous and empathic way deeply immersing himself in the
musical world of the composer. Scheide's opus magnum is presented here in a reduced and revised
version. Although Bach scholarship has significantly progressed in the past decades the
initial idea that the author developed in his manuscript - the 'harmonization' of source
scholarship and his intimate knowledge of the scores - is methodically still valid and has by
no means been superseded.
