In Honor of William H. Scheide's 100th Birthday
January 6, 2014

William H. ScheideBill Scheide has enjoyed a long lifetime of varied activities and personal interests in a multitude of valuable causes. Music in a larger sense can be counted among his most important concerns. Bill made a name for himself early on by being the first American scholar to publish in the Bach-Jahrbuch. Every single essay he contributed there, between 1959 and 2003, has made a difference in our thinking about Bach’s life and creativity, his conceptual approaches and manners of composing, his use of words with music, and the varied source materials that invite us to take a closer look at everything.

Because he often pursued questions no one else dared to ask, Bill Scheide has become the distinguished scholar he is today. By building a permanent collection of valuable Bachiana for the Scheide Library in Princeton, serving as a founding curator for the Leipzig Bach Archive, and fostering research projects by younger scholars, he has set a unique stage for ongoing worldwide Bach scholarship. Bill’s efforts on behalf of Bach scholarship can serve as a model for serious studies in classical music more broadly. The American Bach Society and the larger community of Bach lovers in America wish to express their gratitude to Bill on the occasion of his 100th birthday. Congratulations!

Christoph Wolff
Adams University Research Professor, Harvard University
Director Emeritus of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig

The Scheide Library at Princeton University

William H. Scheide's Bach Holdings

BWV Title Type
- Letter to Johann Elias Bach (October 6, 1748) Autograph
33 “Allein zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ” Autograph Score
80b “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott” (Early Version) Autograph Score
118/231 “O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht” (Early Version) Autograph Score
130 “Herr Gott, dich loben alle wir” (First Version) Original Parts
168 “Tue Rechnung! Donnerwort” Original Parts
176 “Es ist ein trotzig und verzagt Ding” Original Parts
187 “Es wartet alles auf dich” Original Parts
187 “Es wartet alles auf dich” Parts by S. Hering
645–650 “Schübler” Chorales Original Print, with
Autograph Corrections
825–830 Clavierübung I Original Print
826 Partita No. 2 in C minor (Clavierübung I) Original Print
829 Partita No. 5 in G major (Clavierübung I) Original Print
1076 Elias Gottlob Haußmann's Bach Portrait of 1748, with Canon triplex à 6

The Published Writings of William H. Scheide

Three Hundredth Anniversary of John Milton’s “Areopagitica”: On Freedom of Thought and Expression, 1644–1944. Titusville, PA: William H. Scheide, 1944.

“Revival of the Bach Arias.” Etude 66, no. 9 (September 1948): 536, 564.

“Bach and Our Time.” Musical Courier 142 (1950): 142–46.

“Luther and Bach’s Cantata 50.” Journal of the American Musicological Association 4, no. 1 (1951): 36–39.

Johann Sebastian Bach as a Biblical Interpreter. Princeton Pamphlet, No. 8. Princeton: Princeton Theological Seminary, 1952.

“Thoughts on Protestant Church Music.” Christianity and Crisis 16, no. 14 (1956): 107–10.

“Love for the Printed Word as Expressed in the Scheide Library.” Paper of the Bibliographical Society of America 53, no. 3 (1957): 214–26.

“Barnstorming with Bach.” Musical Courier 158 (1958): 8–10.

“Johann Sebastian Bach.” Musical America 79 (1959): 14–27.

“Johann Sebastian Bachs Sammlung von Kantaten seines Vetters Johann Ludwig Bach I.” Bach-Jahrbuch 46 (1959): 52–94.

Review of The Cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach, Sacred and Secular, by W. Gillies Whittaker. Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association 17, no. 2 (1960): 228–29.

“Is Singing Bach Good for the Voice?” National Association of Teachers of Singing 18, no. 1 (1961): 4–9.

“Ist Mizlers Bericht über Bachs Kantaten korrekt?” Die Musikforschung 14, no. 1 (1961): 60–63.

“Johann Sebastian Bachs Sammlung von Kantaten seines Vetters Johann Ludwig Bach II.” Bach-Jahrbuch 48 (1961): 5–24.

“Nochmals Mizlers Kantatenbericht—Ein Erwiderung.” Die Musikforschung 14, no. 4 (1961): 423–27.

“Johann Sebastian Bachs Sammlung von Kantaten seines Vetters Johann Ludwig Bach II(I).” Bach-Jahrbuch 49 (1962): 5–32.

With Mina R. Bryan. “A Stemma of Matthew 22, in Latin Incunabula Bibles.” Gutenberg-Jahrbuch (1962): 117–21.

“Music in the Grolier Club’s Italy.” In The Grolier Club Iter Italicum, edited by Gabriel Austin, 116–24. New York: The Grolier Club, 1963.

“What Should a Congregation Sing?: A Few Thoughts on Hymnology.” Theology Today 20, no. 2 (1963): 212–41.

“Zur Herkunft von Bachs Kantatentexten.” In Johann Sebastian Bach, edited by Walter Blankenburg, 422–23. Wege der Forschung, Band 170. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1970.

Wine and Taxes: A Letter from Johann Sebastian Bach in 1748 to his Cousin. New York: Pierpont Morgan Library, 1970.

“A Speculation Concerning Gutenberg’s Early Plans for his Bible.” Gutenberg-Jahrbuch (1973): 129–39.

“Some Miscellaneous Chorale Forms in J. S. Bach’s Vocal Works.” In Studies in Renaissance and Baroque Music in Honor of Arthur Mendel, edited by Robert L. Marshall, 209–27. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1974.

“The ‘Concertato’ Violin in BWV 139.” In Eine Sammlung von Aufsätzen: Werner Neumann zum 65. Geburtstag, edited by Rudolf Eller and Hans-Joachim Schulze, 123–37. Bach-Studien 5. Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, 1975.

“The Earliest Folio in America?” Shakespeare Quarterly 27, no. 3 (1976): 332–33.

“Zum Verhältnis von Textdrucken and musikalischen Quellen der Kirchenkantaten Johann Sebastian Bachs.” Bach-Jahrbuch 62 (1976): 79–94.

“How Might the Parker Family Have Acquired a Shakespeare First Folio?” Princeton University Library Chronicle 38, no. 1 (1976–77): 11–20.

“Bach und der Picander-Jahrgang: Eine Erwiderung.” Bach-Jahrbuch 66 (1980): 47–51.

“‘Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft’ BWV 50: Doppelchorigkeit, Datierung und Bestimmung.” Bach-Jahrbuch 68 (1982): 81–96.

“Eindeutigkeit und Mehrdeutigkeit in Picanders Kantatenjahrgangs-Vorbemerkung und im Werkverzeichnis des Nekrologs auf Johann Sebastian Bach.” Bach-Jahrbuch 69 (1983): 109–13.

“Bach vs. Bach—Mühlhausen Dismissal Request vs. Erdmann Letter.” In Bachiana et alia Musicologia: Festschrift Alfred Dürr zum 65. Geburtstag am 3. März 1983, edited by Wolfgang Rehm, 234–42. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1983.

“To a Near Centennial of Shared Bibliophily.” In Festschrift Albi Rosenthal, edited by Rudolph Elvers, 259–64. Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 1984.

With Mina R. Bryan. “Incunabula.” In The Grolier Club, 1884–1984: Its Library, Exhibitions and Publications, 48–52. New York: Grolier Club, 1984.

“Grußwort eines Bildbesitzers.” In Die Handschriften Johann Sebastian Bachs: Musikautographe aus der Musikabteilung der Staatsbibliothek Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin: Ausstellung zum 300. Geburtstag von J. S. Bach, 22. März bis 13. Juli 1985, edited by Rudolf Elvers and Hans-Günter Klein, 11–12. Wiesbaden: Ludwig Reichert, 1985.

“The Science Library.” The Book Club of California Quarterly News-Letter 51 (1986): 59–76.

“Some Dreams and Realizations in Fifteenth-Century Mainz.” In Festschrift Otto Schäfer zum 75. Geburtstag am 29. Juni 1987, edited by Manfred von Arnim, 179–90. Stuttgart: Dr. Ernst Hauswedell, 1987.

“Thoughts on Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), History, and Society.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 141, no. 2 (1997): 160–68.

“Theologische Überlegungen zu Bachs Orgelchoral ‘Vater unser im Himmelreich’ (BWV 682).” Bach-Jahrbuch 85 (1999): 81–104.

“Theologische Überlegungen zu Bachs großem Choralvorspiel ‘Vater Unser im Himmelreich’ (BWV 682).” In Johann Sebastian Bachs Kantaten zum Thema Tod und Sterben und ihr literarisches Umfeld, edited by Renate Steiger, 169–206. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2000.

“Nochmals BWV 50 ‘Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft.’” Bach-Jahrbuch 87 (2001): 117–30.

“Die Choralkantaten von 1724 und Bachs Köthener Besuch.” Bach-Jahrbuch 89 (2003): 47–65.

“Sein Segen fliesst daher wie ein Strom, BWV Anh. I 14: A Source for Parodied Arias in the B-Minor Mass?” In About Bach, edited by Gregory G. Butler, George B. Stauffer, and Mary Dalton Greer, 69–77. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008.

Source checklist and bibliography compiled by Evan Cortens.