In the period following Johann Sebastian Bach's death in 1750, apart from the publication of The Art of Fugue in the early 1750s, the only further publications prior to the 1790s were the settings of Bach's four-part chorales. In 1758 Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg was the first to start preparing a published edition of Bach's four-part chorales, but in 1763 was prevented by royal duties. C. P. E. Bach, who owned the original manuscripts, then set about the same task, producing two volumes in 1765 and 1769. Dissatisfied with his publisher Friedrich Wilhelm Birnstiel, he surrendered the manuscript rights in 1771 to Johann Kirnberger and his patron Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia. From 1777 onwards, Kirnberger unsuccessfully made requests to Birnstiel and a new publisher, Johann Gottlob Immanuel Breitkopf, to publish the chorales. Following Kirnberger's death in 1783, C.P.E. Bach approached Breitkopf, who published them in four volumes between 1784 and 1787.
About half of the chorale harmonisations in this collection have their origin in other extant works by Bach.
History
Bach's posthumous publications in the second half of the eighteenth century, like those printed during his life, gave the impression of a readership aimed at connoisseurs with a "learned" expertise in keyboard music. Thus only The Art of the Fugue and the four-part chorales were available in print prior to 1800. The demand in that period was partly affected by publishers' printing expenses and partly by changing tastes. Amongst amateurs, there was a market for more popular, tuneful and approachable repertoire: amongst professional musicians, however, manuscripts continued to be circulated through hand copies. In the nineteenth century fashions changed again: the Well-Tempered Clavier—a foundation-stone for musicians—was printed for the first time in 1801, followed by publications of complete editions of Bach's works throughout the century.
The task of engraving "The Art of the Fugue" was interrupted by Bach's death in 1750. Assisted by the family and former assistants, C.P.E. Bach and J.F. Agricola published an edition through subscription in 1751: few subscribers took up the offer. In 1752 a second edition was printed with a new foreword by F.W. Marpurg. Here he wrote that his aim was to instil "the dignity of Harmony" into the fugue and explained its importance both for "the music mechanic" knowing only "the fugue by name", as well as "the contemporary composer, who considers the fugue the child of ancient aberration, [in] the manly element which should prevail in music," as opposed to "the spreading rubbish of womanly song." The attempt at recruiting subscribers, musically well-versed in counterpoint, was again unsuccessful, with hardly thirty copies sold. Disappointed for the second time by the response, C.P.E. Bach sold the plates in 1756.
The initiative for publishing the four-part chorales of Bach was different. Possibly didactic in purpose, the four-part chorales were "miniature masterpieces of harmony and voice leading" with "searching harmonies and busy inner parts". The chorales were extracted from Bach's church music by the Berlin circle around C.P.E. Bach. Already in 1709, as a youth in the Arnstadt Consistory, Bach had been scolded for having "made many curious variatones in the chorale, and mingled many strange notes in it, and for the fact that the congregation has been confused by it". It is possible that Bach's reluctance to publish any four-part chorales was a consequence of such criticisms. At any rate, even fifteen years after Bach's death, the first editions of the four-part chorales also proved to be controversial and were not well-received, even amongst Bach devotees.