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How to download and view the complete works of Bach on a Macintosh

By Jaems • Apr 17th, 2009 • Category: Tutorials

I have recently discovered that the complete contents of the Bach-Gesellschaft, containing all the published works of Bach, are availablle online. Wikipedia lists three sources, one of them has PDF files, but the link is busted, hacked, or both.  The other resource is located at the IMSLP, but the files are listed separately, and the user must go through 2 or 3 indexes to find the works that he wants. The first link is the one I am interested in, as it includes complete volumes for download.  However, the volumes are in DJVU format, which most people won’t be able to open by default.   In order to view the files, you can use DjVu Libre located here. After downloading the package, you can move DjView.app to your Applications directory and begin using. 

Location of Complete volumes with pretty but hard to navigate index that works best in FIrefox

Location of Complete volumes with direct download 

Viewer for DJVU files

Note: The Bach Gesellschaft is an older edition of Bach works now in the public domain, so the quality and scholarship isn’t as good as that of the Neue Bach-Ausgabe (NBA). People who are interested in the latest and best editions should check out the NBA either from the library or buy purchasing a copy.  You won’t be able to download them for free.

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