# Some more questions on how JS Bach's works are organized.



## Uematsu (Dec 27, 2017)

I notice that some of Bach's music is listed with an A after the BWV catalog number. What's the reason these works ended up listed that way? For example for the cantatas there is a BWV 207 and a different work listed as BWV 207A.

I also am wondering about The Art of Fugue. In addition to the movements I find listed on wikipedia, the disc I have has some extra tracks at the end listed as BWV 1080A/1, /2, etc. There are 4 movements all listed as contrapunctus A4. Are these movements added by later composers created from fragments left by Bach?

Thank you all for any information you may have on these topics.


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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

Alternative or earlier versions of basically the same composition are indicated by adding a lower case letter 'a' to the BWV number. The example you give, BWV 207a "Auf, schmetternde Töne der muntern Trompeten" was likely premiered in 1735 and is largely based on an earlier secular cantata "Vereinigte Zwietracht der wechselnden Saiten" BWV 207, which was first performed in 1726.

In Schmieder's second edition of the BWVs published in 1990, slashes indicate movements: e.g. BWV 149/1 indicates the first movement of the Cantata BWV 149. Another example: the Agnus Dei of the Mass in B minor can be indicated as BWV 232/22 (22nd movement of the composition), or alternatively as BWV 232IV/4 (BWV 232, fourth movement of Part IV).


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## JeffD (May 8, 2017)

Thank you Rick. I wondered the same thing.


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