Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis

Wolfgang Schmieder, the editor of that catalogue, grouped the compositions by genre, largely following the 19th-century Bach Gesellschaft (BG) edition for the collation (e.g., BG cantata number = BWV number of the cantata):[1] The Anhang of the BWV listed works that were not suitable for the main catalogue, in three sections: Within each section of the Anhang the works are sorted by genre, following the same sequence of genres as the main catalogue.

Schmieder published the BWV's second edition in 1990, with some modifications regarding authenticity discriminations, and more works added to the main catalogue and the Anhang.

Several compositions were repositioned in the over-all structure of chapters organised by genre and Anhang sections.

[2] New additions (Nachträge) to BWV2/BWV2a included: Numbers above BWV 1126 were added in the 21st century.

A revised version (3rd edition in total) of the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis was originally announced by the Bach Archive for publication in 2020,[3] however it was delayed and only finally published in 2022.

The BWV is a thematic catalogue , thus it identifies every movement of every composition by its first measures, like the opening of BWV 1006 , movement 2 (Loure) above