How the editions are made

Each book starts from a scan of its first English printing, and nothing goes into it that the printed page does not have.

The text

The scanned pages are read three times: by our own recognition, by the scan’s text layer, and by the scan of a second copy of the same printing. A word stands when two readings agree. Where they don’t, the word is marked and checked against the page before the book is released.

Notes stay notes, linked both ways. German and Latin keep their accents and umlauts. Running heads and page numbers go, and so do the printer’s marks.

The examples

Every musical example is transcribed, engraved again, and recorded on piano. The page it came from is shown beside it, so you can always see what the author printed. An example is released only once its transcription has been compared with the original note by note.

The narration

The narration is read by an AI voice (Kokoro). Before release every sentence is listened to, and names, German titles and Latin texts are given their proper pronunciation: church Latin for Bach’s texts. When the author points to an example, the narration stops and the example plays.

Where a book can be sold

Every title is in the public domain where it is sold. Most are free everywhere. Some, like Schweitzer’s J. S. Bach in Ernest Newman’s translation, are free in the United States and Canada only, and are sold only there.