Johann Sebastian Bach

Bach wrote more music that ordinary players actually use than any other composer, which is why this catalogue holds over 17,000 entries under his name. He spent his career as a working church and court musician, producing to deadline, and almost none of it was published in his lifetime.

For keyboard players the entry points are the Notebook for Anna Magdalena and the Little Preludes, both genuinely playable within a few years of starting. The Two-Part Inventions come next, then the Well-Tempered Clavier, which is a lifetime's work rather than a stage to pass through. String players meet him through the solo suites and partitas; singers and choirs through the cantatas, Passions and the B minor Mass.

Editions matter here more than for most composers. Bach notated sparingly — little dynamic marking, inconsistent articulation, ornaments left to convention — so every edition is an interpretation. A nineteenth-century performing edition, which is what most free scans are, will hand you a fully marked page reflecting a style of playing that has since been substantially revised. For anything you intend to perform, a modern urtext is worth the outlay.