The Passions were never published in Bach's lifetime, and survive only in manuscript form. These materials, however, were lost after World War II and were only rediscovered in 1999. In 2001, they were returned to their home at the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin, where they remain to this day. They are currently being transcribed into modern, engraved editions by the Packard Humanities Institute. One exception seems to be the last of the passions, a keyboard reduction of which was published in the year of its premiere (1789).
