Around 1741, Bach published a long and complicated keyboard piece, calling it Aria with diverse variations for a harpsichord with two manuals (keyboards). Wolff says it was the final work in a much larger endeavor: "This is the capstone of a publication project which is called in German Clavier-Übung - in English perhaps best translated as Keyboard Practice - where he wanted to show what was possible at the keyboard in terms of technical development, technical, virtuosic finesse and compositional sophistication."
The music is constructed symmetrically, beginning with a beautifully tranquil and highly ornamented Aria, the bass line of which fuels the 30 variations that follow. There is something of a dividing line after variation 15, and the piece ends as it begins, with the return of the Aria. Every third variation is a canon - the melody of each is laid over itself, as in "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" - with the additional complication that the pitch difference between the melodies rises from a canon in unison up to the canon in ninths.
The story of how the variations came to be composed comes from an early biography of Bach by Johann Nikolaus Forkel:
"We have to thank the instigation of the former Russian ambassador to the electoral court of Saxony, Count Kaiserling, who often stopped in Leipzig and brought there with him the aforementioned Goldberg, in order to have him given musical instruction by Bach. The Count was often ill and had sleepless nights. At such times, Goldberg, who lived in his house, had to spend the night in an antechamber, so as to play for him during his insomnia. [...] Once the Count mentioned in Bach's presence that he would like to have some clavier pieces for Goldberg, which should be of such a smooth and somewhat lively character that he might be a little cheered up by them in his sleepless nights. Bach thought himself best able to fulfill this wish by means of Variations, the writing of which he had until then considered an ungrateful task on account of the repeatedly similar harmonic foundation. But since at this time all his works were already models of art, such also these variations became under his hand. Yet he produced only a single work of this kind. Thereafter the Count always called them his variations. He never tired of them, and for a long time sleepless nights meant: "Dear Goldberg, do play me one of my variations." Bach was perhaps never so rewarded for one of his works as for this. The Count presented him with a golden goblet filled with 100 louis-d'or. Nevertheless, even had the gift been a thousand times larger, their artistic value would not yet have been paid for."
0:00 Aria
4:30 Variatio 1. a 1 Clav.
6:43 Variatio 2. a 1 Clav.
8:18 Variatio 3. Canone all'Unisono. a 1 Clav.
10:23 Variatio 4. a 1 Clav.
11:47 Variatio 5. a 1 ô vero 2 Clav.
13:47 Variatio 6. Canone alla Seconda. a 1 Clav.
15:24 Variatio 7. a 1 ô vero 2 Clav. al tempo di Giga
17:15 Variatio 8. a 2 Clav.
20:33 Variatio 9. Canone alla Terza. a 1 Clav.
22:52 Variatio 10. Fughetta. a 1 Clav.
24:59 Variatio 11. a 2 Clav.
27:44 Variatio 12. a 1 Clav. Canone alla Quarta in moto contrario
31:25 Variatio 13. a 2 Clav.
37:42 Variatio 14. a 2 Clav.
40:08 Variatio 15. Canone alla Quinta. a 1 Clav.: Andante
45:18 Variatio 16. Ouverture. a 1 Clav.
48:39 Variatio 17. a 2 Clav.
51:52 Variatio 18. Canone alla Sesta. a 1 Clav.
53:15 Variatio 19. a 1 Clav.
54:27 Variatio 20. a 2 Clav.
57:01 Variatio 21. Canone alla Settima
59:42 Variatio 22. a 1 Clav. alla breve
1:01:31 Variatio 23. a 2 Clav.
1:04:36 Variatio 24. Canone all'Ottava. a 1 Clav.
1:07:47 Variatio 25. a 2 Clav.: Adagio
1:15:56 Variatio 26. a 2 Clav.
1:18:31 Variatio 27. Canone alla Nona. a 2 Clav.
1:21:34 Variatio 28. a 2 Clav.
1:24:11 Variatio 29. a 1 ô vero 2 Clav.
1:25:58 Variatio 30. a 1 Clav. Quodlibet
Негізгі бет Музыка Bach - Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 (Jean Rondeau, harpsichord)
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