GOLDBERG VARIATIONS (CLAVIERÜBUNG IV) BWV 988 J 5 Bach
(1585-1750)
The greatest variation work of the Baroque period, Bach's
'Goldberg Variations’ is an 'occasional' work, written at the
request of Count Kaiserling, Russian ambassador to the Electoral
Court of Saxony, for Bach's pupil Goldberg to play.
The date of the origin of the work is not known, although its date
of publication by Lalthasar Schmidt in Nuremberg is almost certainly
1742, so it was presumably written a few years earlier.
The variations are not only the most extensive of the Baroque
era, but also the most intricate and diversified. Bach took the
'Aria' on which they are based from his own 'Notebook for Anna
Magdalena Bach' of 1725: whether he himself wrote the melody is
uncertain. It is in the form of a sarabande in C major with a richly
embellished upper part, having a very simple structure of two
sections each of 16 bars. It is this harmonic structure, together
with its supporting bass line, that forms the basis of the
variations; the melody in the upper part is generally only alluded
to, not really varied. Thus, the Goldberg Variations belong to the
tradition of the ground bass, chaconne and passacaglia, although
they far exceed in their range and diversity anything previously
written. The variations fall into groups of three, at which the
first and second pieces display free forms, while the third in each
case is a strict canon. The final variation, the famous 'Quodlibet',
brings in two Folk song tunes against the chaconne bass - 'Ich bin
so lang nicht bei dir gwesen' (I have not been with you for so long)
referring to the Aria melody that properly belongs to this bass, and
'Kraut und Ruben haben mich vertrieben' (cabbage and turnips have
driven me away) referring to the variations!
Bach specifies which variations are to be played on two manuals,
and exploit the possibilities of crossing hands with great
virtuosity - something which one also sees in the writing of the
organ trio sonatas. The breadth of musical style welded together in
these variations is truly amazing - from the rather old fashioned
Alla Breve to the most up to date Galant style, and also
emcompassing the strict counterpoint of the canons. Here, then, we
have perhaps the greatest work to be written for the keyboard in the
18th Century.