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Until then, Bach had composed very little music involving the use of variations on a theme, but in his later years he became more interested in exploring every musical possibility in a mathematical manner.
The theme is introduced several times in the short ‘Aria’. Following that, there are 30 variations, which Bach grouped into ten sets of 3. Such meticulous organisation of music had never been encountered before at that time.
Bach repeats the aria at the end, telling listeners that he has brought them full circle and back to where they began. If they’re still awake, that is.
This work was originally written for harpsichord, but is more often played on the piano nowadays. It can be anything from about 50 to 70 minutes long, depending on how it is played. Canadian pianist Glenn Gould made a controversial recording in 1955 with some extremely bizarre fast and slow tempos (and his humming and squeaky chair). The critics could not agree whether it was genius or madness!
Still, Gould’s interpretation of the Goldbergs was chosen as one of the pieces of music sent out on the Voyager space probes, together with pictures of humans, diagrams of where to find our planet, and instructions on how to play the record. As one of the project members said, the ideal message to send out to alien civilisations would have been the complete works of Bach, but “that would have been boasting.”
Listen to a more conventional version of the ‘Aria’ and first 6 Variations.
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Recommended recording:
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J.S. Bach - Goldberg Variations:
No collection should be without Glenn Gould’s 1955 recording of the Goldbergs. This is a digitized version of the original recording.
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