Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Goldberg Variations, BWV 988
The aria and thirty variations, known as the Goldberg
Variations, offer remarkable testimony to Johann
Sebastian Bach’s mastery of contrapuntal forms in his
work for the clavier, and his command of over-all
musical structure. The work belongs to the later part of
Bach’s career. His earlier appointments had been as an
organist, followed by a happy and relatively brief period
as Court Kapellmeister to the young Prince Leopold of
Anhalt-Cöthen. In 1723 he had resigned his position at
Cöthen, after the Prince’s marriage, and moved to
Leipzig as Cantor at the Choir School of St Thomas,
with responsibility for the music of the principal city
churches. He remained in Leipzig for the rest of his life.
The variations were published probably in 1741 as
the fourth and final part of Bach’s Clavier-Übung, a title
that he had used for the three preceding collections of
keyboard music and one that had been used by his
predecessor as Thomascantor, Johann Kuhnau. The first
part had been published in 1731 and included six
Partitas, works that had appeared annually, one by one,
since 1726, three years after his arrival in Leipzig. The
second part, published in 1735, contained the contrasted
Italian Concerto and Overture in the French Style, and
the third part, issued in 1739, consisted of various organ
compositions and the keyboard Duets. The fourth part
may be regarded as the culmination of a carefully
planned series.
Doubt has been cast on the story associated with the
Goldberg Variations, the source of the title by which the
Aria and Variations are commonly known. Bach’s early
biographer Forkel alleged that Count Hermann Karl von
Keyserlingk, Russian ambassador to the court of Saxony
in Dresden, had commissioned the work for
performance by his protégé, the young harpsichordist
Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, to amuse him during his
hours of sleeplessness. Goldberg himself was born in
1727 in Danzig (Gdansk), where he came to
Keyserlingk’s attention ten years later. He was said to
have taken lessons not only from J.S.Bach but also from
the latter’s eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, who
was working in Dresden from 1733 until 1746. Goldberg
may have remained in Dresden after Keyserlingk’s
departure to Potsdam in 1745, and in 1751 he entered the
service of the First Minister in Dresden, Count Heinrich
von Brühl. He died of tuberculosis in 1756 at the age of
29, leaving a reputation rather as a virtuoso performer
than as a composer.
There was, of course, a close connection between
J.S.Bach and Count von Keyserlingk, his patron at the
court of Dresden. It was through Keyserlingk that Bach
had in 1736 finally secured the title of Court Composer
to the King of Saxony, and the ambassador’s only son
was a student in Leipzig from 1741, so that both
Keyserlingk and Goldberg might well have visited Bach.
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach owed his introduction to the
court of Dresden to Keyserlingk, whose house was open
to other Dresden musicians of distinction. The Aria and
Variations, however, have no printed dedication, with
the title-page announcing the work as for the enjoyment
of amateurs, the work of the Saxon Court Composer and
Kapellmeister in charge of choral music in Leipzig. It
has been further argued that Goldberg was remarkably
young at the time of composition, although the technical
difficulties of the work should have been within the
competence of the young virtuoso even at the age of
fourteen. Forkel concludes his story by adding that Bach
was rewarded by Keyserlingk with a gold cup filled with
a hundred louis d’or. His biography of Bach, published
in 1802, is the only evidence for this.
The aria on which the variations are based was
included in the Clavierbüchlein copied in 1725 by
Bach’s second wife, Anna Magdalena, an untitled piece,
its first eight bars based on the chaconne bass familiar
from French tradition. The variations that follow are
derived from the harmonic structure and the bass line of
the aria and are grouped in threes, every third variation
a canon at a higher numerical interval, with the final
variation a quodlibet, a hotch-potch seemingly remote
from the original aria, which follows in conclusion.
Since the work was intended for a two-manual
harpsichord, there are occasional but not insuperable
technical problems in performance on a single-manual
piano.
The first three variations, ending with a canon at the
unison, are for one manual, while the second group
includes a fifth variation for an optional second manual,
leading to a canon at the second. The seventh variation
offers the same option for a gigue-like movement,
followed by a two-manual variation and a canon at the
third. The fourth group opens with a fughetta and ends
with a canon at the fourth, and the fifth, designed for two
manuals, ends with a single-manual G minor canon at
the fifth. An Ouverture opens the sixth group, marking
the second half of the work, a solemn introduction in the
French style, followed by a fugal section, the group
ending with a canon at the sixth. The seventh group ends
with a G minor canon at the seventh, and the eighth with
a canon at the octave. This is followed by a ninth group
opening in G minor and closing with a canon at the
ninth. The final group, providing opportunities for
greater brilliance of performance, ends with a quodlibet,
a mixture of popular tunes that include Kraut und Rüben
haben mich vertrieben (Cabbage and turnips have driven
me away) and Ich bin so lang nicht bei dir g’west (It is
so long since I was at your house), set against a variation
ground.
The Goldberg Variations offer a conspectus of
Bach’s wit and technical accomplishment, and herald a
final period in which he would continue to explore the
possibilities of canon and the use of a single theme,
notably in The Musical Offering and The Art of Fugue.
Keith Anderson