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