How many variations does Goldberg have?
30 variations
What are the Goldberg Variations? The work itself consists of 30 variations, starting with a single ‘Aria’. After transforming the music over the course of an hour, using different time signatures, textures, and harmonies, the beautiful first aria returns, with a completely different feel from the first hearing.
What is the best recording of Bach Goldberg Variations?
The best recordings of JS Bach’s Goldberg Variations
- Murray Perahia (piano) Sony Classical SK89243 (2000)
- Mahan Esfahani (harpsichord) DG 479 5929 (2016)
- Beatrice Rana (piano) Warner Classics 9029588018 (2017)
Why are the Goldberg Variations hard?
The Goldberg variations were designed to be pleasant enough and listened as a coherent whole, so they are more sought after, resulting in a larger competition. And you can’t go easy on either the difficult or easy ones without impacting your overall performance.
How long are the Goldberg Variations?
The piece is eighty minutes long, and mostly in G major. Just think about that for a minute. Then (without a bathroom break) think very similar thoughts for 79 more minutes, winding around the same basic themes, and then you will have some idea of what it’s like to experience—you might even say survive—the Goldbergs.
What do the Goldberg Variations mean?
The Goldberg variations were first published in 1741, when Bach about 56 years old (in the last decade of his life). They’re named as such because a man named Johann Goldberg, a super skilled keyboardist, was likely the first one to perform it. The Goldberg Variations were originally written for harpsichord.
What is special about Goldberg Variations?
Long regarded as the most serious and ambitious work for keyboard, the Goldberg Variations display J S Bach’s exceptional knowledge of the many different styles of music of his day, and his own exquisite performing techniques.
Why is Goldberg Variations so popular?
Consisting of an opening aria and then 30 different variations on it, the Goldberg Variations — named after its first performer Johann Gottlieb Goldberg and published in 1741 — is Bach’s most popular keyboard work, partly because it isn’t laden with the academic formality of the Well-Tempered Clavier, and covers so …
Why is it called Goldberg Variations?
Which Goldberg variation is easiest?
Probably the 4th or the 7th. The 1st is pretty easy if you play it slowly. It’s pretty easy to get the notes right when playing the 2nd, but getting the counterpoint to come out well is considerably harder.
What is so special about the Goldberg Variations?
Why did Bach write Goldberg Variations?
Legend has it that Bach wrote the music to soothe the sleepless nights of one Count Kaiserling, who asked his private harpsichordist, Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, to perform the variations. “It may be related to the history of the work during Bach’s time.
Why did Bach name The Goldberg Variations?
What are the Goldberg Variations?
The Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, are a work written for harpsichord by Johann Sebastian Bach, consisting of an aria and a set of 30 variations.
When were Bach’s Goldberg Variations published?
Rather unusually for Bach’s works, the Goldberg Variations were published in his own lifetime, in 1741. The publisher was Bach’s friend Balthasar Schmid of Nuremberg. Schmid printed the work by making engraved copper plates (rather than using movable type); thus the notes of the first edition are in Schmid’s own handwriting.
How many canons are in Bach’s Goldberg Variations?
When Bach’s personal copy of the printed edition of the Goldberg Variations (see above) was discovered in 1974, it was found to include an appendix in the form of fourteen canons built on the first eight bass notes from the aria.
Did Bach add al tempo di giga to the Goldberg Variations?
In 1974, when scholars discovered Bach’s own copy of the first printing of the Goldberg Variations, they noted that over this variation Bach had added the heading al tempo di Giga. But the implications of this discovery for modern performance have turned out to be less clear than was at first assumed.