THE GOLDBERG VARIATIONS (Part Three)
Commentary No. 60 of The Bach Cantatas
Variation 16. Beginning of part two. Ouverture dans le style français ancien. An ostentatious and grandly fussy prelude in 2/2 followed by quasi-fugal material in 3/8. A genre piece. Three voices. Return of the major key. Clearly a contrasting, and preparatory, state of mind than that found in the discomposing culmination of part one that is variation 15.
Variation 17. Virtuosic toccata. Hand crossings. Metre 3/4. Jumpy arpeggios and ragged scales. Structure 4:4:4:4 in part one; part two, with some inversions, changes of manuals, some arpeggios changed to scales, and so on, 4:4:4:4, with acceleration added in the final four bars. Starts nowhere and intends to go nowhere and wanders accordingly, but attending to the 32 notes’ harmonic bass of the aria. Said Gould: “Variation 17 is one of those rather skittish, slightly empty-headed collections of scales and arpeggios which Bach indulged when he wasn’t writing sober and proper things like fugues and canons….” With which I agree.
Variation 18. A crystalline canon at the sixth. In three purified voices. Metre 2/2. Implacable imitation at the half bar. Cordial, gracious, but unequivocal, clarity.
Variation 19. Metre 3/8. Three voices. The aria’s harmonic scheme is clearly stated recurrently in the bass voice. A six-note pattern in 16th notes is employed throughout in four bars’ phrases, the initial two bars descending and the following two bars rising. The four bars’ sequence is in the alto voice bars 1-4, in the soprano voice bars 5-8, bass bars 9-12, divided amongst bass and soprano bars 13-16; soprano bars 17-20, alto bars 21-24, bass bars 25-28, soprano 29-32. It is insistent, the sort of music that puts one to sleep; a dance-like Baroque genre piece, with perhaps a whiff of minuet, and a touch vexatious, when played moderato; shorn of all restfulness when played allegro; but when played andante, it is a lovely lullaby, with tender teardrops of wistfulness.
Variation 20. Virtuosic toccata in 3/4 time; hand-crossing; two voices, in rapid chatter with one another; two manuals. Two ideas: one of syncopation on the quarter beat, a second of runs of triplets on the beat and half beat, the ideas from time to time elegantly and eloquently intertwined as well as moving from manual to manual. A unity of duality. Breathless for both player and listener.
Variation 21. In the minor key. 4/4 time. Three voices. Canon at the seventh. Harmonic scheme spelled intermittently, and with chromatic additions, as a lament in the bass voice. The variation is a longing of unearthly beauty, a vision of the yet unreached quiet and peace of immortality.
Variation 22. In the major. 2/2 time. Four voices. The harmonic scheme is clearly expressed in the bass voice. The other three voices engage in imitative discussions and brief excursions, which sound a quasi-fugal clarity when played at a fast pace; but the beauty of the piece, and the reason for the imitations, comes through when played andante, the noble, graceful richness of the harmony then emanating throughout, and by all this is revealed that this variation is the complementary successor to the Elysian sublimity of variation 21.
Impertinent scales, some of them in a great hurry, and off-kilter syncopations, some of them the worse for wear after the last drink. Variation 23. 3/4 time; two, then three, then four voices at the table. Two manuals, and virtuosic pianists in despair.
Wandering ever deeper into quiet. Compounded by 9/8 time, canonic at the octave. Three voices, the harmonic scheme immediately presented in the bass, until it too drifts toward calm; the voices reechoing and pealing over and above and below one another. Bach, Goldberg Variations, variation 24.
The elegiac enigma; the exquisite and transcending hurt of arrival and departure. The discord of the descent from the cross. The structural and spiritual apogee of the Goldberg Variations. Variation 25. In the minor. 3/4 time. Three voices. Adagio.
A whirling walk by one with a dancingly vivacious gait by a second, in which the harmonic scheme is clearly, and happily, implied in an integrated third voice. Every eight bars they switch posture, until the last five bars they whirl together. Unusually, Bach writes the last 8 bars not as 4:4 structure, but asymmetrically as 3:5. The twirl is always in 18/16 time, the jaunt always in 3/4. The elegance is musically and psychologically meticulously clever. A graceful paradox of artful simplicity. No anguish here. Variation 26.
Scurries of wind with occasional raindrops. Utter clarity of concept, as it is the only pure canon of, and the last of, the nine; at the ninth, without bass line; 6/8 time; two manuals. Variation 27.
The intricate content is held within a structure that is very regular, as all its sections contain exactly four bars. Four major elements: melodic 16th notes on the beat, trills throughout the bar, wide intervals and hand-crossings in 8th notes, contrary motion in 16th notes. Bars 1-4, melodic notes above trills in right hand, with bass line in wide intervals. Bars 5-8, hand-crossing in right hand, melodic notes and trills in left. Bars 9-12, contrary motion. Bars 13-16, mirroring. Bars 17-20, wide intervals and contrary motion. Bars 21-24, melodic notes and trills in both hands. Bars 25-28, alternation of melodic notes and trills and wide intervals. Bars 29-32, all four elements combined, first with alternation continuing and then concluding with contrary motion. Four voices. Two manuals. 3/4 time. Not for beginners. Variation 28.
Rapid alternations of chords contrasted with quicksilvered triplets of arpeggios. Quirkily sensational. Variation 29. The aria’s harmonic sequence is immediate in the bass voice. The overall propulsion reminds of variation 28, encapsulating and arbitrating its imbedded quavering. 3/4 time. Also not for novices.
The quodlibet, the final variation, number 30, with its canonic intimations, and its contrapuntal gatherings of joy.
What one remembers as unchangeable is not the same as what seems to recur. With the aria da capo I come to the end of 32 consecutive mornings that began with the statement, then, for each break of day, a single variation, finally to reach the restatement; all that together comprise this work. The last so heart-breaking, the tearful bidding of an adieu to a gift that cannot be replaced, and to which this music binds, even while it give us, release.
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I enjoyed reading Hendrik Slegtenhorst's comments about and insights into J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations. They are well balanced combination of objective analysis and subjective opinion.
One of our more cynical critics once asked "Do we really need another recording of the Goldberg Variations?" One could just as easily ask if we really need more written about the Goldbergs. My answer to both questions is an emphatic yes. The richness of these pieces lies in there being open to a huge variety of musically justifiable interpretations. While Bach wrote these Variations for a two manual harpsichord, most of our recordings and performances are on a modern piano. There is also a convincing arrangement for string trio.
While we may not share all of Slegtenhorst's subjective reactions, it is exciting and enlightening to hear what someone else experiences when they explore these musical gems.