The Goldberg Variations are often shown as an unsurpassed model for composition of counterpoint.
While music theorists often emphasize the perfection of the canons, the most important aspect of the work, in my opinion, is the instrumental flamboyance.
Those variations are the “Transcendent Performance Studies” of their day. They expand and elevate the virtuosity of the harpsichord to levels never before heard. In this work, JS Bach has written the most fantastic and extravagant keyboard idioms of his time and has pushed existing ones to the limit. Choreographies of visionary hands (Var. 5, 20, 26), double thirds and sixths (Var. 23) double trills (Var. 28), alternating chords (Var. 29) and many other keyboard acrobatics make this work one of the greatest instrumentals. achievements of musical history along with the aforementioned studies of Liszt, the “Gaspard de la Nuit” or the “Three movements of Petrouchka”. Contrapuntal music writing styles (fugues and canons) have acquired an aura of seriousness and almost religiosity during the Romantic era.
After being forgotten for about a century, when JS Bach was “discovered” by Mendelssohn, he was seen as the quintessential musician for the salvation of romantically tormented souls. The prominence of works commissioned by the church of JS Bach overshadowed his profane and purely instrumental works. In all his compositions, it has been a “tradition” to look for the Divine Signs and connections with the Scriptures. This supposed tradition led to follies such as the “investigation” of divine numerology in their escapes, the “discovery” of the Holy Trinity when a voice jumps a third step and other ridiculous things. The religious sensitivity in his Masses, Cantatas and Pasiones has been extrapolated to the rest of his works. Religion, for JS Bach, was a “normal” and “natural” part of his life. Not only was he employed by religious authority, but he was a man who practiced Lutheranism deeply and sincerely. However, he was a true composer in the sense that he had the aspirations and the artistry to compose a variety of music.
Although JS Bach never composed operas, probably because no one hired him to do so and because such works might have offended his Lutheran community, he was certainly capable of doing so. His operas could have rivaled those of Handel and Rameau. Similarly, it is incorrect to view Bach’s fugues and canons as “pure intellectual music.” The joy is not so much in the analysis of its forms, but in listening and executing them.
After centuries of homophonic musical writing, we have forgotten how simply enjoyable the musical forms of canons and fugues are. By captivating the mind with an engaging subject and leading it through mazes of counterpoint, one can “almost easily” achieve, if not good, at least decent music. When the Bach family got together on Christmas nights, they would sing improvised canons for fun. I think music analysts who emphasize the perfectionism of counterpoint in the Bach canons are missing a point.
Today, the most complicated tailstock can be produced in less than a second with a programmed machine. It is a simple matter of following rules to build a perfect canon. The genius of JS Bach is revealed in the places where he deviated from the rules. Every composer knows (although some never admit it) that the most difficult compositions are the “free” ones.
A simple melody (an “aria” for example) can be much more difficult to compose than a 6-voice fugue. That is why I find that free variations (Var. 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19, 20, 23, 25, 26, 28, 29) reveal more of the genius of the composer. Even more striking examples are the Aria and variations 13 and 25. It is also worth noting how those slow variations, the number 13, and the “adage” number 25 are placed throughout the ensemble. The set is divided into two main sections: Aria – Variations. 15 and Variations 16 to Aria (da capo).
Numbers 13 and 25, which are the emotional climaxes of the entire work, are placed in strategically symmetrical positions. For the compositional framework, Bach chose to include an interlude and a canon, based on the harmonic framework of the previously composed aria, because it seemed the most entertaining form. There is no shame and there should be no fear in using the word “entertaining” here. In the hands of JS Bach, an entertaining form like a canon would surely turn out to be a masterpiece.
The Goldberg Variations occupies a prominent place in the history of keyboard music, alongside the groundbreaking studies of Chopin and Liszt or Igor Stravinsky’s Petrouchka, for their revolutionary instrumental achievement. Similar to works such as the Chopin and Liszt Studies or Stravinsky’s Petrouchka Suite, The Goldberg Variations is one of these musics that expands and revolutionizes the instrumental idioms of its time.
