Goldberg Variations, BWV 988

• Bach published this set of variations in 1741 as Part Four of his Clavier-Übung (Keyboard Exercise) collection. Bach entitled this work Aria mit 30 Veränderungenv (Aria with 30 Variations).¹
  • The Clavier-Übung is an encyclopedic set of four volumes of music for keyboard instruments (both organ and harpsichord) which Bach published between 1731-1741.²
• Nickname: Bach didn’t call this work “Goldberg Variations,” nor did he dedicate it to his student, harpsichordist Johann Gottlieb Goldberg.³
  • Bach’s first biographer, Johann Nikolaus Forkel, wrote that Bach wrote the variations in order for his former student, Goldberg, to play for Goldberg’s employer Count von Keyserlingk during bouts of insomnia. Goldberg may have had a copy of the work, but it was most likely not written for this or any other commission.
• The set is intended for a two-manual harpsichord; some variations are written for one manual, some call for two manuals with different registrations, for contrast.⁴

Structure and genres:⁵

• The work begins with a lyrical piece Bach entitled simply “Aria,” followed by thirty variations on that aria’s bass line. The aria returns at the end of the work as a da capo.
• Every third variation is a canon, starting with a canon at the unison, and then with increasing intervals as the set progresses (canon and the second, the third, etc.) Bach really is letting us know that he can do whatever he wants with this aria theme, folks.
• The variation that marks the middle of the set is a French overture, as though offering a stately introduction to the second act of an opera.
• The last variation is a Quodlibet, which is a humorous mashup musical genre in which multiple pre-existing melodies are superimposed upon each other.⁶
  • Tradition states that during Bach family get-togethers, making up quodlibets out of popular melodies was a common parlor game.
  • In the Goldberg Variations quodlibet, Bach quotes two popular songs. One is “Ich bin so lang nicht bei dir gewest” (“I have been so long away from you,” probably a joke about how long it’s been since we heard the Aria the first time). The other is “Kraut und Rüben haben mir vertrieben” (“Cabbage and beets have kept me away,” probably a self-deprecating joke to the effect that Bach’s 30 variations of scholarly contrapuntal writing were about as exciting as eating your veggies).⁷

1. “Goldberg-Variationen, BWV 988 (Bach, Johann Sebastian),” IMSLP, accessed January 11, 2021, https://imslp.org/wiki/Goldberg-Variationen,BWV_988(Bach,_Johann_Sebastian).
2. Christoph Wolff and Walter Emery, “Bach, Johann Sebastian,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed January 11, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-6002278195.
3. Ibid.
4. “Goldberg-Variationen, BWV 988 (Bach, Johann Sebastian),” IMSLP.
5. Ibid.
6. Wolff and Emery, “Bach, Johann Sebastian,” Grove Music Online.
7. Peter Williams, Bach: The Goldberg Variations (UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 90.