Another Way to Look at the Goldberg Variations

Abstract

The Goldberg Variations by Johann Sebastian Bach, published in 1741, has fascinated generations of performers and listeners, especially since Glenn Gould’s recordings in the second half of the twentieth century. This dissertation first explores the essentials of the scholarship on this monumental work: a survey of what we know about the Goldberg Variations’ publication, its name, its genesis, its form, its quodlibet (last variation) and the fourteen extra canons that Bach added in his personal copy of the work. In a second section, the art of free ornamentation is at stake. In baroque music, ornaments were more than decorative additions: they were a fundamental element of the style. Performers in that era were expected to add embellishments in the repeats. After an overview of ornamentation guidelines, based on the authority of three eminences in baroque ornamentation (Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Paul Badura-Skoda and Frederick Neumann), I have proposed my own ornamentation of the repeats of the Goldberg Variations, in order to encourage modern performers to return to the improvisatory tradition of Bach’s time. The complete score with varied repeats is found in the Appendix. Finally, in a third and last section, existing structural analyses of the Goldberg are presented, as well as my own hypothetical structure, which I have named the Goldberg Galaxy.