The concluding Quodlibet combines two well-known folk melodies: 'Großvatertanz' (Grandfather dance) and the 'Bergamasca' tune, often associated with popular, humorous texts.
Compositional Technique
The 30 variations are structured with canonic settings marking the end of each group of three movements, with the canons arranged in ascending intervals from unison to ninth, culminating in a quodlibet.
Compositional Technique
The Goldberg Variations feature a wide range of metric patterns, different tempi, and forms, including canons, fughetta, and ouverture, to avoid monotony and offer musical variety.
Composition History
Despite the anecdote, evidence suggests the Goldberg Variations were not a separate commission but integrated into the Clavier-Übung series, partly because Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, the count's house harpsichordist, was only fourteen at the time.
Composition History
According to Bach's first biographer, Johann Nicolaus Forkel, the Goldberg Variations were requested by Count Hermann Carl von Keyserlinck of Dresden to cheer him up during sleepless nights.
Composition History
The Goldberg Variations, published in 1741, is the concluding part of Bach's four-part Clavier-Übung series, a collection of keyboard music published between 1726 and 1741.
Compositional Technique
Bach's Goldberg Variations use an unprecedented 32-measure ostinato bass line, which is identical to the first eight fundamental notes of Handel's Prelude and Chaconne with 62 variations (HWV 442).
