Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 — complete cycle

Johann Sebastian Bach (1,685–1,750)

First published: 1741
Key: G major / G minor
Style: Baroque
Level: Fellowship and Concert
Roughly: ABRSM FRSM · Trinity FTCL · Henle 9
Lesson: C.1 Hear an entire variation cycle as one work
Musicianship: C.1 A variation cycle
Focus: Complete-cycle architecture, canons at increasing intervals, French overture, hand-crossing variations, Variation 25, Quodlibet and large-scale memory/endurance.

What its lesson teaches

C.1 Hear an entire variation cycle as one work

Prepare the complete Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Aria, thirty variations and the returning Aria. Compare the retained bass-and-harmonic framework with the changing surface, including the canonic variations, the French-overture opening of Variation 16 and the final Quodlibet. Group the cycle by musical evidence and rehearse its transitions. The whole cycle counts as one work in your programme. The C-major voicing preparation is a separate independence model.

Ideas: Theme and variations
Imitation and canon
Large forms and cycles
Theory cards: A variation set's trajectory
Recovering in a programme
Technique: C major hand crossing in semiquavers, hands together: land the crossing hand without looking
G major scale, hands together, 4 octaves
C major moving top voice above held chordal voices, hands together (faster: Concert tempo)

Edition and licence

Score: Open Goldberg Variations, official 2012 MuseScore edition

Encoding source: https://musescore.com/user/9836/scores/48072 · CC BY 3.0

Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 — complete cycle

Edition: Open Goldberg Variations, official 2012 MuseScore edition

First published: 1741

Source: https://musescore.com/user/9836/scores/48072 (Open Goldberg Variations (2012), MuseScore; the project dedicated it CC0, IMSLP #229423 tags it CC BY 3.0, so it is credited under CC BY 3.0)

Open Goldberg Variations, official 2012 MuseScore edition

Encoding source: https://musescore.com/user/9836/scores/48072

Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Adapted by Musalea: converted to MusicXML and prepared for interactive practice.

The other lesson pieces of Fellowship and Concert

Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111: I. Maestoso – Allegro con brio ed appassionato, Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 35 — complete, Frédéric Chopin
Étude in A minor “Winter Wind”, Op. 25 No. 11, Frédéric Chopin
Prélude, choral et fugue, FWV 21, FWV 21; CFF 24, César Franck
Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58 — complete, Frédéric Chopin
Étude in C minor, Op. 25 No. 12, Frédéric Chopin
24 Preludes, Op. 28 — complete cycle, Frédéric Chopin
Toccata in C major, Op. 92, Carl Czerny
Gaspard de la nuit, M. 55: III. Scarbo, Maurice Ravel
Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11 — complete, Frédéric Chopin

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