Aria da capo is a note for note repeat of the aria at the beginning. Williams writes that the work's "elusive beauty … is reinforced by this return to the Aria. … no such return can have a neutral Affekt. Its melody is made to...
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Variation 28 is a two-part toccata in 3/4 time that employs a great deal of hand crossing. Trills are written out using thirty-second notes and are present in most of the bars. The piece begins with a pattern in which each hand successively picks out...
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Variation 19 is a dance-like three-part variation in 3/8 time. The same sixteenth note figuration is continuously employed and variously exchanged between each of the three voices. This variation incorporates the rhythmic model of variation 13 (complementary exchange of quarter and sixteenth notes) with variations...
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Variation 10 is a four-voice fughetta, with a four-bar subject heavily decorated with ornaments and somewhat reminiscent of the opening aria's melody. The exposition takes up the whole first section of this variation. First the subject is stated in the bass, starting on the G below...
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This lively variation markedly contrasts with the slow, contemplative mood of the theme. The rhythm in the right hand forces the emphasis on the second beat, giving rise to syncopation from bars 1 to 7. Hands cross at bar 13 from the upper register to...
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Variation 22 features four-part writing with many imitative passages and its development in all voices. The only specified ornament is a trill which is performed on a whole note and which lasts for two bars (11 and 12). The ground bass on which the entire set...
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Variation 13 is a gentle and richly decorated piece, written in 3/4 time. Most of the melody is written out using thirty-second notes, and ornamented with a few appoggiaturas (more frequent in the second section) and a few mordents. This variation, in my opinion, has...
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Like the Passepied, a Baroque dance movement, Variation 4 is in 3/8 time with a preponderance of 8th notes rhythms. Bach uses close but not exact imitation: the musical pattern in one part reappears a bar later in another (sometimes inverted). Therefore this variation is similar...
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Variation 25 is the third and last variation in G minor; a three-part piece, it is marked adagio in Bach's own copy and is in 3 4 time. The melody is written out predominantly in sixteenth and thirty-second notes, with many chromaticisms. This variation generally lasts...
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The set of the Goldberg Variations can be seen as being divided into two halves, clearly marked by this grand French overture, commencing with a particularly emphatic opening and closing chords. It consists of a slow prelude with dotted rhythms with a following fugue-like contrapuntal...
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