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Denen Liebhabern zur Gemüths- / Ergetzung verfertiget von / Johann Sebastian Bach / Königl. The title page, shown in the figure above, reads in German:Ĭlavier Ubung / bestehend / in einer ARIA / mit verschiedenen Verænderungen / vors Clavicimbal / mit 2 Manualen. The edition contains various printing errors. Schmid printed the work by making engraved copper plates (rather than using movable type) thus the notes of the first edition are in Schmid's own handwriting. The publisher was Bach's friend Balthasar Schmid of Nuremberg. Rather unusually for Bach's works, the Goldberg Variations were published in his own lifetime, in 1741. More recent scholarly literature (such as the edition by Christoph Wolff) suggests that there is no basis for such doubts. Williams (2001) contends that the Forkel story is entirely spurious.Īrnold Schering has suggested that the aria on which the variations are based was not written by Bach. Goldberg's age at the time of publication (14 years) has also been cited as grounds for doubting Forkel's tale, although it must be said that he was known to be an accomplished keyboardist and sight-reader. The lack of dedication on the title page also makes the tale of the commission unlikely. Nevertheless, even had the gift been a thousand times larger, their artistic value would not yet have been paid for.įorkel wrote his biography in 1802, more than 60 years after the events related, and its accuracy has been questioned. The Count presented him with a golden goblet filled with 100 louis-d'or. He never tired of them, and for a long time sleepless nights meant: "Dear Goldberg, do play me one of my variations." Bach was perhaps never so rewarded for one of his works as for this. Thereafter the Count always called them his variations. Yet he produced only a single work of this kind. But since at this time all his works were already models of art, such also these variations became under his hand. Bach thought himself best able to fulfill this wish by means of Variations, the writing of which he had until then considered an ungrateful task on account of the repeatedly similar harmonic foundation. Once the Count mentioned in Bach's presence that he would like to have some clavier pieces for Goldberg, which should be of such a smooth and somewhat lively character that he might be a little cheered up by them in his sleepless nights. At such times, Goldberg, who lived in his house, had to spend the night in an antechamber, so as to play for him during his insomnia. The Count was often ill and had sleepless nights. we have to thank the instigation of the former Russian ambassador to the electoral court of Saxony, Count Kaiserling, who often stopped in Leipzig and brought there with him the aforementioned Goldberg, in order to have him given musical instruction by Bach. The story of how the variations came to be composed comes from an early biography of Bach by Johann Nikolaus Forkel: 5 Canons on the Goldberg ground, BWV 1087.