Aria
It’s January 1st, 2026 and this year I’m going to aim to record as many Goldberg Variations as possible as a fun personal project. I will add them to this blog post as I complete them. Please enjoy the beautiful opening Aria from this wonderful collection by J.S. Bach.
Variation 1
This one is so much fun to play. It races out of the gate after the slow and contemplative Sarabande that is the Aria. I find it quite challenging to keep the steadiness of the 16ths as the motives switch between hands so quickly. The hand crossings at the bottom of the first page have needed extra work. My favourite aspect of this variation is the thumping bassline Bach gives us, especially at the top of page 2.
What’s interesting about Bach’s Goldberg Variations is that they are a variation on harmonic structure as opposed to melodic variations which is traditionally what most composers do. So the Aria establishes the basic chords and each variation mostly adheres to the same choice of chords while texturally changing on the surface.
Variation 2
A light and steady march to balance the more-intense first variation. I’m probably going to say this over and over again but it was incredibly challenging to put together. As with playing Mozart, Bach takes no prisoners in that this music is so transparent that unwanted accents, uneven passages, or anything shaky stand out like (no pun intended) a sore thumb. The LH has a steady eighth note pulse while the RH balances a conversation between two voices. I’m learning to play without pedal which leads to lots of finger substitutions and different fingerings than I’m used to. That said, it’s upbeat tick-tock character makes it so fun to play. I especially enjoy the passage near the end when each RH voice holds a quarter note while the other plays 16ths.
