Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-r7xzm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T00:48:08.095Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - The movements

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 January 2010

Peter Williams
Affiliation:
University of Wales College of Cardiff
Get access

Summary

Aria

That the Aria is not the theme but itself a variation – or, rather, a melodious and rich setting of harmonies accompanying a certain model bass-line – has been noted already, and given the Goldberg's aim to create self-contained movements of a very distinctive character each time, a question is, What kind of piece is the Aria?

In some respects this is obviously a generic sarabande tendre, with leisurely pulse, slow harmonic rhythm, harmonies made from the full triads, various emphases on the second beat of the bar, a singing melody, no upbeat. Like Christoph Bach's simpler Sarabande (see Example 3, p. 37), the Aria also has a single chord at the end of each half (the traditional French sarabande has a feminine cadence with two chords, strong–weak), and again like it and older sarabandes generally, it gives a series of broken chords to the left hand. (But older sarabandes of Christoph Bach's kind were much more lively and sprightly than those of Bach and Handel.) Starting with a quite high right-hand solo and moving towards more continuous and melodious semiquavers in the last half-dozen bars are characteristics that can be found in several of the sarabandes of the French Suites. There as here, one might have the impression that the piece before one is a sarabande doublée, i.e. a fluent variation of a chordal, perhaps richly chordal, original.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • The movements
  • Peter Williams, University of Wales College of Cardiff
  • Book: Bach: The Goldberg Variations
  • Online publication: 06 January 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511606007.004
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • The movements
  • Peter Williams, University of Wales College of Cardiff
  • Book: Bach: The Goldberg Variations
  • Online publication: 06 January 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511606007.004
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The movements
  • Peter Williams, University of Wales College of Cardiff
  • Book: Bach: The Goldberg Variations
  • Online publication: 06 January 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511606007.004
Available formats
×