scholarly journals Performing Structure. Tempo in Glenn Gould’s “Goldberg Variations”

10.31751/1121 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (Sonderausgabe [Special Issue]) ◽  
pp. 79-112
Author(s):  
Michael Rector
Keyword(s):  
Goldberg Variations

Goldberg Variations

1973 ◽  
Vol 114 (1563) ◽  
pp. 497
Author(s):  
Robert Anderson ◽  
Bach ◽  
Karl Richter
Keyword(s):  
Goldberg Variations

An Exploratory Pilot Study of Brain Activation and Functional Connectivity Induced by the “Goldberg” Variations 276 years after their Commission

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 191-197
Author(s):  
Christof Karmonik ◽  
Makiko Hirata ◽  
Saba Elias ◽  
J Todd Frazier
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Brain Connectivity ◽  
Brain Activation ◽  
Johann Sebastian Bach ◽  
Technical Development ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Goldberg Variations ◽  
The Brain

Around 1741, composer Johann Sebastian Bach published a long and complicated keyboard piece, calling it Aria with diverse variations for a harpsichord with two manuals. It was the capstone of a publication project called German Clavier-Übung (Keyboard Practice) where Bach wanted to show what was possible at the keyboard in terms of technical development, virtuosic finesse and compositional sophistication. The music is meticulously patterned, beginning with a highly ornamented Aria, the bass line of which fuels the 30 variations that follow. The piece is clearly divided into two parts with the second half beginning with an overture with a fanfare opening, in variation 16. The piece ends as it begins, with the return of the Aria. Here, we present an investigation into activation and connectivity in the brain of a pianist, who listened to her own recording of the “Goldberg” variation while undergoing a fMRI examination. Similarity of brain connectivity is quantified and compared with the subjective scores provided by the subject.

Goldberg Variations

Criticism ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 667
Author(s):  
Ned Schantz
Keyword(s):  
Goldberg Variations

Improvisation and Habit

2019 ◽  
pp. 208-222
Author(s):  
Gary Peters
Keyword(s):  
Central Issue ◽  
The Past ◽  
Goldberg Variations

Beginning with some reflections on Nietzsche’s demand that we learn new habits of thinking and willing, ones that will enable us to affirm the past as that which we willed, the focus here is on changing our own habits as regards the question of habit itself. Using the Slovenian dancer Jurij Konjar’s reimprovisation of Steve Paxton’s original Goldberg Variations improvisations as a case study, this essay provides a commentary on the documented correspondence between Konjar and Paxton. The central issue addressed here is Paxton’s desire to ‘outwit’ his habits of performance and Konjar’s ultimate acceptance and affirmation of his own. Countering the dominant antipathy to habit in the discourses on improvisation, this chapter argues for a deeper engagement with the essence of the habitual as the locus for a consideration of the very event of dance, understood (by Paxton) as having a ‘life of its own’ above, beyond, or outside the habitual structures of the performing self.

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