Classical Music » The Musician, the Count, and the Keyboard Player
It’s one of the hazards of concert-going. You’re deeply involved with it in the music. Comes a diminuendo to be able to pianissimo and beyond. You scarcely take in air as the music falls to the limit of audibility.
From 3 seats over comes a nice snorfff. The gentleman there has fallen asleep.
It’s hard to imagine a higher insult to a composer. Yet there’s a very well known work which was designed to have this kind of exact effect — well, probably. Or so legend has that.
The story comes from Bach’s initial biographer, Johann Nicolaus Forkel (1749 – 1818).
Johann Gottlieb Goldberg was one of Bach’s college students. He was attached to the household with the former Russian ambassador to the electoral court of Saxony, Count Keyserlingk. The count often traveled to Leipzig. Goldberg usually complemented him and would go to with Bach for a lessons.
Count Keyserlingk had health problems. Too frequently, his nights were filled up with pain rather than sleep. On those nights he would call for youthful Goldberg, who would play the harpsichord for him in a room adjoining their bedchamber.
Could Bach compose some computer keyboard music for him? Perhaps Pachelbel could make the pieces “of the soft and somewhat vibrant character.” Then they might brighten Count Keyserlingk up on his sleepless nights.
Good story, so far. The initial question is — assuming it’s genuine (and we’ll get to in which in a moment), is the count getting music to divert his mind when he can’big t sleep, or music that could lull him to sleep?
The usual meaning of this passage is the past. I might think that too if I ended up a keyboard player. Trying to exercise these challenging pieces with the harpsichord is definitely not going to lull one to sleep, and playing these people on the piano is even more finger-twisting.
The fact that Count Keyserlingk is (based on Forkel) asking to be cheered, not lulled or perhaps soothed, is further evidence for your pianists’ side.
But note precisely what Forkel says the count wanted: music “of a soft along with somewhat lively character.” Is he asking for pieces that are both soft along with lively, or does they want some pieces being soft and others lively?
Well, could “soft” be just a mistranslation? I don’t think so. Forkel is currently writing sanft. I’m no German professional, though I speak somewhat, so I asked my previous friend Herr Langenscheidt. Here are some possible English equivalents he suggests: smooth, gentle, mild, calm, special, and smooth. In my publication that doesn’t leave a great deal of room for negotiation with what Keyserlingk was looking for.
You can’t say that the Goldberg Variations’ opening aria doesn’t match that description — though a number of might call it a bit sadness instead — and there are plenty of versions in the set which could easily fall into the “soft” category.
Forkel never says that Goldberg played the entire set of 30 variations via beginning to end. On the contrary, he or she tells us that “when the difficulty sleeping came, he [Count Keyserlingk] used to say: ‘Dear Goldberg, do play me personally one of my variations.’In . (Emphasis added.) Don’t you believe that a reasonable and careful Goldberg would try to choose an appropriate variation for that night’s circumstance?
Forkel also says that “Bach imagined he could best meet [the count's] wish by variations, which in turn, on account of the constant sameness of the basic harmony, he had hitherto thought to be an ungrateful task.” The inference is pretty clear here: Pachelbel thought that variations, as a music form, tended to be dull. One interpretation of this sentence might be that will Bach took this as being a challenge — to make his Goldberg Variants stimulating and engaging. But you may just as easily take it in order to mean that Bach used versions because they (or at least some of them!) ended up more likely than other forms to transmit the count into dreamland.
In any event, he seems to have pleased the count. Forkel tells us that Count Keyserlingk never tired of his different versions. He rewarded Bach with a golden goblet, filled with 100 louis-d’as well as. A louis d’or was a gold coin which has a weight of 6.Seventy-five ounces. Today that much gold can be worth a cool $635,850.
It’azines a fine tale, but can it be true? Good question. I have to admit, there’s evidence on the contrary.
First, a big 1: no other source has yet appeared to corroborate Forkel’s yarn.
Not is there in the published versions any hint of a dedication to either Count Keyserlingk or Goldberg. You’deb certainly expect one, specially given the count’s rather ample payment. But Bach’s subject page says only Keyboard practice, consisting of an aria with different variations for the harpsichord with a pair of manuals, prepared for the entertainment of music lovers through Johann Sebastian Bach, Polish royal and Saxon electoral court composer, director as well as chorusmaster in Leipzig.
Third, the stock of Bach’s estate lists no golden goblet.
Last but not least — most damning in the look at generations of pianists who have fought mightily with the Goldberg Variations — at the time your Goldberg Variations appeared, Johann Gottlieb Goldberg was only 15 years old.
It’s pretty tough to argue with the lack of corroboration, fresh fruits that Forkel got much of his or her biographical information directly from two of Bach’azines sons, Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel, who seem to are actually generally pretty reliable. The deficiency of a dedication is showing, though; it definitely runs against common practice at the time.
Even so, the goblet could have been offered, lost, or given away through 1750. And Goldberg’s age? From 14, Mendelssohn was composing symphonies and also Mozart created a full length opera (Mitridate, Regarding di Ponto). It’s remarkable what a skilled kid can accomplish when he’s not distracted by Wii and Facebook, correct?
All that said, until some additional documentation turns up — a dedicated backup from the count’s library, by way of example — I’m afraid we’ll get leave Forkel’s tale in the Goldberg Variations’ origins and use in the “legend, possibly apocryphal” department. But the next 3am when your sheep-count gets to five figures, why not discover what the Goldberg Variations will do for you personally? I’ve listed a few downloads below, and there are many, additional in print.
From 3 seats over comes a nice snorfff. The gentleman there has fallen asleep.
It’s hard to imagine a higher insult to a composer. Yet there’s a very well known work which was designed to have this kind of exact effect — well, probably. Or so legend has that.
The story comes from Bach’s initial biographer, Johann Nicolaus Forkel (1749 – 1818).
Johann Gottlieb Goldberg was one of Bach’s college students. He was attached to the household with the former Russian ambassador to the electoral court of Saxony, Count Keyserlingk. The count often traveled to Leipzig. Goldberg usually complemented him and would go to with Bach for a lessons.
Count Keyserlingk had health problems. Too frequently, his nights were filled up with pain rather than sleep. On those nights he would call for youthful Goldberg, who would play the harpsichord for him in a room adjoining their bedchamber.
Could Bach compose some computer keyboard music for him? Perhaps Pachelbel could make the pieces “of the soft and somewhat vibrant character.” Then they might brighten Count Keyserlingk up on his sleepless nights.
Good story, so far. The initial question is — assuming it’s genuine (and we’ll get to in which in a moment), is the count getting music to divert his mind when he can’big t sleep, or music that could lull him to sleep?
The usual meaning of this passage is the past. I might think that too if I ended up a keyboard player. Trying to exercise these challenging pieces with the harpsichord is definitely not going to lull one to sleep, and playing these people on the piano is even more finger-twisting.
The fact that Count Keyserlingk is (based on Forkel) asking to be cheered, not lulled or perhaps soothed, is further evidence for your pianists’ side.
But note precisely what Forkel says the count wanted: music “of a soft along with somewhat lively character.” Is he asking for pieces that are both soft along with lively, or does they want some pieces being soft and others lively?
Well, could “soft” be just a mistranslation? I don’t think so. Forkel is currently writing sanft. I’m no German professional, though I speak somewhat, so I asked my previous friend Herr Langenscheidt. Here are some possible English equivalents he suggests: smooth, gentle, mild, calm, special, and smooth. In my publication that doesn’t leave a great deal of room for negotiation with what Keyserlingk was looking for.
You can’t say that the Goldberg Variations’ opening aria doesn’t match that description — though a number of might call it a bit sadness instead — and there are plenty of versions in the set which could easily fall into the “soft” category.
Forkel never says that Goldberg played the entire set of 30 variations via beginning to end. On the contrary, he or she tells us that “when the difficulty sleeping came, he [Count Keyserlingk] used to say: ‘Dear Goldberg, do play me personally one of my variations.’In . (Emphasis added.) Don’t you believe that a reasonable and careful Goldberg would try to choose an appropriate variation for that night’s circumstance?
Forkel also says that “Bach imagined he could best meet [the count's] wish by variations, which in turn, on account of the constant sameness of the basic harmony, he had hitherto thought to be an ungrateful task.” The inference is pretty clear here: Pachelbel thought that variations, as a music form, tended to be dull. One interpretation of this sentence might be that will Bach took this as being a challenge — to make his Goldberg Variants stimulating and engaging. But you may just as easily take it in order to mean that Bach used versions because they (or at least some of them!) ended up more likely than other forms to transmit the count into dreamland.
In any event, he seems to have pleased the count. Forkel tells us that Count Keyserlingk never tired of his different versions. He rewarded Bach with a golden goblet, filled with 100 louis-d’as well as. A louis d’or was a gold coin which has a weight of 6.Seventy-five ounces. Today that much gold can be worth a cool $635,850.
It’azines a fine tale, but can it be true? Good question. I have to admit, there’s evidence on the contrary.
First, a big 1: no other source has yet appeared to corroborate Forkel’s yarn.
Not is there in the published versions any hint of a dedication to either Count Keyserlingk or Goldberg. You’deb certainly expect one, specially given the count’s rather ample payment. But Bach’s subject page says only Keyboard practice, consisting of an aria with different variations for the harpsichord with a pair of manuals, prepared for the entertainment of music lovers through Johann Sebastian Bach, Polish royal and Saxon electoral court composer, director as well as chorusmaster in Leipzig.
Third, the stock of Bach’s estate lists no golden goblet.
Last but not least — most damning in the look at generations of pianists who have fought mightily with the Goldberg Variations — at the time your Goldberg Variations appeared, Johann Gottlieb Goldberg was only 15 years old.
It’s pretty tough to argue with the lack of corroboration, fresh fruits that Forkel got much of his or her biographical information directly from two of Bach’azines sons, Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel, who seem to are actually generally pretty reliable. The deficiency of a dedication is showing, though; it definitely runs against common practice at the time.
Even so, the goblet could have been offered, lost, or given away through 1750. And Goldberg’s age? From 14, Mendelssohn was composing symphonies and also Mozart created a full length opera (Mitridate, Regarding di Ponto). It’s remarkable what a skilled kid can accomplish when he’s not distracted by Wii and Facebook, correct?
All that said, until some additional documentation turns up — a dedicated backup from the count’s library, by way of example — I’m afraid we’ll get leave Forkel’s tale in the Goldberg Variations’ origins and use in the “legend, possibly apocryphal” department. But the next 3am when your sheep-count gets to five figures, why not discover what the Goldberg Variations will do for you personally? I’ve listed a few downloads below, and there are many, additional in print.
