#BachUpsideDown Variation 28 from Bach's Goldberg Variations, first as written, then upside down (i.e. chromatically inverted). We're in the final stretch now. The build at the end of the Goldberg Variations is one of the most satisfying aspects of the work. It starts at Variation 26, which presents an ecstatic contrast to Variation 25's dark night of the soul, and reaches its climax with Variations 28 and 29, which both employ musical devices designed to be spectacular. The chief element that Bach plays with here is the trill. He takes it to extremes, and seems to delight in its ambiguity: a trill has two notes, one part of the underlying harmony, and the other usually not, but who's to say which is which? They can be used to introduce foreign tones into a chord without violating the rules of counterpoint, a kind of have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too that Bach uses to the hilt here. I particularly love how this variation sounds upside-down. It's so surprising, and part of the reason is that in trills, we're accustomed to the non-chordal note being on top. But here, with the trills inverted along with the rest, the non-chordal note is on the bottom, which only heightens the overall ambiguity.
I'm performing Goldberg Variations / Variations Feb 21st to celebrate the completion of the #BachUpsideDown project. $5 livestream tickets are available at https://instantseats.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.event&eventID=F9D80096-F81B-AC27-3E27ED953E2AB57B
Sheet music and thoughts on the #BachUpsideDown project at https://dantepfer.com/bachupsidedown
Full #BachUpsideDown playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUzNnspxG1f7AjeMgZ_1nE0D6TH9zrH9R
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