Goldberg Variations Var 24 #BachUpsideDown

Dan Tepfer - Videos & Lyrics

Dan Tepfer

#BachUpsideDown Variation 24 from Bach's Goldberg Variations, first as written, then upside down (i.e. chromatically inverted). This is the eighth canon in the set, so it's a canon at the octave: everything played in the leading voice gets repeated two bars later an octave away. But is it an octave above, or an octave below? This is, in fact, the first variation where Bach explicitly switches the direction of the canon while the variation unfolds. In the first quarter of the variation, it's an octave above, in the two next quarters it's below, and in the final quarter it's above again — a ↑ ↓ ↓ ↑ construction that must have appealed to Bach for its symmetry. I write about this change of canonic direction at further length here: https://dantepfer.com/blog/?p=762

Sheet music and thoughts on the #BachUpsideDown project at http://dantepfer.com/bachupsidedown

Full #BachUpsideDown playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUzNnspxG1f7AjeMgZ_1nE0D6TH9zrH9R

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