VIDEO: J S Bach, Aria from the Goldberg Variations

[lettersquash]

Recorded on 2022-04-03, playing an upright acoustic (Squire and Longson). I used my Samsung Galaxy A41 phone to record it and then various editors to chop a false-start and end bit off and upload to youtube. End of a long day, in my defence, but I managed to get through it with repeats and only a mistake or two, which is something of a milestone, at least while recording. Excuse me while I put my blindfold on, and you may fire at will (he won't mind).

[lelle]

Well done! I think it has an enjoyable calmness to it, it was a great pleasure to have your recording on while I was doing some things around the house!

[lettersquash]

Well done! I think it has an enjoyable calmness to it, it was a great pleasure to have your recording on while I was doing some things around the house!

Thanks, lelle, it was a great pleasure to get your response! I find the Aria quite a challenge, mostly on the timing, with the many and varied ornaments, switching rhythms and (I think, necessary) rubato. People play it so differently, perhaps because the ornaments can be timed differently, some delaying their resolution more than others, which aligns different notes with those of the other voices. I certainly felt this was too slow and the repeats are a bit pointless without variation (ignoring different mistakes!).

I've been playing it from memory for quite a while now, but ought to go back and read it more carefully. I've also tried playing it to metronome, which at the moment just confuses me more, but I should stick at that - and listen to some of the more rigidly-timed recordings (even MIDI) - to clarify what is actually intended to go where. And I need to keep develop more control.

[lelle]

We can always develop more control! Unless we are like Yuja Wang or something 

Ornaments in baroque music are very much according to taste. Like it's good to know the ornament table that Bach made (it's usually included in basically all Bach editions I have seen) to know what notes to use to start and terminate the various ornaments, but apart from that you have a lot of freedom.

I thought it could be faster when I listened, but that is also a subjective question of taste. There are very slow recordings of the Aria so I thought you were going for the same thing.

[lettersquash]

We can always develop more control! Unless we are like Yuja Wang or something 

Not heard of her until now. But I've been living under a rock...

Ornaments in baroque music are very much according to taste. Like it's good to know the ornament table that Bach made (it's usually included in basically all Bach editions I have seen) to know what notes to use to start and terminate the various ornaments, but apart from that you have a lot of freedom.

Yes, I've seen those, but I'm not sure they always clear up the ambiguities fully, but at the end of the day what matters is how well it works. The double ornament (i.e. one in each hand) at the beginning of the B section had me flummoxed for a long time, but I studied how Glenn Gould did it in his later recording and liked that.

I thought it could be faster when I listened, but that is also a subjective question of taste. There are very slow recordings of the Aria so I thought you were going for the same thing.

Yes, I was, but to pull that tempo off I need to develop more control.

I'll try another recording when I can get round to it, but I'm obsessed with Variation No. 13 now!

[pcaraganis]

beautiful!

[lettersquash]

Thank you very much, pcaraganis!

[dw4rn]

I certainly felt this was too slow and the repeats are a bit pointless without variation (ignoring different mistakes!).

I've been playing it from memory for quite a while now, but ought to go back and read it more carefully. I've also tried playing it to metronome, which at the moment just confuses me more, but I should stick at that - and listen to some of the more rigidly-timed recordings (even MIDI) - to clarify what is actually intended to go where. And I need to keep develop more control.

Thanks for this recording lettersquash, like the others I also found it very enjoyable. It has this meditative, almost hypnotic quality that I think many are looking for in this music.

Having said that, I see what you mean when you say you need to go back to the score and read it more carefully. There are several question marks when it comes to your rhythm, which may explain why you get confused when playing to a metronome. But I'm sure you don't need to listen to any MIDI-recordings to correct this - please don't!

You were also saying that you are aiming for a slow tempo, but that you need more control to achieve that. That is probably true, but what you also need is a greater sense of direction. There are bits in this recording where you play beautiful phrases, but there are also bits where I find that there is no connection between the notes whatsoever. I think practicing in a faster tempo will help you find the longer lines. Then you can go back to experimenting with a slower version.

[lettersquash]

Thanks for this recording lettersquash, like the others I also found it very enjoyable. It has this meditative, almost hypnotic quality that I think many are looking for in this music.

Having said that, I see what you mean when you say you need to go back to the score and read it more carefully. There are several question marks when it comes to your rhythm, which may explain why you get confused when playing to a metronome. But I'm sure you don't need to listen to any MIDI-recordings to correct this - please don't!

You were also saying that you are aiming for a slow tempo, but that you need more control to achieve that. That is probably true, but what you also need is a greater sense of direction. There are bits in this recording where you play beautiful phrases, but there are also bits where I find that there is no connection between the notes whatsoever. I think practicing in a faster tempo will help you find the longer lines. Then you can go back to experimenting with a slower version.

Thank you so much for that feedback. It confirms what I was thinking, and I think your advice is quite right.