Richibi’s Weblog

of all the sets of variations, Bach’s Goldbergs 

are supreme, they were written, apparently,  

for a friend, Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, the 

harpsichordist of a Russian ambassador to 

the electoral court of Saxony, who often 

sojourned in Leipzig, one of Bach’s home 

fronts, to help him help the count, his 

master, however paradoxically, sleep

Glenn Gould made them famous, again, in 

1955, for my generation, electrifying the 

world with his clinical, rather than 

Romantic, interpretation, became, thereby, 

a guiding light for me, a metaphysical 

mentor, and inspiration

he closed the chapter of his musical 

career in 1981, with the same piece 

all over again, revisited it, and once

more made musical history, listen

there is no alteration of volume in the

Goldbergs, the harpsichord hadn’t 

developed into the piano yet, the 

notes fall, however rhythmically 

indiscriminately, in a monotone, like 

water tinkling from a fountain, soporific 

eventually, inducing sleep, like clocks 

ticking, or bells ringing from church 

steeples, as in every quarter hour 

in nearly every European setting, 

to help counts, and everyone else 

in the vicinity, sleep 

listen, enjoy

R ! chard