What the Goldberg Variations show me

I’ve been listening to Bach’s ‘Goldberg Variations’ today. It’s a change from the ambient and drone music that I usually play whilst working. I played the recording made by Glenn Gould in 1981. It’s been a favourite of mine for years. I have a collection which includes Gould’s earlier recording from 1955. The way he handles the music in each is so startlingly different. Each is compelling and beautiful. The first is a youthful rendition, the second one bears the marks of an older man, slower and more considered – bringing the emotion out of some of the variations in ways that were not apparent in the earlier version.

I remember first hearing this music and being really intrigued by the way Bach constructed these variations on an initial theme. It is truly inspiring as a method for writing, using variations with a rigour in the method. I’ve tried it frequently in my own writing – not with the accomplishment of Bach, of course. But still it provokes a shift in writing, brought about by an external approach e.g. reframing an original poem using some of the words, some of the ideas, in a different context.

It’s often worth taking techniques from one form and applying them to another. Think across disciplines, topics – shift the ideas into a new realm and see where it takes the work.