Score

Aria with Diverse VariationsBWV 988

Also known as Goldberg Variations: Aria

Difficulty 3
G major
5 min
32 measures

The Aria that opens Bach's Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, printed in Nuremberg by Balthasar Schmid in a set for harpsichord with two manuals. An ornamented melody in 3/4 unfolds over a slow bass in two halves of sixteen bars, each repeated; that bass underlies the thirty variations that follow. This edition holds the Aria alone and follows an anonymous manuscript copy of about 1742 in the Boston Public Library.

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Aria with Diverse VariationsBWV 988

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