PART 1

1 Music for Sleep@

What was the purpose for J.S.Bach to compose this set of variations, the Goldberg Variations? That was "For sleep". In this document where "Music of Intellect" is the main title, it might be strange to say abruptly "It is for sleep". But, the history of its composition indicates it. Notes of each CD tell us so. Although many of enthusiasts of the Goldberg may know about this, I would like to show the said-facts briefly as follows..........

"J.S.Bach sent one of his eligible students, J.G.Goldberg, to Count Keiserlingk as a resident clavirist. Then Count Keiserlingk had asked Bach to compose a musical work which 'could make up his sleepless night hours by mind healing, and should be calm and somehow cheerful'. Bach made this set of variations to cure Count's insomnia and send it to him.

Count Keiserlingk highly appreciated it, and rewarded Bach with a considerable amount of money. Under these circumstances this set of variations was named after Bach's student Goldberg who should be the first performer in history."

There are a lot of versions of performing the Goldberg Variations, and each comment tells this story with a little bit difference. For your reference, the original facsimile of the cover page of the Goldberg Variations contains the message

Clavier-Ubungbestehend
in einer Aria mit verschiedenen Veraenderungen
vors Clavicimbal mit 2 Manualen.
Denen Liebhabern zur Gemuths - Ergetzung verfertiget

Glenn Gould pointed out, on the occasion of his first recording, that it was very much doubtful if 'Maestro' Goldberg had been playing this bitter taste work truly and precisely with any success of making effect as a lullaby, and said that the theory "Music for Sleep" was not more than an episode. It is understandable as Gould's comment about this work, because he himself had chosen this work for his debut recording in 1955, as the ultimate object for his intellectual challenge, and resultantly millions of people supported his outcome.

Ralf Kirkpatrick indicated, in the scorebook edited by himself in 1934, "The musical feeling for the true expression of Bach's phrases is usually, or should be, developed by intellect mainly." So he may have said, "This is the Music of Intellect."

Now, contemporary listeners are listening to this work in order not to cure insomnia but to explore ultimate world of musical sense in the ship of the Music of Intellect. So the cracks laid between "intellect" and "sleep" cannot be fixed up. Anyway they are entertaining this intellectual challenge in the field of music.

A musical work based on the necessity for sleep is now the one for the intellectual challenge. A musical work for a Count is now shared by many people all over the world. Many performers have played this work by now. But Glenn Gould has contributed greatly to promote more people to love the Goldberg Variations.

The relation between "Music of Intellect" and "Music for Sleep" is profoundly interesting. Both Intellect and Sleep are related directly with human soul, heart and will. So I would like to study and investigate it from various aspects. Through this process I want to find out fun of Intellect, and at the same time verify the comfort of Sleep.

At first, let's begin with Intellect. And later come back and think about the meaning of "Music of Intellect".