An Analysis Of Bach’s《Goldberg Variations》’s Music Characteristics And Performance

German musician and composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685～1750), one of the greatest giants in the history of western music, has composed hundreds of pieces of music all his life, with keyboard music being his big success. Spreading from a central point, Bach’s musical cosmos is constructed with some simple and subtle elements, any of which would possibly be used to build a magnificent music building in a miraculous way.《Goldberg Variations》, the object of this paper, is such a good example where a line comprised of32bass tones is used to create32fabulous sections and where one tiny motivation is transformed into many variations with elegant counterpoint and different styles. So it proves to be, both in the form and the content, a masterpiece rich in logical connotation and difficult to play, due to its extraordinary composition skill and idea arrangement.This paper is divided into six parts, with four chapters composing the major body. It starts with the introduction which makes a brief exposition of topic basis, literature review and main research direction. Chapter1is a brief introduction about Bach’s life and creation background. Chapter2analyses the structural characteristics of the 《Goldberg Variations》 by two parts, keyboard selection and general creation features, therein the later is elaborated from three aspects, namely figure elements, aesthetic of structure and the function of suspension note. Chapter3analyses related audio material of the 《Goldberg Variations》, discusses the repetition and makes comparison between three typical performing versions. Chapter4studies the different playing ways from the following five aspects:structure, syncopation, key-touching, repetition and reflection on counterpoint, in order to give some suggestions on the performance of this work. The last part is a summary of this article.Since the 《Goldberg Variations》 is one of the greatest variations with largest scale and most magnificent structure in the music history, few performers played it in formal concert until famous female harpsichordist Wanda Landowska (1879～1959), a veritable pioneer, brought it on stage. It is her performance and her famous record made in1933that spreads this work and makes it accepted by pianists and the public.