| Johann Gottlieb Goldberg |
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Information AboutJohann Gottlieb Goldberg |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT JOHANN GOTTLIEB GOLDBERG | |
| german composers | |
| baroque composers | |
| harpsichordists | |
| students of johann sebastian bach | |
| 1727 births | |
| 1756 deaths | |
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LIFE He was probably of German ancestry, and was born in Danzig (now in Poland ), which was then under the control of the Teutonic Order . Little is known for certain about his childhood, other than that he was an exceptionally talented performer, attracting the attention of Hermann Karl Von Keyserlingk , the Russian ambassador to Saxony , around 1737. Goldberg was reported to have studied with both J.S. Bach and Wilhelm Friedmann Bach , J.S. Bach's eldest son, though the periods of study are not known; Goldberg may have studied with J.S. Bach as early as 1737, shortly after Keyserlingk recognized his talent in Danzig, and Goldberg may have studied with W.F. Bach at any time before 1745, since W.F. Bach was in Dresden throughout Keyserlingk's tenure there as ambassador. The most famous part of Goldberg's life is the portion, probably in 1741, recounted by J.S. Bach's biographer Johann Nikolaus Forkel , which involved the composition of a set of Variations by Bach as a soporific to help the Insomnia c Count Keyserlingk get to sleep. Keyserlingk's favorite chamber harpsichordist was none other than the 14-year-old Goldberg, whose technical accomplishments were already so spectacular that they made it possible for him to perform a work of such extraordinary difficulty. Whether the Count actually slept through performances of the piece is not recorded, but he did indicate that Bach's composition was a great favorite of his. According to Forkel, writing in 1802, sixty years after the event: :"... Count ... often stopped in ''. Nevertheless, even had the gift been a thousand times larger, their artistic value would not yet have been paid for." (translation taken from Ralph Kirkpatrick's edition of the ''Goldberg Variations'', cited below) The accuracy of the story recounted by Forkel has often been questioned, and indeed may have been embellished by Bach's enthusiastic biographer. However Goldberg was known as a virtuoso performer at the time, was in the employ of Keyserlingk at the right time, and was also most likely in Leipzig , based on the similarity of the cantatas he composed to those by Bach; a teacher-student relationship has been suggested by many scholars on the similarity of the cantatas alone. Goldberg remained with Count Keyserlingk until around 1745, and disappears from the record until around 1750, when he was included in a concert described by W.F. Bach in a letter of 1767. In 1751 Goldberg was hired by Count Heinrich von Brühl, and he remained in the employ of Brühl for the rest of his short life. He died of Tuberculosis at the age of 29 and was buried in Dresden on 15 April 1756 . WORKS Goldberg's works, while much less famous than the composition by Bach that used his name, varied widely in style, showing influences from most of the musical trends during that transitional period in music history. His earlier works are similar to those of J.S. Bach, and suggest that the story he studied with the famous composer may be true; his later works show that he was sensitive to the popular tastes of the Dresden court, especially in his use of the Galant style. Some of his last works, especially the concertos, use a sophisticated harmonic language akin to that of Bach's son Carl Philipp Emanuel , and were probably written for the musicians of Heinrich von Brühl. Syncopation , Chromaticism , and melodies with a wide range are characteristic of these later works. His output includes Cantata s, probably written in Leipzig in the early 1740s; Trio Sonata s; keyboard music, including 24 Polonaise s, one in each of the major and minor keys; Concerto s for harpsichord; and a set of Chorale Prelude s which has been lost. REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING
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