The Goldberg variation (Bach clock)
Summary
The Goldberg variation (Bach clock) is based on Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg variations. But whereas Bach’s version takes around 30 minutes to play from beginning to end, this version is stretched to 12 hours and 25 minutes. Each note in the original score is struck at even intervals, every two seconds. The rythm is evened out, the dynamics are flattened: every sense of musical direction is gone. What remains is a solemn enumeration of all the tones that make up the original piece – a kind of clockwork.
Description of project
Artist Jesper Norda + rojal förlag (Olle Essvik, Joel Nordqvist)
Book + usb [sound files] 300 * 210 mm, [20+4 AP] [468 pages]
The Goldberg variation (Bach clock) is based on Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg variations. But whereas Bach’s version takes around 30 minutes to play from beginning to end, this version is stretched to 12 hours and 25 minutes. Each note in the original score is struck at even intervals, every two seconds. The rythm is evened out, the dynamics are flattened: every sense of musical direction is gone. What remains is a solemn enumeration of all the tones that make up the original piece – a kind of clockwork.
Type of work
Book
Published in
Book + book release Gothenburg Art Museum, bookstore.
Date
2017-01-15Creator
Norda, Jesper
Essvik, Olle
Keywords
PUBLICATION
book
Goldberg variation
Publication type
artistic work
Language
eng