Running time: 11 Minutes
A documentary film of our collaboration with Andersson Dance, performing a new interpretation in music and movement of J.S.Bach's masterpiece, Goldberg Variations.
31 August 2015
11 musicians and 5 dancers are choreographed together as one in this new interpretation of J.S.Bach’s masterpiece, Goldberg Variations.
Goldberg Variations is not only one of the most well-known, and most celebrated, pieces ever written, though – it’s one of the most interpreted. From theories that its structure deliberately mirrors the ascent of the nine spheres of Ptolemaic cosmology, to the claim that the whole thing is a cleverly coded rebuke to a critic who had snubbed the composer, there is clearly something about this sprawling, complex piece which invites interpretation.
In 2015, Örjan Andersson (Andersson Dance) and Jonathan Morton (Scottish Ensemble) added their own, in which 11 musicians and 5 dancers perform as equal partners – both choreographed, the result is a singular experience of musician and dancer performing as one. It’s here that the subtleties of the interpretation come out; was Goldberg Variations intended to be a purely aural experience, or can we move to it? How do we, and how can we, experience these notes in the 21st century?
Goldberg Variations – ternary patterns for insomnia premiered in Stockholm on 17 Sep 2015 before touring the UK in Nov 2015, and returning to Sweden in Jan-Feb 2016.
