Bach's spectacular Goldberg Variations represent a high point in the repertory of keyboard music, particularly for the harpsichord. This book takes a detailed look at how these variations originated, especially in relation to all Bach's ClavierUbung volumes and late keyboard works, what their exceptionally intricate plan is, what kind of impact they have had, and how their mysterious beauty has been created. This guide to what was at the time the largest and most carefully conceived single work of keyboard music will appeal to students, performers and listeners.

Taking account of Bach scholarship of the past twenty-five years, the first two volumes of Peter Williams's classic study of Bach's organ works are fully revised. This work is a piece-by-piece commentary on this ever-popular repertoire, demonstrating the music's unique qualities and how we might hear and play it today. The book follows the order of the Bach catalog (BWV): beginning with the sonatas, followed by the "free works" and the chorales, and ending with the doubtful works, including the "newly discovered chorales" of 1985.