The pianist, Angela Hewitt, in the liner notes for her new recording of
The Goldberg Variations (Hyperion CDA67305) quotes Bach's first biographer
(Johann Nikolaus Forkel) writing about the origin of the Variations:

   "The Count (Keyserlingk) once said to Bach that he should like to
   have some clavier pieces...which should be of such a soft and somewhat
   lively character that he might be a little cheered up by them in his
   sleepless nights.  Bach thought he could best fulfill this wish by
   variations, which on account of the constant sameness of the fundamental
   harmony, he had hitherto considered as an ungrateful task."

Given this testimony, and the almost mathematical nature of the composition
(the same harmonic structure of four 8-bar phrases), I find it more likely
that the character of this music, and all that this character may imply to
the listener, must be traced to the sum total of musical (physical) devices
that make up the work.

The "music" we hear is a physical phenomenon.  There is no intrinsic
meaning in it.  It has no intrinsic significance.  Meaning is a human
construct which all human beings feel compelled to create and some, to
impute.  It is entirely conceivable that on other planets and among alien
civilizations this particular "music" could provoke an entirely different
exercise in the creation or imputation of meaning.

Then again, it might also be possible that all music is actually the
language of perfect beings presumably living elsewhere, and that this
particular music is actually a fragment or chapter of a very meaningful
story, aeons old, told time and again around the campfire on distant worlds
much older and wiser than ours.

In that event, it would possess meaning but a whole new argument would
begin.  This argument would be led by professors of linguistics.

Jim Willford
School of hard knocks.