I wrote:

>>I have to assume that those slow inward grief stricken variations in
>>the Goldberg Variations are meant to express grief.  Any other response
>>is simply perverse.

And Mimi started a harsh critique of my views:

>Wait a minute, wait a minute, and hold on there, fella! Who told you
>that's what Bach meant? That's quite an intellectual leap, there.
>
>I love and live Bach and have for years, but when I press the star on my
>telephone I do not reach Bach and I cannot converse with him. And you
>can't either. I never HEARD any grief-stricken passages in the Goldbergs.

Well, a critic as eloquent as Mimi deserves a second response.  I've
brought some support with me this time- not to refute Mimi's response
to the music - that is private- but to show that my response is not
completely nonsensical.  Charles Rosen refers to the "black despair"of
the 25 th variation.  Serge Schepkin says of the same variation: "It
constitutes the moment of absolute stasis.  It is a vacuum, a black hole
mercilessly absorbing the heavenly visions of the preceding pieces
(Landowska called it la perle noire; the black pearl)." Heck, I not only
have a phone line to Bach, I share a party line.

Incidentally, for those who tend to deny that composers deliberately deal
with emotional expression, I give you CPE Bach. who wrote a piece for
clavichord entitled:"CPE Bach, His Feelings ".

Professor Bernard Chasan
Physics Department, Boston University