Morgantown, WV — Music professor and Doctor of Composition by day, Bluegrass musician by night, Christopher Jones has reworked and recorded J.S. Bach's iconic Goldberg Variations for mandolin, banjo, and guitar for a new album to be released May 7 on SoundCloud.
With a Bachelors degree in Cello Performance and a Masters and Doctorate in Music Composition from West Virginia University, Jones became deeply indoctrinated in the Appalachian traditional folk music. For the past half-decade he has played with the group 18 Strings, working their way through a catalog of six hundred-plus songs performing at bars, concert halls, street fairs, and festivals big and small.
About the project, Jones told us, "There's really something in here for everyone. If you know Bluegrass but aren't as familiar with Bach, you'll know the sounds of the instruments but maybe not the style of counterpoint. Fans of Bach unfamiliar with American folk styles might soon find themselves exploring the work of Bill Monroe, Bela Fleck, or Chris Thile. I have two very different circles of musical friends that could have a great time if they got to know each other. It's two very different worlds that are intersecting, helping to present the universality of the narrative process that's so intrinsically human."
Based on range and the color, Jones assigned mandolin to the soprano/alto range, the banjo to tenor, and the guitar to bass. To master the performance itself he spent eight hours a day playing each part to a metronome, slowly at first, gradually increasing the tempo. After several hundred hours of painstaking rehearsal, Jones would head to the studio with a handful of variations mastered and track them part by part. Then, on to the next stack of sheet music.
Bach's Goldberg Variations, originally published in 1741, consist of an opening Aria followed by 30 variations and then a restating of the Aria at the end, all in the same key over the same suggested chords. Originally composed for keyboard, it's an all-time classic, and occasional selections have appeared on prominent mandolin recordings over the years (Chris Thile and Marshall Marshall for example) but never as the entire suite (to our knowledge) performed by one individual. National Public Radio once described the variations as a "Rubik's Cube of invention and architecture."
Listen
The opening "Aria" from the recording.
Track Listing
- Aria
- Variation no. 1
- Variation no. 2
- Variation no. 3
- Variation no. 4
- Variation no. 5
- Variation no. 6
- Variation no. 7
- Variation no. 8
- Variation no. 9
- Variation no. 10
- Variation no. 11
- Variation no. 12
- Variation no. 13
- Variation no. 14
- Variation no. 15
- Variation no. 16
- Variation no. 17
- Variation no. 18
- Variation no. 19
- Variation no. 20
- Variation no. 21
- Variation no. 22
- Variation no. 23
- Variation no. 24
- Variation no. 25
- Variation no. 26
- Variation no. 27
- Variation no. 28
- Variation no. 29
- Variation no. 30
- D.C. Aria
Additional Information
Photo credit: Lauren Smith
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