Organist Rudy Shackelford will present composer Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variations in a concert at 4 p.m. Sunday at Bethany United Methodist Church, 1860 Hayes Road, Gloucester Point.
Celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, the program pays homage to that movement’s greatest composer—Bach. Bach was a dedicated Protestant Christian, a Lutheran. Nearly three-fourths of his approximately 1,000 compositions were written for use in worship. All of his music was closely bound to Biblical text.
Of his Goldberg Variations, “this challenging and fascinating work rivets one’s attention for well over an hour with mind-bending canonic riddles and hairpin emotional swings from darkest despair to unbridled jollity,” a release from Bethany UMC stated.
Although originally composed for harpsichord and nowadays usually performed on the piano, Shackelford said he believes the diversity and drama of Bach’s 30 variations are most c...