Question on last measure of the Goldberg Variations Aria

[mark]

I don't know why I am obsessing over such a minor detail, but, should I hold the B (half note) with the fermata?

And, why is the fermata hanging out over the repeat symbol vs. the last note?

[LuFins Dad]

@mark said in Question on last measure of the Goldbergs Aria:

And, why is the fermata hanging out over the repeat symbol vs. the last note?

Because you are supposed to repeat forever. Everyone has been playing it wrong…

[mark]

@lufins-dad said in Question on last measure of the Goldberg Variations Aria:

@mark said in Question on last measure of the Goldbergs Aria:

And, why is the fermata hanging out over the repeat symbol vs. the last note?

Because you are supposed to repeat forever. Everyone has been playing it wrong…

LMAO! Katie and I said the same thing earlier.

[kluurs]

I believe Bach intended that each variation should lead directly into the next variation unless he put a fermata at the end.

[bachophile]

It’s there because that’s what I the composer wrote in the original.

From wiki

In chorales by Johann Sebastian Bach and other composers of the Baroque, the fermata often signifies only the end of a phrase, and a breath is to be taken. In a few organ compositions, the fermatas occur in different measures for the right and left hands and for the feet, which would make holding them impractical. "In the older music the sign for the fermata is used, as frequently by Bach, merely as indicating the end of the piece, after a Da Capo, when modern composers usually write the word 'fine.' It does not then imply any pause in the music between the first and second part of the number."