Well, its about variety. I read the legend that Bach wrote it for his patron to fight insomnia. But it doesnt strike me as something that helps people go to sleep. The first 10 variations, hes basically demonstrating his power as a composer. But then he shifts to something that is more interesting. In many of the variations we can hear the herald of new music. I have one favorite: Variation 25. Its Chopin. Its the first Ballade. And I love Chopin.
What is it that attracts you to that? I hear a lot of melancholy in that variation.
Its not sadness. Its a kind of realism. The world is as it is, and we have to accept it. It makes me feel comfortable. I also like Variation 13. It draws you into this water of music. And for energy and style I would pick number 16. In Variations 14 and 29, Bach is a virtuoso à la Liszt.
I get the sense that the connections I made to chess dont feel true to you at all. Did you find anything that you could relate to the game?
Its more how the music relates to me, Garry Kasparov, the person. I left the professional game years ago. Sure, the Goldbergs are an encyclopedia. Its a demonstration of what could be done. It was prescient.
I was also curious to ask you about artificial intelligence, and to what extent beauty can come out of a closed system with its own rules. Can a machine make moves that are elegant or is the human spark required? There are efforts that try to teach machines to write music, even in the style of Bach.
A machine can learn rules, whether its chess or music. Offered a variety of options, it can eventually come up with something. But creativity has a human quality: It accepts the notion of failure.read more
Swapping Songs With Chess Grandmaster Garry Kasparov
