Editing Goldberg Variations (section)

=== Variatio 15. Canone alla Quinta. a 1 Clav.: Andante ===
{{listen|type=music|help=no|filename=Goldberg Variations 16 Variatio 15 a 1 Clav. Canone alla Quinta.ogg|title=Variatio 15 a 1 Clav. Canone alla Quinta|description=Performed by Kimiko Douglass-Ishizaka on piano}}
This is a canon at the fifth in {{time signature|2|4}} time. Like Variation 12, it is in contrary motion with the leader appearing inverted in the second bar. This is the first of the three variations in G minor, and its melancholic mood contrasts sharply with the playfulness of the previous variation. Pianist Angela Hewitt notes that there is "a wonderful effect at the very end [of this variation]: the hands move away from each other, with the right suspended in mid-air on an open fifth. This gradual fade, leaving us in awe but ready for more, is a fitting end to the first half of the piece."

Glenn Gould said of this variation, "It's the most severe and rigorous and beautiful canon ... the most severe and beautiful that I know, the canon in inversion at the fifth. It's a piece so moving, so anguished—and so uplifting at the same time—that it would not be in any way out of place in the St. Matthew's Passion; matter of fact, I've always thought of Variation 15 as the perfect Good Friday spell."<ref name="Gould Page" />