Interesting discussion. I attended a concert / talk featuring Professor Du Sautoy and a performance of the Goldberg Variations a few days ago which was very eng

Interesting discussion. I attended a concert / talk featuring Professor Du Sautoy and a performance of the Goldberg Variations a few days ago which was very engaging. I do wonder whether the maths in Bach was a 'shortcut' in the sense that imposing constraints to follow particular patterns narrowed down the range of material that would work in particular compositions and that having chosen that material the composition was a matter of then working through those patterns. (Du Sautoy's latest book is all about mathematical shortcuts)