The Glenn Gould Reader

495 Pages·1990·9.55 MB·English

by  Tim Page

T E -
H
R E A D E R
EDITED AND WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
TIM PAGE
(continued from front flap)
When Glenn Gould died in 1982 at the age of discover that almost every item on such a list
fifty, he left behind an astonishing legacy: in could be attributed directly to the influence of the
tw~nty-six years he had proved himself to be not recording"), on the purpose of art ("not the release
only an extraordinary pianist but a gifted filmma of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but rather
ker and broadcaster and a brilliant (and mercurial) the gradual, life-long construction of a state of
critic. His writing-which appeared primarily in wonder and serenity"), and on technology and
music journals and on record album covers-was art, which begins with a chronicle of his own
often as provocative as his performances: de "love affair with the microphone." We read him
manding, compelling, occasionally infuriating, on Leopold Stokowski and on Barbra Streisand
but always stimulating, and always the product ("With the possible exception of Elisabeth
of a singular artistic vision. Now, for the first Schwarzkopf, no vocalist has brought me greater
time, nearly everything that Gould wrote or pleasure or more insight into the interpreter's
spoke for publication-from the liner notes for art"), on Petula Clark and Ernst Krenek, on radio
his first "Goldberg" Variations recording in 1956 as music and P.D.Q. Bach as both fact and fancy,
to a poignant and revealing interview with Tim on the state of music in Russia and in Canada, and
Page shortly before his death-has been gathered on an extraordinary range of matters dealing with
together. And, perhaps for the first time as well, the creation and appreciation of music.
we can begin to comprehend fully the scope of the THE GLENN GouLD READER is that rare phe
intellect behind the musical artistry. nomenon, a book that gives us the critical vision
Gould wrote about composers: from Byrd, of someone who was not only an observer but a
Bach, and Mozart ("For me, the G-minor Sym practicing artist. It is crucial to our understanding
phony consists of eight remarkable measures of one of the most influential musicians of our
surrounded by a half-hour of banality") to day.
Schoenberg (he "does not write against the piano,
but neither can he be accused of writing/or it"),
Tim Page writes on music and cultural affairs for
Berg, and Terry Riley ("And you thought Carl
the New York Times, and his articles have also ap
Orff had found an easy way to make a living?");
peared in Vanity Fair, Horizon, Harper's Bazaar,
from Beethoven (the "one composer whose repu
the Wall Street journal, and other publications. In
tation is based entirely on gossip") to Richard
1983 he was the recipient of the Deems Taylor
Strauss ("the greatest musical figure who has lived
Award for music criticism. He was born in San
in this century"). Gould wrote about music com
Diego and studied at the Mannes College of Mu
petitions ("the competition leaves its eager, ill
sic, the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood,
advised suppliants forever stunted, victims of a
and Columbia College, from which he received
spiritual lobotomy"), about applause (he pro
his B.A. He lives with his wife in New York City,
posed the "Gould Plan for the Abolition of Ap
where he is the host of a daily radio program on
plause and Demonstrations of All Kinds"), and
WNYC-FM devoted to new and unusual music.
about his own reasons for refusing to give con
certs - reasons he discusses in a fascinating,
delightful interview with Arthur Rubinstein. Front-of-jacket photo by Don Hunstein
There are articles on recording ("If we were to Jacket design by Carin Goldberg
take an inventory of those musical predilections
most characteristic of our generation, we would
(continued on back flap)
~
7
ALFRED A. KNOPF, PUBLISHER, NEW YORK
THE
GLENN
GOULD
READER

THE
GLENN
GOULD
READER
Edited and with an
introduction by
Tim Page
r:
Alfred A. Knopf
New York 1989

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments IX
Introduction XI
PROLOGUE: Advice to a Graduation
PART ONE: Music
William Byrd and Orlando Gibbons II
Domenico Scarlatti 14
Art of the Fugue 15
The "Goldberg" Variations 22
Bodky on Bach 28
Of Mozart and Related Matters: Glenn Gould in
Conversation with Bruno Monsaingeon 32
Glenn Gould Interviews Himself About Beethoven 43
Beethoven's Pathetique, "Moonlight," and
"Appassionata" Sonatas 51
Beethoven's Last Three Piano Sonatas 54
Beethoven's Fifth Symphony on the Piano:
Four Imaginary Reviews 57
Some Beethoven and Bach Concertos 61
N'aimez-Vous Pas Brahms?
70
Should We Dig Up the Rare Romantics? ...
No, They're Only a Fad 72
Piano Music by Grieg and Bizet, with a
Confidential Caution to Critics 76
Data Bank on the Upward-Scuttling Mahler 80
An Argument for Richard Strauss 84
Strauss and the Electronic Future 92
Richard Strauss's Enoch Arden 100
The Piano Music of Sibelius
103
Arnold Schoenberg-A Perspective
107
The Piano Music of Arnold Schoenberg 122
Piano Concertos by Mozart and Schoenberg 128
Arnold Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony No. 2 134
A Hawk, a Dove, and a Rabbit Called Franz Josef 142
Hindemith: Will His Time Come? Again? 147
A Tale of Two Marienlebens 151
vi I Contents
Piano Sonatas by Scriabin and Prokofiev
Music in the Soviet Union
The Ives Fourth
A Festschrift for "Ernst Who???"
Piano Music of Berg, Schoenberg, and Krenek
Korngold and the Crisis of the Piano Sonata
Canadian Piano Music in the Twentieth Century
The Dodecacophonist's Dilemma
Boulez
The Future and "Flat-Foot Floogie" 221
Terry Riley 226
Gould's String Q!!artet, Op. 1 227
So You Want to Write a Fugue? 234
PART TWO: Performance
Let's Ban Applause!
We Who Are About to Be Disqualified Salute You!
The Psychology of Improvisation
Critics
Stokowski in Six Scenes
Rubinstein
Memories of Maude Harbour, or Variations on a
Theme of Arthur Rubinstein
Yehudi Menuhin
The Search for Petula Clark
Streisand as Schwarzkopf
INTE RL UDE: Glenn Gould Interviews Glenn Gould
About Glenn Gould
PART THREE: Media
The Prospects of Recording 331
Music and Technology 353
The Grass Is Always Greener in the Outtakes:
An Experiment in Listening 357
"Oh, for heaven's sake, Cynthia, there must be
something else on!"
Radio as Music: Glenn Gould in Conversation
with John Jessop
Prologue from "The Idea of North"
"The Idea of North": An Introduction
"The Latecomers": An Introduction
Contents I vii
PART FOUR: Miscellany
Three Articles Published Under the Pseudonym
Dr. Herbert von Hochmeister 399
Toronto 410
Conference at Port Chillkoot 416
Fact, Fancy, or Psychohistory: Notes from
the P.D.Q, Underground 424
The Record of the Decade 429
Rosemary's Babies 434
A Desert Island Discography 437
The Film Slaughterhouse Five 440
A Biography of Glenn Gould
444
CODA: Glenn Gould in Conversation with Tim Page 449
Index