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GG: Signature



Eugene mentioned GG's signature...

I think it was Andrew Kazdin who once asked GG why he spelled his name
"GlenGould" in his signature (the blue signature on the Sony site and the
f_minor site is GG's real signature and also the logo of GlennGould
the magazine.) and GG replied that if he wrote both n's in Glenn that
he'd never be able to stop making n's.  Having tried myself to decipher 
sheets of GG's handwriting, (not to mention his shorthand codes!) I
believe the story.  GG was a lefty.

Keyboardists among us: do you find that your dominant
side has an effect on your playing?  Did you have to overcome
dominance of the right or left hand as you learned to play?

It may be a kooky theory, but I've also wondered if GG's dislike for
Beethoven's motivic repetitiveness, and his tendency to arpeggiate
chords in Mozart (to simulate contapuntal intrigue), had anything to do
with his left-handedness...  

In The Quiet in the Land, the basis of the narration of the first
section (the Mennonite service) is in the left headphone.  The "ground
bass" of the surf in The Latecomers flows from left to right as the
"first theme" is announced in the right. If you want a really weird 
experience, listen to QitL or TL with your headphones reversed. It's
disorienting. (GG also said his counterpoint in the radio trilogy was
close to Reger's counterpoint-- anyone know what he meant by that?)

As usual, I begin one place and end up in another.
Comments?

-Mary Jo