That Bernstein thing!

[PROMONDE@aol.com]

I read what's her name's evaluation of "The Gathering" and its flock. I list 
it as just one more piece of trivial puffery that joins a long list of 
similar articles, both, attacking and revering Glenn Gould. I am not a 
pianist. I cannot read music. Though I have read the Glenn Gould 
bibliography: I did so because I wanted to know when, how and where certain 
recordings I liked came about. Of course, once you tread down that path, you 
find out the "rest of the story" as you seek your answers.  

Regarding Miss. Bernstein's critique of the Glenn Gould following and its 
cultishness. She misses the mark for people like me. I couldn't care less if 
he recomposed certain pieces. I never new what they sounded like in the first 
place until I heard him play them. As a reference point, I do tend to do 
comparative listening of these same works by other artists. Do I sit there 
going "oh dear, the tempo is all wrong, he added an extra note or left one 
out or that rhythm is all wrong?" No, I don't. I listen for the passion, the 
power, the sound of a delicate soul.  If you showed me or thousands of others 
like me who can recognize the language of music, but lack the skills to read 
it, it doesn't matter.

When I heard the passion he obviously poured into certain pieces, it moved 
me, and it was exciting. I didn't get that from other pianists, who 
apparently seem to be lacking in their own "cults." I wonder when the 
Horowitz, Hoffman, Rubenstein or Paderewski "Gatherings" will be taking 
place. Who will be organizing those pilgrimages?  Not!

Has Classical Music degenerated into something akin to nuclear physics, where 
the "expert" is only concerned with it's make-up of neutrons, neutrinos, 
atoms, etc., and is all too willing to dismiss the layman whose only desire 
is to use and enjoy the product? Sure we need the experts, and their work is 
very detailed and to some boring, but we also need many more layman, who 
don't understand the details of these things. They just know what they like 
and also: The are the ones paying to keep the "experts" employed. 

How many millions are out there who have never even found their way to the 
doorway to classical music, let alone Glenn Gould?  I was one of those whose 
access was limited by the official purveyors of popular culture. I didn't 
know that a whole other world existed beyond the barriers of commercial 
media. Barrier? You mean there's a barrier? Where?  Glenn Gould is one of the 
people who existed outside of that realm.  He was the one that showed me a 
world I never new existed and pulled me over those barriers. He guided me to 
a musical world far beyond my life experience at that time and place.  

Today, the pathways to that door are much less traveled. The current crop of 
classical artists seem more involved in academic exercises than in stirring 
the passions of a mass populace. Today, even with the development of a wide 
variety of both musical recordings and playback mediums, we seem to have less 
presence in the marketplace and are without the charismatic personalities 
that are necessary to reach and captivate both my own peers as well as the 
present generation. 

Having lived and toured with many artists at the top of the rock and roll 
pantheon, I am a little familiar with what daily life is like for some of 
these individuals. Squeezed into the mundane activities that, we as humans, 
all must share, is this magnetic pull that is driven by fires in the brain, 
or passions awaiting a vehicle, or just the knowledge that an ecstasy fix 
must be targeted, strived for and achieved; in order to make life seem 
bearable. To these people, it all seems so ordinary. That is what they do. 
That is their normal life.  Glenn Gould, probably wasn't any different from a 
John Lennon in that regard. Pete Townshend only considers himself a 
"high-craftsman" when compared to Gould. Each has a legacy and a following. 
But each, no matter what genre is driven by their own need to reach the goals 
they set in ways that they know A. work, B. ways they hope will work, C. and 
"let's see if this works and see what happens."  

Her final assumption, seems to be the basis for the argumentative context of 
her article. She sums up the "appeal" by stating that this is a group "that 
hasn't gotten laid in the last five years." Speaking for myself, I've gotten 
laid quite often and in the last five years, many times to the recordings of 
Glenn Gould. I can tell you this much: His much criticized solo vocal 
obligato has often been elevated into duet and even trio vocal accompaniment. 
You can almost hear that voice cutting through the post coital cigarette 
smoke saying: "So, do you want to write a fugue!"