As with many, GG's humming captured my attention and eventually became
an accepted part of his recordings for me. But one day I noticed that there
was a selection when he wasn't singing part of the written score, and that
was the literal "light bulb." To make a long story short, I began
transcribing the vocalizations and compared them to the score and was amazed
to find that often GG was humming an independent contrapuntal part. From
this point forward it was no longer the stuff of ridicule, but an
extraordinary insight into how GG conceptualized music, but also an aspect
to the cognitive functions of the musical mind.
"Gould's humming, often a different melody from any of the composed
parts, is evidence of his creative mind at work as a composer. Gould was
not only aware of the surface material, that is, the notes themselves, but
was also aware of a larger framework of background structure manifested in
the independent lines of his humming. Gould may have visualized a
large-scale, amodal image of the composition¹s structure an abstract
conception of themes, climaxes, and form, etc. transcending the tactile
and physical requirements of performing the piece. A performance to Gould
seemed not only to involve an erudite technical and artistic interpretation,
but also an additional level of engagement that set him inside of the
composition; his performance thus became an exposition of musical
structure."