Re: FW: Much Ado About Humming - Glenn Gould's Imaginary Orchestra

[Jim Morrison <jim_morrison@sprynet.com>]

Hi Guys,

To link a couple of threads going on at the moment, anyone out there with a
good enough ear to know just what notes Gould hums at the end of
Contrapunctus one?  Is he adding a different note to the music than the one
he's playing at the keyboard?

And here are a few more questions for Sean and anyone else out there who may
have paid particular attention to the humming.

Does he do it more in the early, mid, or late recordings?  Or maybe the
level was consistent.

does he hum more to contrapuntal music than not?

More in Bach or not?  For instance, how much humming is there on the Mozart
sonatas?  (do find that out, though, we'd have to listen to them.  :)  Just
kidding, sort of.  I love some of those recordings and think the Turkish
March should be required listening for all Gould and Mozart fans.  What a
"strong" interpretation.)

How about tempos?  Does he hum more to slower or to faster pieces?

Gould was known to "add" voices at the keyboard, with the above mentioned
Mozart sonatas for example.  I doesn't seem outlandish to suppose he might
have vocally sung a few of those notes into the work.


I know these are hard questions to answer and to do so would require lots of
listening time.


Jim