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Thanks for your comments and
feedback Laura and Jim Morrison. Jim's use of the phrase "artist versus
art" was very apt. After thinking some more about this since my last
post, I have to conclude that it is indeed very hard to separate the
artist from the art. I think I was trying to discern whether our
fascination with the lives of performers is warranted, when a study of the lives
of the composers themselves might bring us a better understanding of the
music. I don't know, I'm just thinking out loud here. Although, I
can think of a number of artists that have deepened my understanding of music by
their presentation of it. Gould is one of course, and another was Yehudi
Menuhin. In my particular case, I really didn't start delving deeply into
Gould's music and life until after 1981. Its kind of funny, but there was
a time when I knew absolutely nothing about Gould, and after seeing his program
Glenn Gould's Toronto I thought he was just another on-air personality
at the CBC, like Peter Gzowski.
But there are some artists that
become so inseperable from their art that you have to undertake a whole study of
their personalities to understand why they do what they do, the music of Richard
Wagner for example. I am currently just finishing up with the Peter
Ostwald book. From what I understand, this book has a tendency to arouse
some strong debate amongs Gould's followers. What is the general opinion
on this? Is it like another Albert Goldman book of the likes he wrote
about John Lennon and Elvis? I suppose it wouldn't be a bad idea to read a
few more by different authors and get a second or third take on the topic.
But back on the subject of the artist that becomes synonymous with his art, I've
come to associate the name of Glenn Gould as being the last word when it comes
to Bach interpretations. When I went to buy the Art of Fugue I'd already
decided beforehand that it was going to be a Gould recording over any
other. There is so much in this music, and I have to say that it is
primarily because of Glenn Gould that I'm exploring further and further into the
music of Bach. So there it is.... I guess I've just answered my own
question.
By the way Laura, the concert I was
at when I heard of Gould's death was at a performance of the chamber ensemble
Museus at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery in Lethbridge, where I was
living at that time, nearly 20 years ago now. Thanks for your comments
again Laura and Jim. And thank you, Glenn Gould: Your passion for
your subject is infectious.
Tim
Hitchner.
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