Re: GG Music with Life

[Bradley P Lehman <bpl@UMICH.EDU>]

At 08:21 AM 9/28/02 -0400, James Whiskeychan wrote:
>Dear Bradley and All,
>
>I lost your post Bradley so I can't quote from it.
>
>Would you please explain why it is that Glenn Gould's later recordings
>moved so many people if they are as lifeless as you depict.
>
>Seems to me that what you wrote is your opinion.  It's okay to have an
>opinion.  It's not right to present that opinion as fact.
>


Hmm.

My posting was intended as an artistic response to Gould's art (and life).
Of course it's an opinion!  What is "fact" in response to art?  Is that
even possible, beyond describing mechanical features such as the materials
used, or documented dates or places?

I mentioned some of those mechanical features of his playing: "The
rhythmic straitjacketing, the reduction of conventional dynamic contrast,
the elimination of musical 'party tricks' of projection to the balcony,
the structured un-spontaneous ornamentation, the choice of unpianistic
repertoire...."  That list is derived from study of Gould's own writings,
and from reading Kevin Bazzana, David Breckbill, and other commentators,
and from comparison of Gould's recordings with more mainstream
interpretations.  We can debate any of the items on that list, of course,
but I think it's pretty well established that those were Gould's methods
of expression, his artistic "fingerprints," his materials that
distinguished his work from that of others.  It's also on record that
Gould had the action of his pianos surgically altered to fit those methods
more closely.  And Gould mistrusted spontaneity; that's a common theme in
his writings and his biographies.  It's another "fact," if you will....

But my main point wasn't to dwell on those "facts."  It was to express an
artistic opinion, to mention several times that I find Gould's results
invariably interesting even when I disagree with some of his methods.  I'm
a fan of Glenn Gould.  If I didn't enjoy his art, I wouldn't be writing
about it at all....

As for the way Gould's late work moves other people, that's for them to
explain for themselves, not for me....  :)


Bradley Lehman, Dayton VA
home: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl
clavichord CD's: http://listen.to/bpl or http://www.mp3.com/bpl
trumpet and organ: http://www.mp3.com/hlduo