Glenn Herbert Gould (September 25, 1932ndashOctober 4, 1982) was a Canadian pianist who became one of the best-known and most celebrated classical pianists of the 20th century. He was particularly renowned as an interpreter of the keyboard music of Johann Sebastian Bach . His playing was distinguished by remarkable technical proficiency and capacity to articulate the polyphonic texture of Bach’s music.
Gould rejected most of the standard Romantic music|Romantic piano literature and, after his adolescence, avoided Franz Liszt|Liszt , Robert Schumann|Schumann , and Frédéric Chopin|Chopin . Although his recordings were dominated by Bach, Gould's oeuvre was diverse, including works by Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven , Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart , Joseph Haydn|Haydn , Johannes Brahms|Brahms , pre- Baroque music|Baroque composers such as Jan Sweelinck , and such 20th-century composers as Paul Hindemith and Arnold Schoenberg . Gould was well known for various eccentricities, from his unorthodox musical interpretations and mannerisms at the keyboard to aspects of his lifestyle and personal behavior. He stopped giving concerts at the age of 31 to concentrate on studio recording and other projects.
Gould was also known as a writer, composer, conductor, and broadcaster. He was a prolific contributor to musical journals, in which he discussed music theory and outlined his musical philosophy. His career as a composer was less distinguished. His output was minimal and many projects were left unfinished. There is evidence that, had he lived beyond 50, he intended to abandon the piano and devote the remainder of his career to conducting and other projects. As a broadcaster, Gould was prolific. His output ranged from television and radio broadcasts of studio performances to musique concrète radio documentaries about life in the Canadian wilderness.
Life
Early life
Glenn Herbert Gould was born at home in Toronto on September 25, 1932, to Russell Herbert ("Bert") Gold and Florence ("Flora") Emma Gold (née Grieg),harvtxt|Bazzana|2003|p=21 Presbyterianism|Presbyterians of Scottish and English ancestry.harvtxt|Ostwald|1997|p=35 His maternal grandfather was a cousin of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg .harvtxt|Bazzana|2003|p=30 The family's surname was changed to Gould informally around 1939 in order to avoid being mistaken for Jewish, given the prevailing anti-Semitism of prewar Toronto and the Gold (name)|Gold surname 's Jewish association. Gould had no Jewish ancestry, though he sometimes made jokes on the subject, like "When people ask me if I'm Jewish, I always tell them that I was Jewish during the war."harvtxt|Bazzana|2003|p=24 Gould grew up in a home at 32 Southwood Drive, Toronto. His childhood home has been named a National Historic Sites of Canada|historic site by the Municipal government of Toronto|City of Toronto .
Gould's interest in music and his talent as a pianist became evident very early. Both his parents were musical, and his mother, especially, encouraged the infant Gould's early musical development. Before his birth, his mother planned for him to become a successful musician, and thus exposed him to music during her pregnancy.harvtxt|Ostwald|1997|p=39 As a baby, he reportedly hummed instead of crying and wiggled his fingers as if playing chords, leading his doctor to predict that he would "be either a physician or a pianist".harvtxt|Ostwald|1997|p=40 By the age of three, Gould's Absolute pitch|perfect pitch was noticed. He learned to read music before he could read words.harvtxt|Friedrich|1990|p=15harvtxt|Ostwald|1997|pp=44–45 When presented with a piano, the young Gould was reported to strike single notes and listen to their long decay, a practice his father Bert noted was different from typical children. Gould's interest in the piano proceeded side by side with an interest in composition. He would play his own little pieces for family, friends, and sometimes large gatherings, including, in 1938, a performance at the Emmanuel Presbyterian Church (a few blocks from the Gould house) of one of his own compositions.harvtxt|Ostwald|1997|p=48 At the age of six, he was taken for the first time to hear a live musical performance by a celebrated soloist. This left a tremendous impression. He later described the experience:
It was Josef Hofmann|Hofmann . It was, I think, his last performance in Toronto, and it was a staggering impression. The only thing I can really remember is that, when I was being brought home in a car, I was in that wonderful state of half-awakeness in which you hear all sorts of incredible sounds going through your mind. They were all orchestral sounds, but I was playing them all, and suddenly I was Hofmann. I was enchanted.harvtxt|Payzant|1978|p=2
As a young child, Gould was taught piano by his mother. At the age of 10, he began attending The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. He studied music theory with Leo Smith (composer)|Leo Smith , the organ (music)|organ with Frederick C. Silvester , and piano with Alberto Guerrero . Around the same time, he injured his back as a result of a fall from a boat ramp on the shore of Lake Simcoe . This incident is almost certainly related to the adjustable-height chair his father made shortly thereafter. Gould's mother would urge the young Gould to sit up straight at the keyboard.harvtxt|Ostwald|1997|p=73He used this chair for the rest of his life and took it with him almost everywhere. This famous chair was designed so that Gould could sit very low at the keyboard. The chair allowed him to pull down on the keys rather than striking them from above, a central technical idea of his teacher at the Conservatory, Alberto Guerrero.harvtxt|Ostwald|1997|p=71
Gould developed a technique that enabled him to choose a very fast tempo while retaining the separateness and clarity of each note. His extremely low position at the instrument arguably permitted more control over the keyboard. Gould showed considerable technical skill in performing and recording a wide repertoire including virtuosic and romantic works, such as his own arrangement of Maurice Ravel|Ravel 's La valse and Franz Liszt|Liszt 's transcriptions of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 (Beethoven)|fifth and Symphony No. 6 (Beethoven)|sixth symphonies. Gould worked from a young age with his teacher Alberto Guerrero on a technique known as Finger Tapping (Piano)|finger-tapping : a method of training the fingers to act more independently from the arm.harvtxt|Friedrich|1990|p=31
Gould passed his final Conservatory examination in piano at the age of 12 (achieving the "highest marks of any candidate"), thus attaining "professional standing as a pianist" at that age.harvtxt|Bazzana|2003|p=76 One year later he passed the written theory exams, qualifying for an ATCM diploma.
Gould the pianist
Gould claimed he almost never practised on the piano, preferring to study music by reading it rather than playing it, another technique he had learned from Guerrero. His manual practising focused on articulation, rather than basic facility. He may have spoken ironically about his practising, but there is evidence that on occasion, he did practise quite hard, sometimes using his own drills and techniques.
He stated that he didn't understand the requirement of other pianists to continuously reinforce their relationship with the instrument by practising many hours a day.harvtxt|Dubal|1985|pp=180–183 It seems that Gould was able to practise mentally without access to an instrument, and even took this so far as to prepare for a recording of Johannes Brahms|Brahms piano works without ever playing them until a few weeks before the recording sessions. This is all the more staggering considering the absolute accuracy and phenomenal dexterity exhibited in his playing. Gould's large repertoire also demonstrated this natural mnemonic gift.
The piano, Gould said, "is not an instrument for which I have any great love as such... but I have played it all my life, and it is the best vehicle I have to express my ideas." In the case of Bach, Gould admitted, "I fixed the Action (music)|action in some of the instruments I play on—and the piano I use for all recordings is now so fixed—so that it is a shallower and more responsive action than the standard. It tends to have a mechanism which is rather like an automobile without power steering: you are in control and not it; it doesn't drive you, you drive it. This is the secret of doing Bach on the piano at all. You must have that immediacy of response, that control over fine definitions of things."Bach Partitas_p15"/>
Of significant influence upon the teenage Gould were Artur Schnabel , Rosalyn Tureck 's recordings of Bach ("upright, with a sense of repose and positiveness"), and Leopold Stokowski .
Gould was known for having a vivid imagination. Listeners regarded his interpretations as ranging from brilliantly creative to outright eccentric. His piano playing had great clarity and erudition, particularly in counterpoint|contrapuntal passages, and extraordinary control. He was a child prodigy and in adulthood described as a musical phenomenon. As he played, he often swayed his torso in a clockwise motion.
Gould had a pronounced aversion to what he termed a "hedonistic" approach to the piano repertoire, performance, and music generally. For Gould, "hedonism" in this sense denoted a superficial theatricality, something to which he felt Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart , for example, became increasingly susceptible later in his career.harvtxt|Friedrich|1990|p=147 He associated this drift towards hedonism with the emergence of a cult of showmanship and gratuitous virtuosity on the concert platform in the 19th century and later. The institution of the public concert, he felt, degenerated into the "blood sport" with which he struggled, and which he ultimately rejected.harvtxt|Friedrich|1990|p=100
Performances
In 1945, he gave his first public performance, playing the organ,harvtxt|Friedrich|1990|p=32 and the following year he made his first appearance with an orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra , in a performance of the first movement of Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 (Beethoven)|4th Piano Concerto .harvtxt|Friedrich|1990|p=35 His first solo recital followed in 1947,harvtxt|Friedrich|1990|p=36 and his first recital on radio was with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|CBC in 1950.harvtxt|Friedrich|1990|p=38 This was the beginning of his long association with radio and recording. He founded the Festival Trio chamber group in 1953 with the cellist Isaac Mamott and the violinist Albert Pratz .
In 1957, Gould embarked on a tour of the Soviet Union , becoming the first North American to play there since World War II.harvtxt|Bazzana|2003|p=163 His concerts featured Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach , Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven , and the serialism|serial music of Arnold Schoenberg|Schoenberg and Alban Berg|Berg , which had been suppressed in the Soviet Union during the era of Socialist Realism . Gould made his Boston debut in 1958, playing for the Peabody Mason Concert Series. One audience member was so moved that she wrote a letter to the editor of the Boston Herald , commenting, "If I never hear Bach's Goldberg Variations again, I feel with all my heart that I have heard the ultimate, and am grateful".
Gould was convinced that the institution of the public concert was not only an anachronism , but also a "force of evil", leading to his retirement from concert performance. He argued that public performance devolved into a sort of competition, with a non-empathetic audience (musically and otherwise) mostly attendant to the possibility of the performer erring or not meeting critical expectation. This doctrine he set forth, only half in jest, in "GPAADAK", the Gould Plan for the Abolition of Applause and Demonstrations of All Kinds.harvtxt|Gould|1987
On April 10, 1964, Gould gave his last public performance, playing in Los Angeles, at the Ebell of Los Angeles|Wilshire Ebell Theater .harvtxt|Bazzana|2003|p=229 Among the pieces he performed that night were Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 30 (Beethoven)|Piano Sonata No. 30 , selections from Bach's The Art of Fugue , and Paul Hindemith 's Piano Sonata No. 3. Gould performed fewer than 200 concerts over the course of his career, of which fewer than 40 were overseas. For pianists such as Van Cliburn , 200 concerts would have amounted to about two years' touring.harvtxt|Bazzana|2003|pp=232–233
One of Gould's reasons for abandoning live performance was his aesthetic preference for the recording studio, where, in his words, he developed a "love affair with the microphone". There, he could control every aspect of the final musical "product" by selecting parts of various take s. He felt that he could realize a musical score more fully this way. Thus, the act of musical composition, to Gould, did not entirely end with the original score. The performer had to make creative choices. Gould felt strongly that there was little point in re-recording centuries-old pieces if the performer had no new perspective to bring to the work. For the rest of his life, Gould eschewed live performance, focusing instead on recording, writing, and broadcasting.
Technology
The issue of "authenticity" in relation to an approach like Gould's has been a topic of great debate, although diminished by the end of the 20th century—a development that Gould seems to have anticipated. It asks whether a recording is less authentic or "direct" for having been highly refined by technical means in the studio. Gould likened his process to that of a film director—one does not perceive that a two-hour film was made in two hours—and implicitly asks why the act of listening to music should be any different. He went so far as to conduct an "experiment" with musicians, sound engineers, and laypeople in which they were to listen to a recording and determine where the splices occurred. Each group chose different points based on their relationship to music, but none successfully. While the conclusion was hardly scientific, Gould remarked, "The tape does lie, and nearly always gets away with it".harvtxt|Kingwell|2009|pp=158–159
In a lecture and essay titled "Forgery and Imitation in the Creative Process", one of Gould's most significant texts,harvtxt|Gould|1999|p=205 Editor's introduction to the essay. he makes explicit his views on authenticity and creativity. Gould asks why the epoch in which a work is received influences its reception as "art", postulating a sonata he composes that sounds so much like Haydn that it is received as such. If, instead, the same sonata had been attributed to a somewhat earlier or later composer, it becomes more or less interesting as a piece of music. Yet it is not the work that has changed but its relation within the accepted narrative of music history . Similarly, Gould notes the "pathetic duplicity" in the reception of high-quality forgeries by Hans van Meegeren of new paintings attributed to Dutch Golden Age painting|Dutch Golden Age master Vermeer , before and after the forgery was known.
Gould, therefore, prefers an ahistorical, or at least pre-Renaissance, view of art, minimizing the identity of the artist and the attendant historical context in evaluating the artwork: "What gives us the right to assume that in the work of art we must receive a direct communication with the historical attitudes of another period? ... moreover, what makes us assume that the situation of the man who wrote it accurately or faithfully reflects the situation of his time? ... What if the composer, as historian, is faulty? "harvtxt|Gould|1999|p=208
Writings
Gould said that if he had not been a musician, he would have been a writer. He expounded his criticism and philosophy of music and art in lectures, convocation speeches, periodicals, and radio and television documentaries for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Gould participated in many interviews, and had a predilection for scripting them to the extent that they may be seen as much as "works" as off-the-cuff discussions. His writing style was highly articulate but sometimes florid, indulgent, or rhetorical. This is especially evident in those works in which he attempts humour or irony, which he did often.
In these he praised certain composers and rejected what he deemed banal in Musical composition|music composition and its consumption by the public, and also gave insightful analyses of the music of Richard Strauss , Alban Berg and Anton Webern . Despite a certain affection for Dixieland jazz, Gould was mostly averse to popular music. He enjoyed a jazz concert with his friends as a youth, mentioned jazz in his writings, and once criticized The Beatles for "bad voice leading "—while praising Petula Clark and Barbra Streisand . He shared a mutual admiration with jazz pianist Bill Evans , who made his seminal record Conversations with Myself using Gould's celebrated Steinway CD 318 piano. Gould believed that "the piano is a contrapuntal instrument," and his whole approach to music was, in fact, centered in the Baroque. Much of the homophony that followed he felt belongs to a less serious and less spiritual period of art.
"The Last Puritan"
A 1962 quote is often used to summarize Gould's perspective on art: "The justification of art is the internal combustion it ignites in the hearts of men and not its shallow, externalized, public manifestations. The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but is, rather, the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity."harvtxt|Kingwell|2009|p=194
Gould referred to himself repeatedly as "the last puritan ", a reference to philosopher George Santayana 's The Last Puritan|novel of the same name . Weighing this statement against Gould's highly individualistic lifestyle and artistic vision leads to an apparent contradiction. He was progressive in many ways, promulgating the controversial atonal composers, and anticipating, through his deep involvement with the recording process, the vast changes that technology would have on the production and distribution of music. Mark Kingwell summarizes the paradox, never resolved by Gould nor his biographers:
He was progressive and anti-progressive at once, and likewise at once both a critic of the Zeitgeist and its most interesting expression. He was, in effect, stranded on a beachhead of his own thinking between past and future. That he was not able, by himself, to fashion a bridge between them is neither surprising, nor, in the end, disappointing. We should see this failure, rather, as an aspect of his genius. He both was and was not a man of his time.harvtxt|Kingwell|2009|p=166
Eccentricities
Gould was widely known for his unusual habits. He usually hummed while he played the piano, and his sound recording|recording engineers had mixed results in how successfully they were able to exclude his voice from recordings. Gould claimed that his singing was subconscious and increased proportionately with the inability of the piano in question to realize the music as he intended. It is likely that this habit originated in Gould's having been taught by his mother to "sing everything that he played", as Kevin Bazzana puts it. This became "an unbreakable (and notorious) habit".harvtxt|Bazzana|2003|p=47 Some of Gould's recordings were severely criticised because of the background "vocalise". For example, a reviewer of his 1981 re-recording of the Goldberg Variations opined that many listeners would "find the groans and croons intolerable".harvtxt|Greenfield|Layton|March|1988|p=44 Gould was renowned for his peculiar body movements while playing and for his insistence on absolute control over every aspect of his playing environment. The temperature of the recording studio had to be exactly regulated. He invariably insisted that it be extremely warm. According to Friedrich, the air conditioning engineer had to work just as hard as the recording engineers.harvtxt|Friedrich|1990|p=50 The piano had to be set at a certain height and would be raised on wooden blocks if necessary.harvtxt|Ostwald|1997|p=18 A small rug would sometimes be required for his feet underneath the piano.harvtxt|Friedrich|1990|p=51 He had to sit fourteen inches above the floor and would play concerts only while sitting on the old chair his father had made. He continued to use this chair even when the seat was completely worn through.harvtxt|Ostwald|1997|pp=304–306 His chair is so closely identified with him that it is shown in a place of honour in a glass case at the National Library of Canada .
Conductors responded diversely to Gould and his playing habits. George Szell , who led Gould in 1957 with the Cleveland Orchestra , remarked to his assistant, "That nut's a genius."harvtxt|Bazzana|2003|p=158 Leonard Bernstein said, "There is nobody quite like him, and I just love playing with him." Ironically, Bernstein created a stir at the New York Philharmonic concert of April 6, 1962|April 6, 1962 concert when, just before the New York Philharmonic was to perform the Johannes Brahms|Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 (Brahms)|Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor with Gould as soloist, he informed the audience that he was assuming no responsibility for what they were about to hear. He asked the audience: "In a concerto, who is the bossdashthe soloist or the conductor? (audience laughter). The answer is, of course, sometimes the one and sometimes the other, depending on the people involved." Specifically, he was referring to their rehearsals with Gould's insistence that the entire first movement be played at half the indicated tempo. The speech was interpreted by Harold C. Schonberg , music critic for The New York Times , as an abdication of responsibility and an attack on Gould. Plans for a studio recording of the performance came to nothing. The live radio broadcast (along with Bernstein's disclaimer) was subsequently released on CD.
Gould was averse to cold, and wore heavy clothing (including gloves), even in warm places. He was once arrested, presumably mistaken for a vagrant, while sitting on a park bench in Sarasota, Florida, dressed in his standard all-climate attire of coat(s), warm hat, and mittens.harvtxt|Friedrich|1990|p=62 He also disliked social functions. He hated being touched, and in later life he limited personal contact, relying on the telephone and letters for communication. On one visit to Steinway Hall in New York City in 1959, the chief piano technician at the time, William Hupfer, greeted Gould by giving him a slap on the back. Gould was shocked by this, and complained of aching, lack of coordination, and fatigue because of the incident. He went on to explore the possibility of litigation against Steinway & Sons if his apparent injuries were permanent. He was known for cancelling performances at the last minute, which is why Bernstein's above-mentioned public disclaimer opens with, "Don't be frightened, Mr. Gould is here... will appear in a moment."
In his liner notes and broadcasts, Gould created more than two dozen alter ego s for satirical, humorous, or didactic purposes, permitting him to write hostile reviews or incomprehensible commentaries on his own performances. Probably the best-known are the German musicologist "Karlheinz Klopweisser", the English conductor "Sir Nigel Twitt-Thornwaite", and the American critic "Theodore Slutz".Bach Partitas_p14"/> These facets of Gould, whether interpreted as neurosis or " play (activity)|play ",harvnb|Kingwell|2009|pp=125–128 On "play" chapter 11. have provided ample material for psychobiography .
Fran's Restaurant, Toronto|Fran's Restaurant in Toronto was a regular haunt of Gould's. A Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|CBC profile noted, "sometime between two and three every morning, Gould would go to Fran's, a 24-hour diner a block away from his Toronto apartment, sit in the same booth, and order the same meal of scrambled eggs."
It has been debated whether or not Gould was autistic, or, more accurately, if his mind fell within the autism spectrum . The diagnosis was first suggested by psychiatrist Peter Ostwald, a friend of Gould's, in the 1997 book, Glenn Gould: The Ecstasy and Tragedy of Genius .harvtxt|Ostwald|1997|p= It has been disputed by, among others, Kevin Bazzana .citation needed|date=December 2011
Health
Gould suffered many pains and ailments, though he was something of a hypochondriac (admitting it himself on at least one occasion), and his autopsy revealed few underlying problems in areas that often troubled him. Early in his life, Gould suffered a spine injury. His physicians prescribed, usually independently, an assortment of analgesic s, anxiolytic s, and other drugs. Some speculate that his extensive use of prescription medications throughout his career had a deleterious effect on his health.
He was highly concerned about his health throughout his life, worrying about everything from high blood pressure (which in his later years he recorded in diary form) to the safety of his hands. Gould rarely shook hands with anyone and usually wore gloves.
Relationships
Gould lived a private life: Bruno Monsaingeon said of him, "No supreme pianist has ever given of his heart and mind so overwhelmingly while showing himself so sparingly."
When Gould was in Los Angeles in 1956, he met Cornelia Foss and husband Lukas Foss|Lukas . Foss was an art instructor who had studied sculpture at the American Academy in Rome. Her husband worked for both the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Brooklyn Philharmonic . After several years, Gould and Foss became lovers. Foss left her husband in 1967 for Gould, taking her two children with her to Toronto. She purchased a house near Gould's 110 St. Clair Avenue West apartment. According to Foss, "There were a lot of misconceptions about Glenn, and it was partly because he was so very private. But I assure you, he was an extremely heterosexual man. Our relationship was, among other things, quite sexual." Their affair lasted until 1972, when she returned to her husband. As early as two weeks after leaving her husband, Foss noticed disturbing signs in Gould. She describes a serious paranoid episode: bquote|"It lasted several hours, and then I knew he was not just neurotic — there was more to it. I thought to myself, 'Good grief, am I going to bring up my children in this environment? ' But I stayed four and a half years." Foss did not discuss details, but others close to Gould said he was convinced someone was trying to poison him and that others were spying on him. In 2007, Cornelia Foss finally admitted that she and Gould had had a love affair lasting several years.
Recordings
Main article|List of recordings by Glenn Gouldsee also|Goldberg Variations (Glenn Gould recording)
Studio
listen| filename = Gould-bwv846-prelude.ogg | title = Prelude and Fugue in C major from The Well-Tempered Clavier , Book 1 by Johann Sebastian Bach (excerpt) | description = The C major prelude from the first book of the WTC. | format = Ogg | filename2 = Gould-mozart-330.ogg | title2 = Allegro Moderato from Piano Sonata No. 10 in C major by Wolfgang Ama- deus Mozart (excerpts from two recordings) | description2 = Compare the 1970 version from the "Complete Piano Sonatas" set (played first) and the 1958 interpretation (second). | format2 = Ogg | filename3 = Gould-bwv1080-5.ogg | title3 = Contrapunctus V from The Art of Fugue by Johann Sebastian Bach (excerpt) | description3 = The only organ recordings Gould made were the first nine parts of Bach's The Art of Fugue . | format3 = Ogg | filename4 = Gould-hwv426-4.ogg | title4 = Gigue from Suite in A major HWV 426, by Georg Friederich Handel (excerpt) | description4 = Gould recorded several Handel suites and a few pieces from J.S. Bach's WTC on a Wittmayer harpsichord. The somewhat muffled sound of this 20th-century instrument is very different from modern recordings that are made using copies of old harpsichords. | format4 = Ogg
In creating music, Gould much preferred the control and intimacy provided by the recording studio. He disliked the concert hall, which he compared to a competitive sporting arena. After his final public performance in 1964, he devoted his career solely to the studio, recording albums and several radio documentary|radio documentaries . He was attracted to the technical aspects of recording, and considered the manipulation of tape to be another part of the creative process. Although Gould's recording studio producers have testified that 'he needed overdubbing|splicing , less than most performers',harvtxt|Bazzana|2003|p=263 Gould used the process to give him total artistic control over the recording process. He recounted his recording of the A minor fugue from Book I of The Well-Tempered Clavier and how it was spliced together from two takes, with the fugue's expositions from one take and its episodes from another.
Following his first recording (of Piano Sonata (Berg)|Berg's Piano sonata, Op. 1 , on the Canadian Hallmark label, c. 1952), the pianist's first breakthrough success, The Goldberg Variations (Gould album)|Bach: The Goldberg Variations , was recorded in 1955, at CBS 30th Street Studio|Columbia Records 30th Street Studios in New York City. Although there was initially some controversy at CBS as to whether this was the most appropriate piece to record, the finished product received phenomenal praise and was among the best-selling classical music albums of its time.harvtxt|Ostwald|1997|p=119 Gould became closely associated with the piece, playing it in full or in part at many of his recitals. Another version of the Goldberg Variations , recorded in 1981, would be among his last recordings, and one of only a few pieces he recorded twice in the studio. The 1981 recording was one of CBS Masterworks' first digital recording s. The first recording is highly energetic and often frenetic. The second, slower and more deliberate. In the latter, Gould treats the aria and its 30 variations as one cohesive piece.
Gould revered Bach: "he was first and last an architect, a constructor of sound, and what makes him so inestimably valuable to us is that he was beyond a doubt the greatest architect of sound who ever lived".In "Bach the Nonconformist"; Roberts (ed.), 100 He recorded most of Bach's other keyboard works, including the complete The Well-Tempered Clavier , Partitas, BWV 825-830|Partitas , French Suites, BWV 812-817|French Suites , English Suites, BWV 806-811|English Suites , and keyboard concertos. For his only recording at the organ (music)|organ , he recorded about half of The Art of Fugue . He also recorded all five of Beethoven's List of compositions by Ludwig van Beethoven#Concertos|piano concertos and 23 of the 32 List of compositions by Ludwig van Beethoven#Piano sonatas|piano sonatas .
Gould also recorded works by Brahms, Mozart, and many other prominent piano composers, though he was outspoken in his criticism of some of them. He was extremely critical of Frédéric Chopin . In a radio interview, when asked if he didn't find himself wanting to play Chopin, he replied: "No, I don't. I play it in a weak moment – maybe once a year or twice a year for myself. But it doesn't convince me." Although Gould recorded all of Mozart's sonatas and admitted enjoying the "actual playing" of them, he claimed to dislike Mozart's later works, to the extent of arguing (perhaps facetiously) that Mozart died too late rather than too early.harvtxt|Ostwald|1997|p=249 He was fond of many lesser-known composers, such as Orlando Gibbons , whose Anthems he had heard as a teenager,harvtxt|Ostwald|1997|p=257 and for whose music he felt a "spiritual attachment".harvtxt|Ostwald|1997|pp=256–257 He recorded a number of Gibbons's keyboard works and called him his favourite composer,harvtxt|Friedrich|1990|p=141 despite his better-known admiration for the technical mastery of Bach. He made recordings of piano music by Jean Sibelius (the Sonatines and Kyllikki ), Georges Bizet (the Variations Chromatiques de Concert and the Premier nocturne ), Richard Strauss (the Piano Sonata, the Five Pieces, and Enoch Arden (Strauss)|Enoch Arden with Claude Rains ), and Paul Hindemith (the three piano sonatas and the sonatas for brass and piano). He also made recordings of the complete piano works Lieder by Arnold Schoenberg . The last thing Gould recorded as a session musician was Strauss: Piano Sonata, Op. 5. It was recorded between September 1dash3, 1982 in New York City.
Collaborations
The success of Gould's collaborations with other artists was to a degree dependent upon their receptiveness to his sometimes unconventional readings of the music. His television collaboration with Yehudi Menuhin in 1965, recording works by Bach, Beethoven and Schoenberg,harvtxt|Stegemann|1993b was deemed a success because "... Menuhin was ready to embrace the new perspectives opened up by an unorthodox view ...". In 1966, his collaboration with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf , however, recording Richard Strauss's Ophelia Lieder , Op. 67, was deemed an "outright fiasco". Schwarzkopf believed in "total fidelity" to the score, but she also objected to the thermal conditions in the recording studio: "The studio was incredibly overheated, which may be good for a pianist but not for a singer: a dry throat is the end as far as singing is concerned. But we persevered nonetheless. It wasn't easy for me. Gould began by improvising something Straussian—we thought he was simply warming up, but no, he continued to play like that throughout the actual recordings, as though Strauss's notes were just a pretext that allowed him to improvise freely...."
Radio documentaries
As the result of Gould's association with CBC Records , he made numerous television and radio programs for CBC Television and CBC Radio . Notable productions include his music-concrète Solitude Trilogy , which consists of The Idea of North , a meditation on Northern Canada and its people, The Latecomers about Newfoundland and Labrador|Newfoundland , and The Quiet in the Land , about Mennonite s in Manitoba . All three use a radiophonic electronic-music technique that Gould called contrapuntal radio, in which several people are heard speaking at once—much like the voices in a fugue —manipulated through the use of tape. Gould's experience of driving across northern Ontario while listening to Top 40 radio in 1967 provided the inspiration for one of his most unusual CBC radio pieces, The Search for Petula Clark , a witty and eloquent dissertation on the recordings of the renowned British pop singer, who was then at the peak of her international success
Arrangements and compositions
Main article|List of compositions by Glenn GouldGould was not only a composer, but also a prolific arranger of orchestral repertoire for piano. His arrangements include his recorded Wagner and Ravel transcriptions, as well as the operas of Richard Strauss and the symphonies of Franz Schubert|Schubert and Anton Bruckner|Bruckner , which he played privately for pleasure.
As a teenager, Gould wrote chamber music and piano works in the style of the Second Viennese school of composition. His only significant work was the String Quartet, Op. 1, which he finished when he was in his 20s, and perhaps his cadenza s to Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 (Beethoven)|Piano Concerto No. 1 . Later works include the Lieberson Madrigal ( SATB and piano), and So You Want to Write a Fugue? ( SATB with piano or string quartet accompaniment). The majority of his work is published by Schott Music . The recording Glenn Gould: The Composer contains his original works.
The String Quartet Op. 1 (published in 1956 and recorded in 1960) had a mixed reception from critics. For example, the notices from the Christian Science Monitor and Saturday Review (US magazine)|The Saturday Review were quite laudatory, while the response from the Montreal Star was less so.harvtxt|Friedrich|1990|pp=165–166 There is little critical commentary on Gould's compositional work for the simple reason that there are few compositions. He did not proceed beyond Opus 1. Gould left many compositions unfinished.harvtxt|Friedrich|1990|p=170 He attributed his failure as a composer to his lack of a "personal voice".harvtxt|Friedrich|1990|p=172 See List of compositions by Glenn Gould for a complete list of works.
Conducting
Towards the end of his life, Gould began conducting. He had earlier directed Bach's Brandenburg concertos|Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 and the cantata Widerstehe doch der Sünde, BWV 54|Widerstehe doch der Sünde from the Tack piano#Classical music|harpsipiano (a piano with metal hammers to simulate a harpsichord's sound), and Gustav Mahler 's Symphony No. 2 (Mahler)|Symphony No. 2 (the Urlicht section) in the 1960s. His last recording was as a conductor of Richard Wagner|Wagner 's Siegfried Idyll in its original chamber music scoring. He intended to give up the piano at the age of 50, spending later years conducting, writing about music, and composing.harvtxt|Friedrich|1990|p=315
Death
On September 27, 1982, after experiencing a severe headache, Gould suffered a stroke that paralyzed the left side of his body. He was admitted to Toronto General Hospital and his condition rapidly deteriorated. By October 4, there was evidence of brain damage, and Gould's father decided that his son should be taken off life support.harvtxt|Ostwald|1997|pp=325–328 He is buried next to his parents in Toronto's Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto|Mount Pleasant Cemetery (section 38, Row 1088, Plot 1050). The first few measures of the Goldberg Variations are carved on his marker. According to the Glenn Gould Foundation , the cemetery staff often handle requests to locate his gravesite.
Legacy and honours
Gould is one of the most acclaimed 20th-century classical musicians. His unique pianistic method, insight into the architecture of compositions, and relatively free interpretation of scores created performances and recordings that were revelatory to many listeners while highly objectionable to others. Philosopher Mark Kingwell writes that "his influence is made inescapable. No performer after him can avoid the example he sets... Now, everyone must perform through him: he can be emulated or rejected, but he cannot be ignored."harvtxt|Kingwell|2009|p=59
Gould left an extensive body of work beyond the keyboard. After his retirement from concert performance, he was increasingly interested in other media, including audio and film documentary and writing, through which he mused on aesthetics, composition, music history, and the effect of the electronic age on the consumption of media. (Gould grew up in Toronto at the same time that Canadian theorists Marshall McLuhan , Northrop Frye , and Harold Innis were making their mark on communications studies.)harvtxt|Kingwell|2009|p=xi "Introduction" by John Ralston Saul harvtxt|Kingwell|2009|pp=34–35 Anthologies of his writing and letters have been published. Library and Archives Canada retains a significant portion of Gould's work called the The Glenn Gould Archive.
One of Gould's performances of the Prelude and Fugue in C major from Book II of The Well-Tempered Clavier was chosen for inclusion on the NASA Voyager Golden Record by a committee headed by Carl Sagan . The disc of recordings was placed on the spacecraft Voyager 1 , which is now approaching Interstellar medium|interstellar space and is the farthest human-made object from Earth.
Gould is a popular subject of biography and even critical analysis. Philosophers such as Giorgio Agamben and Mark Kingwell have interpreted Gould's life and ideas.harvtxt|Kingwell|2009|pp=62 & 75 References to Gould and his work are plentiful in poetry, fiction, and the visual arts.harvtxt|Kingwell|2009|loc=notes 3, 13, 18 For example, François Girard|François Girard's Genie Award winning 1993 film, Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould .
The Glenn Gould Studio at the Canadian Broadcasting Centre in Toronto was named after him.
Glenn Gould Foundation
Main article|The Glenn Gould FoundationIn Toronto in 1983, The Glenn Gould Foundation was established to honour Gould and preserve his memory. The Foundation's mission "is to extend awareness of the legacy of Glenn Gould as an extraordinary musician, communicator, and Canadian, and to advance his visionary and innovative ideas into the future." Among other activities, the foundation awards the Glenn Gould Prize every three years to "an individual who has earned international recognition as the result of a highly exceptional contribution to music and its communication, through the use of any communications technologies." The prize consists of CAD$|$ 50,000 for an original work by a Canadian artist.
Glenn Gould School
Main article|The Glenn Gould School The Royal Conservatory of Music decided to rename its school after its most famous alumnus. In January 1997, The Royal Conservatory of Music Professional School became The Glenn Gould School . The school is a private, non-profit organisation offering advanced level diploma programs and a Bachelor's Degree in Music.
To commemorate what would have been Gould's 75th birthday, the Canadian Museum of Civilization held an exhibition titled Glenn Gould: The Sounds of Genius. The multimedia exhibit was held in conjunction with Library and Archives Canada. The exhibition opened September 28, 2007 and looked at five aspects of Gould: "The person," "The musician," "The broadcast personality and producer," "The writer and theorist, composer and conductor," and "The Sounds of Genius". Curator Sam Cronk said "The primary purpose of the exhibition is to remind Canadians of the many facets of Gould’s musical genius." John F. Burns of the The New York Times reported, in an interview with Herbert Kallmann, that the exhibit will omit many of Gould's eccentricities in favour of highlighting Gould’s talent. Of the numerous documents, there are essays, scripts, and music scores. The scores on display were used for some of his most important recordings, marked only for breaks between takes. Peter Goddard of the Toronto Star says that the exhibit will give patrons a feeling of what it was like at Gould's home: "The cramped space conveys a sense of what his St. Clair Ave. apartment might have felt like, with his piano at the very centre of things, along with his low piano chair made by his father."
Awards
Glenn Gould received many honours before and after his death, although he personally claimed to despise competition in music.
Juno Awards
The Juno Awards are presented annually by the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences . Gould won three awards out of his six nominations. However he only personally received one Juno. In 1983, he was posthumous recognition|posthumously inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame .
Himself for Brahms: Ballades Op. 10, Rhapsodies Op. 79
won
Grammy Awards
The Grammy Awards|Grammys are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences . Gould won four awards but personally only received one. In 1983, he was honoured posthumously, being inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame Award|Grammy Hall of Fame for his 1955 recording (released in 1956) Bach: The Goldberg Variations .
Year
Award
Nominated artist and work
Result
1973
Best Album Notes – Classical
Paul Hindemith>Hindemith : Sonatas for Piano (Complete)
won
Grammy Awards of 1982
Best Classical Album
Carter (producer) for Goldberg Variations (Glenn Gould recording)>Bach: The Goldberg Variations
won
Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without orchestra)
harvtxt|Bazzana|2003|p=27 states, "Gould's first name is frequently misspelled as "Glen" in documents (including official ones) dating back to the beginning of his life, and Gould himself used both spellings interchangeably throughout his life." harvtxt|Bazzana|2003|p=24 further investigated the name-change records in Ontario's Office of the Registrar General and found only a record of his father Bert's name-change to Gould in 1979 (to be able to legally marry with that name); he concludes that the family's name-change was informal and "Gould was still legally 'Glenn Herbert Gold' when he died."
According to harvtxt|Bazzana|2003|p=24, "Gould's birth certificate gave his name as 'Gold, Glenn Herbert.' The family name had always been Gold ... All of the documents through 1938 that survive among Gould's papers give his surname as 'Gold,' but beginning at least as early as June 1939, the family name was almost always printed 'Gould' in newspapers, programs, and other sources; the last confirmed publication of 'Gold' is in the program for a church supper and concert on October 27, 1940. The whole family adopted the new surname."
Full circumstances of the name-change can be found in harvtxt|Bazzana|2003|pp=24–26.
According to harvtxt|Bazzana|2003|p=27, "At least as far back as the mid-eighteenth century, there were no Jews in this particular Gold lineage."
Friedrich first states that Gould performed the Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 30 (Opus 109) harvtxt|Friedrich|1990|p=108 but later states that he performed the Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 31 (Opus 110) harvtxt|Friedrich|1990|p=354. harvtxt|Bazzana|2003|p=229 cites Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 30 (Opus 109).
harvtxt|Friedrich|1990|p=27 dates this incident on the basis of a discussion with Gould's father, who is cited by Friedrich as stating that it occurred "when the boy was about ten".
In their documentary film Glenn Gould: A Portraitharv|Till|Tovell|1985, Glenn Gould's father recalled that Glenn "would not come out of his bedroom until he memorized the whole music" regarding one of Beethoven's piano concertos.
In outtakes of the Goldberg Variations, Gould describes his practising technique by composing a drill on Variation 11, remarking that he is "still sloppy" and with his usual humour that "a little practising is in order." He is also heard practising other parts of the Goldbergs.
There are two other Gould recordings of the Goldberg Variations. One is a live recording from 1954 CBC Records http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/ourl/res.php? url_ver=Z39.88-2004& url_tim=2011-12-22T09%3A47%3A20Z& url_ctx_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx& rft_dat=14300634& rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fcollectionscanada.gc.ca%3Aamicus& lang=eng (PSCD 2007); the other is live recorded in Moscow on May 7, 1957 and in Salzburg on August 25, 1959 (Sony SRCR 9500). It is part of the The Glenn Gould edition and has been re-released on Compact disc|CD on Sony Classical Records http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/ourl/res.php? url_ver=Z39.88-2004& url_tim=2011-12-22T10%3A05%3A07Z& url_ctx_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx& rft_dat=20540433& rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fcollectionscanada.gc.ca%3Aamicus& lang=eng (SMK 52685).
Gould discusses this in the 1974 Bruno Monsaingeon film series Chemins de la Musique (Ways of the Music) . His 24 part series features Gould in four of those parts: La Retraite (The Retreat) , L'Alchimiste (The Alchemist) , 1974, Partita No. 6 ''(Bach's Partia No 6) . http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/glenngould/028010-4030.08-f.html#b The four parts on Gould were re-released in 2002 on DVD as Gould: the alchemist harv|Monsaingeon|2002.
The Schubert can be seen briefly in the film Hereafterharv|Monsaingeon|2006. The transcription of Bruckner's Symphony No. 8 (Bruckner)|8th symphony Gould alludes to in an article harv|Gould|1987 where he deprecates its "sheer ledger-line unplayability"; the Strauss opera playing can be seen in one of the Humphrey Burton conversations and is referred to by almost everyone who saw him play in private.
harvtxt|Bazzana|2003|pp=352–368 In a section, quotes Gould: "They say I'm a hypochondriac, and, of course, I am."
harvtxt|Ostwald|1997|p=329 specifies "No physical abnormalities were found in the kidneys, prostate, bones, joints, muscles, or other parts of the body that Glenn so often had complained about."
This is discussed and can be seen in the 1959 National Film Board of Canada documentary film On and Off the Record harv|Koenig|Kroitor|2004.
The claim that Gould "never shook hands" is exaggerated. harvtxt|Friedrich|1990|p=267 quotes Timothy Findley : "Everybody said you never touched his hands, you never try to shake hands with him, but the first thing he did to me was to offer to shake hands. He offered me his hand in a very definite way, none of this tentative, 'don't-touch-me' stuff."
These include his famous "self-interview", his book review of a biography written about him (in which he refers to himself in the third person)—not to mention the various appearances of his "alter egos" in print, radio, or TV, including an "extended and rather strained radio joke show", ("Critics Callout Corner" on the Silver Jubilee Album , 1980) which harvtxt|Kingwell|2009|p=180 comments: "The humour is punishing... There can be no excuse for it, and the one clear lesson of the recording is that it could exist only because of the stature of its creator. Gould in effect called in twenty-five years of chits from Columbia when he got them to release this embarrassing piece of twaddle."
These comments can be found in essays in harvtxt|Gould|1987.
See harvtxt|Gould|1999 for an example.
Originally published in Piano Quarterly in 1974. Reprinted and quoted in harvtxt|Kingwell|2009|p=159 and harvtxt|Kieser|1993. See http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/44275099 Album details at world catalogue.
ATCM is Associate, Toronto Conservatory of Music. The Conservatory received it's royal charter in 1947 and became The Royal Conservatory of Music .
Gould: "The piano was a means to an end for him, and the end was to approach Beethoven." See harvtxt|Tovell|1959 07:40 minutes in.
During Gould's 1957 concert performances in Moscow , Vladimir Ashkenazy labelled him a phenomenon harv|Till|Tovell|1985.
;Citations Reflist| colwidth = 30em | refs =
cite web| url = http://www.ahsl.arizona.edu/about/ahslexhibits/musicianmedicalmaladies/musicians.cfm | title = Musician's Medical Maladies | first = | last = | author = | date = | month = | year = | work = URL|ahsl.arizona.edu| publisher = Arizona health sciences library|Arizona Health Sciences Library | format = | archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20071230140202/ http://www.ahsl.arizona.edu/about/ahslexhibits/musicianmedicalmaladies/musicians.cfm | archivedate = December 30, 2007 | accessdate = March 12, 2009 | quote = | postscript = .
Bach Partitas_p14"> harvtxt|Stegemann|1993a|p=14
harvtxt|Stegemann|1993b|p=10
Bach Partitas_p15"> harvtxt|Stegemann|1993a|p=15
harvtxt|Gould|1992|p=12
Cite episode| title = Glenn Gould's fascination with Petula Clark (excerpt) | url = http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/music/clips/1708/ | accessdate = December 17, 2011 | series = The Best of IDEAS | serieslink = Ideas (radio show) | credits = Announcer: Ken Haslam, Commentator: Glenn Gould | network = CBC Radio | station = CBC Radio 1 | city = Toronto | airdate = December 11, 1967 | season = | seriesno = | number = | minutes = 4:34 | time = | transcript = . | transcripturl = http://ms.radio-canada.ca/archives_new/2002/en/wma/gould19671211er1.wma | quote =
Cite episode| title = Glenn Gould: Variations on an Artist » Gould on his eccentricities » Did you know? | url = http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-68-320-1673/arts_entertainment/glenn_gould/ | accessdate = March 12, 2009 | series = Assignment | serieslink = | credits = Interviewer: Hugh Thomson | network = CBC Radio | station = CBC Radio 1 | city = Toronto | airdate = July 15, 1958 | season = | seriesno = | number = | minutes = | time = | transcript = . | transcripturl = http://ms.radio-canada.ca/archives_new/2002/en/wma/gould19580715er1.wma | quote =
Cite episode| title = Leonard Bernstein and Glenn Gould don't see eye to eye | url = http://archives.cbc.ca/on_this_day/04/25/ | accessdate = December 23, 2011 | series = CBC Radio Special | serieslink = | credits = Announcer: James Fassett, Guest: Leonard Bernstein | network = CBC Radio | station = CBC Radio 1 | city = New York | airdate = April 25, 1962 | season = | seriesno = | number = | minutes = | time = | transcript = . | transcripturl = http://ms.radio-canada.ca/archives_new/2002/en/wma/gould_newyork_philharmonic_19620425.wma | quote =
cite video | people = | date = December 4, 1959 | title = Gould in conversation with his friend Vincent Tovell (excerpt): A 26-year-old Gould talks about his fame | url = http://ms.radio-canada.ca/archives_new/2002/en/wma/gould19501204er1.wma | first = Vincent | last = Tovell | medium = CBC Radio . Radio Show: Project '60 | publisher = CBC Radio 1 | location = | accessdate = December 25, 2011 | time = | id = URL| http://archives.cbc.ca/emissions/emission.asp? IDLan=1& IDEmission=590& s=emission|archives.cbc.ca| quote = | ref = harv
Cite episode| title = Glenn Gould is a rising star » The Story | url = http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/music/clips/1670/ | accessdate = December 25, 2011 | series = CBC Newsmagazine | serieslink = | credits = Host: Gordon Burwash | network = Canadian Broadcasting Corporation | station = CBC Television | city = | airdate = June 23, 1957 | season = | seriesno = | number = | minutes = | time = | transcript = . | transcripturl = http://ms.radio-canada.ca/archives_new/2002/en/wmv/gould19570623et1.wmv | quote =
cite news| title = Glenn Gould at Jordan Hall | first = Kevin | last = Kelly | authorlink = | url = | agency = URL|www.bostonglobe.com| newspaper = The Boston Globe | publisher = The New York Times Company | location = | issn = 0743-1791 | oclc = 66652431 | date = March 22, 1958 | page = | accessdate = | quote = | archiveurl = | archivedate =
cite news| title = Letter to the Editor | first = | last = | url = | agency = URL|www.bostonherald.com| newspaper = Boston Herald | publisher = Patrick J. Purcell | location = | issn = 0738-5854 | oclc = 12728704 | date = March 23, 1958 | page = | accessdate = | quote = If I never hear Bach's Goldberg Variations again, I feel with all my heart that I have heard the ultimate, and am grateful. | archiveurl = | archivedate =
cite book | first1 = Kevin | last1 = Bazzana | first3 = Geoffrey | last3 = Payzant | first2 = John | last2 = Beckwith | author1-link = | author2-link = | author3-link = | editorn-last = | editorn-first = | title = Glenn Gould | url = http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm? PgNm=TCE& Params=U1ARTU0001410 | archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = December 19, 2011 | date = | chapter = The Canadian Encyclopedia | chapterurl = http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com | publisher = The Historica Dominion Institute | location = Toronto | oclc = 71490162 | lastauthoramp = &
cite web| url = http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm? PgNm=TCE& Params=U1ARTU0001464 | title = Alberto Guerrero | first = John | last = Beckwith |author-link = John Beckwith (composer) | agency = URL|thecanadianencyclopedia.com| work = The Canadian Encyclopedia|The Encyclopedia of Music in Canada | publisher = The Historica Dominion Institute | archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = December 25, 2011 | quote = | postscript = .
cite web| url = http://www.cbc.ca/gould/timeline/ | title = Glenn Gould » The CBC Legacy » Timeline of a Musical Genius | first = | last = | author = | date = | month = | year = | work = URL|www.cbc.ca/gould/|cbc.ca/gould| publisher = Canadian Broadcasting Corporation | format = | archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = December 25, 2011 | quote = | postscript = .
cite web| url = http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/feature-gouldLibrary.html | title = Variations on Gould | work = URL|www.cbc.ca/radio2|cbc.ca/radio2| publisher = CBC Radio 2 | archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = December 24, 2011 | quote =
cite web| url = http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/cmc/gould/gould05e.shtml | title = Glenn Gould: The Sounds of Genius » Credits | date = | year = 2007 | work = URL|civilization.ca| publisher = Canadian Museum of Civilization | archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = December 18, 2011 | quote = | postscript = .
cite web| url = http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/cmc/gould/gould01e.shtml | title = Glenn Gould: The Sounds of Genius » The exhibition | date = | year = 2007 | work = URL|civilization.ca| publisher = Canadian Museum of Civilization | archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = December 18, 2011 | quote = | postscript = .
Cite document| url = http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/glenngould/028010-4020.01-e.html#d | title = The Prospects of Recording – Resources – The Glenn Gould Archive | first = Glenn | last = Gould | date = | month = | year = 1966 | work = URL| http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/glenngould/index-e.html|collectionscanada.gc.ca| publisher = Library and Archives Canada | location = Ottawa | oclc = | id = | format = | archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = December 8, 2010 | quote = | postscript = . | ref = harv
Cite document| url = http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/glenngould/028010-4020.15-e.html | title = Introduction to The Last Puritan | first = Monsaingeon | last = Bruno | author = | date = 1983 | month = | year = | work = URL| http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/glenngould/index-e.html|collectionscanada.gc.ca| publisher = Library and Archives Canada | location = Ottawa | oclc = | id = | format = | archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = December 15, 2011 | quote = | postscript = . | ref = harv
cite web| url = http://www.culturekiosque.com/klassik/news/glenn_gould.html | title = Home » KlassikNet: Classical Music » News » GLENN GOULD EXHIBITION SET TO OPEN THIS AUTUMN | first = | last = | author = Staff Report | date = May 15, 2007 | month = | year = | work = URL|culturekiosque.com| publisher = Euromedia Group | format = | archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = December 18, 2011 | quote = | postscript = .
cite web| url = http://glenngould.ca/glenn-gould-toronto-walk/ | title = Glenn Gould Toronto Walk | work = URL|glenngould.ca| publisher = Glenn Gould Foundation | archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = December 23, 2011 | quote =
cite web| url = http://www.grammy.com/nominees/search? artist=Glenn+Gould& title=& year=All& genre=All | title = Home Past » Winners Search | work = URL|www.grammy.org/recording-academy/awards|www.grammy.org| publisher = National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences | archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = December 18, 2011 | quote = | postscript = .
cite web| url = http://www.grammy.org/recording-academy/awards/hall-of-fame#g | title = Home » The Recording Academy » The GRAMMY Awards » GRAMMY Hall Of Fame | date = | work = URL|www.grammy.org| publisher = National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences | archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = December 19, 2011 | quote = | postscript = .
cite web| url = http://junoawards.ca/awards/artist-summary/? artist_name=Glenn+Gould& submit=Search | title = Juno Awards Database | work = URL|junoawards.ca/awards/|junoawards.ca| publisher = Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences | accessdate = December 18, 2011 | postscript = .
cite web| url = http://learning.rcmusic.ca/glenn-gould-school/about-glenn-gould-school/key-facts-and-history | title = The Glenn Gould School » Key Facts and History | year = 1997 | work = URL|learning.rcmusic.ca| publisher = Royal Conservatory of Music | archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = December 20, 2011 | quote = | postscript = .
cite press release| publisher = Aerial Communications Group | date = February 14 2008 | format = | work = URL|newswire.ca| language = | title = Dr. José Antonio Abreu Awarded Coveted 2008 Glenn Gould Prize | trans_title = | url = http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/377803/dr-jose-antonio-abreu-awarded-coveted-2008-glenn-gould-prize | accessdate = December 18, 2011 | archiveurl = | archivedate = | quote = | ref =
cite web| url = http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php? storyId=1967623 | title = The Variations of Glenn Gould: Legendary, Eccentric Pianist Launched His Career by Playing Bach | first = | last = | author = | date = | month = | year = | work = URL|www.npr.org| publisher = National Public Radio | archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = December 24, 2011 | quote =
cite news| title = OTTAWA; An Exhibition Of Glenn Gould Memorabilia Sheds A Little Light on A Musical Enigma | first = John F. | last = Burns | authorlink = John F. Burns | url = http://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/29/arts/ottawa-exhibition-glenn-gould-memorabilia-sheds-little-light-musical-enigma.html? scp=1& sq=An%20Exhibition%20Of%20Glenn%20Gould%20Memorabilia%20Sheds%20A%20Little%20Light%20on%20A%20Musical%20Enigma& st=cse | agency = URL|nytimes.com| newspaper = The New York Times | publisher = Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr. | location = | issn = 0362-4331 | oclc = 1645522 | date = May 29, 1988 | page = | accessdate = December 18, 2011 | quote =
cite news| title = Two faces of a pianist who had many | first = Anthony | last = Tommasini | authorlink = Anthony Tommasini | url = http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/01/arts/music-recordings-two-faces-of-a-pianist-who-had-many.html? pagewanted=2& src=pm | agency = URL|nytimes.com| newspaper = The New York Times | publisher = Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr. | location = | issn = 0362-4331 | oclc = 1645522 | date = September 1, 2002 | page = AR20 | accessdate = December 22, 2011 | quote = | volume = 151 | issue =
cite news| title = The Continuing Cult of Glenn Gould, Deserved or Not | first = Bernard | last = Holland | authorlink = Bernard Holland | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/24/arts/music/24goul.html | agency = URL|nytimes.com| newspaper = The New York Times | publisher = Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr. | location = | issn = 0362-4331 | oclc = 1645522 | date = November 24, 2007 | page = B7 | accessdate = December 22, 2011 | quote = | volume = 157 | issue = 54138
cite news| title = Music: Inner Voices of Glenn Gould; Pianist Plays Them in Addition to Brahms BernsteinSpeech Hits at the Interpretation (article abstract) | first = Harold C. | last = Schonberg | authorlink = Harold C. Schonberg | url = http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html? res=FA0F1FFC395D117B93C5A9178FD85F468685F9 | agency = URL|nytimes.com| newspaper = The New York Times | publisher = Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr. | location = | issn = 0362-4331 | oclc = 1645522 | date = April 07, 1962 | page = 17 | accessdate = December 23, 2011 | quote = | volume = | issue =
cite news| title = Of Mozart and Related Matters. Glenn Gould in Conversation with Bruno Monsaingeon | first = | last = | authorlink = | url = | agency = URL|www.pianoandkeyboard.com| magazine = The Piano Quarterly | publisher = The String Letter Press | location = San Anselmo | issn = 0031-9554 | oclc = | date = Fall 1976 | page = 33 | pages = | at = | accessdate = | quote = | archiveurl = | archivedate = | volume = | issue = Reprinted in 1990. See also Ostwald (1997, p. 249)
cite news| title = Glenn Gould school breeds world-class professionals | first = Andrew | last = Flynn | authorlink = | url = | agency = URL|therecord.com| newspaper = Waterloo Region Record | publisher = Torstar Corporation | location = Kitchener, Ontario|Kitchener | issn = 0824-5150 | date = 27 August 1998 | page = D15 Entertainment | accessdate = 20 December 2011 | quote = | archiveurl = | archivedate =
cite web| url = http://www.sonyclassical.com/artists/gould/bio.html | title = Glenn Gould, Biography | work = URL|sonymasterworks.com | publisher = Sony BMG Masterworks | archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20080210175113/ http://www.sonyclassical.com/artists/gould/bio.html | archivedate = February 10, 2008 | accessdate = March 12, 2009 | quote = | postscript = .
cite web| url = http://soundbug.com/artist/2127 | title = Glenn Gould | first = | last = | author = | date = | month = | year = | work = URL|soundbug.com| publisher = Misja.com | archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = December 25, 2011 | quote =
cite news| title = The secret life of Glenn Gould | first = Michael | last = Clarkson | author = | authorlink = | authorlink2 = | author2 = | author3 = | url = http://www.thestar.com/article/249787 | format = | agency = URL|www.thestar.com| newspaper = Toronto Star | publisher = Torstar Corporation | location = | oclc = 679765547 | issn = | date = August 25, 2007 | page = | pages = | at = | accessdate = May 29, 2009 | quote = | archiveurl = | archivedate = | ref = | volume = | issue =
cite news| title = At the Galleries | first = Peter | last = Goddard | author = | authorlink = | authorlink2 = | author2 = | author3 = | url = | format = | agency = URL|www.thestar.com| newspaper = Toronto Star | publisher = Torstar Corporation | location = | oclc = 679765547 | issn = | date = February 16, 2008 | page = | pages = | at = Arts and Entertainment p. E05 | accessdate = December 19, 2011 | quote = | archiveurl = | archivedate = | ref = | volume = | issue =
cite web| url = http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/music.html | title = Voyager& nbsp;– Music From Earth | date = August 20, 1977 | work = URL|voyager.jpl.nasa.gov| publisher = Jet Propulsion Laboratory | archiveurl = | archivedate = | accessdate = March 12, 2009 | quote = | postscript = .
;Bibliography refbegin
cite book
|last = Bazzana |first = Kevin |author-link = Kevin Bazzana |title = Wondrous Strange: The Life and Art of Glenn Gould |url = http://books.google.ca/books? id=Fj_c-WF9sBIC& lpg=PP5& dq=Wondrous%20Strange%3A%20The%20Life%20and%20Art%20of%20Glenn%20Gould& pg=PP5#v=onepage& q& f=true |publisher = McClelland & Stewart |location = Toronto |year = 2003 |isbn = 9780771011016 |oclc = 52286240 |ref = harv
cite book
|last = Dubal |first = David |author-link = David Dubal |title = The World of the Concert Pianist |url = http://books.google.com/? id=Sn2FQgAACAAJ& dq=The+World+of+the+Concert+Pianist |publisher=Gollancz |location = London |year = 1985 |isbn = 9780575036543 |oclc = 12112836 |ref = harv
cite book
|last = Friedrich |first = Otto |title = Glenn Gould: A Life and Variations |url = http://books.google.com/? id=ZJoQAQAAMAAJ& q=Glenn+Gould:+A+Life+and+Variations& dq=Glenn+Gould:+A+Life+and+Variations |publisher = Random House |location=New York |year = 1990 |origyear = Reprint. Originally published: New York: Random House, 1989 |isbn = 9780679732075 |oclc = 21445409 |ref = harv
|last = Ostwald |first = Peter F. |title = Glenn Gould: The Ecstasy and Tragedy of Genius |url = http://books.google.ca/books? id=V0YCotrV9NAC& lpg=PP1& dq=Glenn%20Gould%3A%20The%20Ecstasy%20and%20Tragedy%20of%20Genius& pg=PP1#v=onepage& q& f=true |year = 1997 |publisher = W. W. Norton & Company |location = New York |isbn = 9780393040777 |oclc = 35586754 |ref = harv
cite book
|last = Payzant |first = Geoffrey |title = Glenn Gould: Music & Mind |url = http://books.google.ca/books? id=YPCcXr7tFVoC& lpg=PP1& dq=Glenn%20Gould%3A%20Music%20%26%20Mind& pg=PP1#v=onepage& q& f=true |publisher = Van Nostrand Reinhold |location = Toronto; London |year = 1978 |isbn = 0442298021 |oclc = 16422990 |ref = harv refend ;Multimedia sources refbegin
cite album-notes
|title = The Glenn Gould Edition Richard Strauss: Ophelia-Lieder: Three Songs after Shakespeare, Op. 67; Enoch Arden: A Melodrama for Piano after Tennyson, Op.38; Piano Sonata, Op. 5; Five Piano Pieces, Op. 3 |albumlink = |artist = Glenn Gould & Claude Rains & Elisabeth Schwarzkopf |bandname = |year = 1992 |notestitle = |url = http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/ourl/res.php? url_ver=Z39.88-2004& url_tim=2011-12-27T08%3A15%3A46Z& url_ctx_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx& rft_dat=12663008& rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fcollectionscanada.gc.ca%3Aamicus& lang=eng |first = Glenn |last = Gould |format = Booklet |publisher = Sony Classical Records |publisherid = SM2K 52657 |location = New York City |asin = B0000028O4 |id = UPC|07464526572|ref = harv
|people = |first = Wolf |last = Koenig |author-link = Wolf Koenig |first2 = Roman |last2 = Kroitor |author2-link = Roman Kroitor |year = 2004 |title = Glenn Gould: on and off the record |url = http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/ourl/res.php? url_ver=Z39.88-2004& url_tim=2011-12-23T05%3A52%3A07Z& url_ctx_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx& rft_dat=30899711& rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fcollectionscanada.gc.ca%3Aamicus& lang=eng |medium = DVD release. Originally produced in 1959 for the television program Documentary '60 |publisher = National Film Board of Canada ; Image Entertainment (Distributor) |location = Montreal |accessdate = December 23, 2011 |time = |id = UPC|014381206920|oclc = 130741039 |quote = |ref = harv |laysummary = http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/glenn_gould_on_and_off_the_record/ |lastauthoramp = &
cite video
| people = |first = Bruno |last = Monsaingeon |author-link = Bruno Monsaingeon |year = 2002 |title = Glenn Gould: the alchemist |url = http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/ourl/res.php? url_ver=Z39.88-2004& url_tim=2011-12-23T04%3A18%3A53Z& url_ctx_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx& rft_dat=28403434& rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fcollectionscanada.gc.ca%3Aamicus& lang=eng |medium = DVD re-release of the four parts featuring Gould. His 24 part 1974 series was titled Chemins de la Musique . |language = English (interviews), French (commentary). Sub-titles: German, English, French, Spanish |volume = |publisher = Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française|ORTF ; EMI Classics (Distributor) |location = |accessdate = December 23, 2011 |time = |id = UPC|724349012899|oclc = 52719241 |quote = |ref = harv |laysummary = http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/glenn_gould_the_alchemist/ |lastauthoramp = &
cite video
|people = |first = Bruno |last = Monsaingeon |authormask = 1 |author-link = Bruno Monsaingeon |year = 2006 |origyear = 2005 Original release |title = Glenn Gould: Au delà du temps |url = http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/ourl/res.php? url_ver=Z39.88-2004& url_tim=2011-12-23T06%3A58%3A13Z& url_ctx_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx& rft_dat=33384632& rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fcollectionscanada.gc.ca%3Aamicus& lang=eng |medium = DVD. Original release 2005 |language = English; some dialogue in Italian or Russian with English subtitles; subtitles in French, German, Italian, Spanish and Japanese |trans_title = Glenn Gould: hereafter |publisher = Idéale Audience and Rhombus Media |location = Paris |accessdate = December 23, 2011 |time = |id = UPC|899132000206|oclc = 612160794 |quote = |ref = harv |laysummary = http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/glenn_gould_hereafter/
|title = The Glenn Gould Edition Gould Meets Menuhin: Bach·Beethoven·Schoenberg |albumlink = |artist = Glenn Gould & Yehudi Menuhin |bandname = |year = 1993b |notestitle = |url = |first = Michael |last = Stegemann |coauthors = English translation: Stewart Spencer |authormask = 1 |format = Front cover booklet |publisher = Sony Classical Records |publisherid = SMK 52688 |location = |id = UPC|5099705268827 |oclc = 30923019 |ref = harv |quote = That Menuhin ever agreed to tackle Schoenberg's Phantasy shows how much he admired Gould and how much he was prepared to learn from a man sixteen years younger than himself: "Well, Glenn, I was very anxious to take you up on the invitation to play it because I admire you. I know that you know more about Schoenberg, and have a more genuine understanding of Schoenberg perhaps than anyone else. And I'm always interested in learning about something through the eyes of someone who understands it and loves it." Whereas only a few months later, in January 1966, Gould's collaboration with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf turned into an outright fiasco, since the soprano was totally unprepared to accept any of Gould's interpretational idiosyncrasies, Menuhin was ready to embrace the new perspectives opened up by an unorthodox view even in the case of a work like Beethoven's Opus 96 Sonata, which of course he knew better than Gould. "I admire this i.e., the way you play, and I wish Beethoven were here to hear you, because the way you do it is absolutely convincing, as I feel. I don't have quite the courage to go against the printed text or the indication in the score, which is simply pianissimo. But there again, everything is a relative factor."
cite video
| people = Till, Eric (Producer / Director / Narrator) & Tovell, Vincent (Producer / Director / Narrator) |first = Eric |last = Till |first2 = Vincent |last2 = Tovell |editor-last = Evans |editor-first = Wayne |date = |year = 1985 |origyear = First published as Documentary film in 1985 |title = Glenn Gould: A Portrait |url = http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/ourl/res.php? url_ver=Z39.88-2004& url_tim=2011-12-23T01%3A27%3A55Z& url_ctx_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx& rft_dat=23396582& rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fcollectionscanada.gc.ca%3Aamicus& lang=eng |medium = VHS Videotape released October 22, 1991 |publisher = CBC Enterprises ; Kultur International Films (Distributor) |location = West Long Branch |accessdate = December 23, 2011 |time = |id = UPC|032031118836|oclc = 22897163 |quote = |ref = harv |laysummary = http://www.allrovi.com/movies/movie/glenn-gould-a-portrait-v19956 |lastauthoramp = &
refend
Further reading
refbegin
Cite book
|last = Cott |first = Jonathan |year = 2005 |title = Conversations with Glenn Gould |url = http://books.google.ca/books? id=dKCdsOq3X4sC& lpg=PP1& dq=Glenn%20Gould%3A& pg=PP1#v=onepage& q& f=true |publisher = University of Chicago Press |isbn = 0226116239 |oclc = 475021622 |ref = harv
http://www.glenngould.com Glenn Gould recordings owned by Sony Music
http://glenngould.ca The Glenn Gould Foundation including the http://glenngould.ca/magazine/ GlennGould Magazine
http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/glenngould/index-e.html The Glenn Gould Archive from Library and Archives Canada
http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-74-320/people/glenn_gould/ Glenn Gould: Variations on an Artist from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|CBC Digital Archives
http://archives.radio-canada.ca/recherche? x=1& q=Glenn+Gould& RD=1& RTy=0& RC=1& RP=1& RA=0& y=12& th=1 Glenn Gould at lang|fr| Société Radio-Canada from the CBC French language Digital Archives
http://www.brunomonsaingeon.com/EN/PERFORMERS/GOULD.html Glenn Gould pictures and writings by film director Bruno Monsaingeon
NYTtopic|people/g/glenn_gould
Worldcat id|lccn-n50-35742
;Video
http://www.mlfilms.com/productions/bach_project/glenn_gould Bach & Friends: Glenn Gould (2010) from director Michael Lawrence (filmmaker)|Michael Lawrence
http://glenngouldmovie.com/ Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould (2010) from co-directors Peter Raymont and Michèle Hozer
myspace|thelateglenngould
Use mdy dates|date=August 2011 Persondata |NAME = Gould, Glenn Herbert |ALTERNATIVE NAMES = Gold, Glenn Herbert (legal); Gould, Glen |SHORT DESCRIPTION = Canadian classical pianist |DATE OF BIRTH = September 25, 1932 |PLACE OF BIRTH = Toronto, Ontario, Canada |DATE OF DEATH = October 4, 1982 |PLACE OF DEATH = Toronto, Ontario, Canada DEFAULTSORT:Gould, Glenn Category:1932 births Category:1982 deaths Category:Deaths from stroke Category:Glenn Gould Category:People from Toronto Category:The Royal Conservatory of Music alumni Category:Musicians from Toronto Category:Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductees Category:Canadian composers Category:Canadian classical pianists Category:Juno Award winners Category:Grammy Award winners Category:20th-century classical composers
