Glenn Gould | |
|---|---|
 Gouldc. 1980 | |
| Born | Glenn Herbert Gold (1932-09-25)25 September 1932 Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Died | 4 October 1982(1982-10-04) (aged 50) Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Burial place | Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto |
| Alma mater | Royal Conservatory of Music |
| Occupation | Pianist |
| Awards | Companion of the Order of Canada (declined by Gould) Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2013) Grammy Awards: 1973, 1982, 1983 Juno Awards: 1979, 1983, 1984 Canadian Music Hall of Fame National Historic Person |
| Musical career | |
| Genres | Classical music |
| Instruments |
|
| Years active | 1945–1982 |
| Labels | Columbia Masterworks |
Musical artist | |
| Website | glenngould |
| Signature | |
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Glenn Herbert Gould[fn 1] (/ɡuːld/; néGold;[fn 2] 25 September 1932 – 4 October 1982) was a Canadian classical pianist. Widely regarded as one of the greatest pianists of all time,[1][2][3][4][5] he was renowned as an interpreter of thekeyboard works ofJohann Sebastian Bach. His playing was distinguished by remarkable technical proficiency and a capacity to articulate thecontrapuntal texture of Bach's music.
Gould rejected most of the Romantic piano literature byChopin,Schumann,Liszt,Rachmaninoff, and others, in favour of Bach andBeethoven mainly, along with some late-Romantic andmodernist composers. Gould also recorded works byHaydn,Mozart, andBrahms;pre-Baroque composers such asJan Pieterszoon Sweelinck,William Byrd, andOrlando Gibbons; and 20th-century composers includingPaul Hindemith,Arnold Schoenberg,Alexander Scriabin andRichard Strauss.
Gould was also a writer and broadcaster, and dabbled incomposing and conducting. He produced television programmes about classical music, in which he would speak and perform, or interact with an interviewer in a scripted manner. He made threemusique concrète radio documentaries, collectively theSolitude Trilogy, about isolated areas of Canada. He was a prolific contributor to music journals, in which he discussed music theory. Gould was known for his eccentricities, ranging from his unorthodox musical interpretations and mannerisms at the keyboard to aspects of his lifestyle and behaviour. He disliked public performance, and stopped giving concerts at age 31 to concentrate on studio recording and media.
Glenn Gould was born at home at 32 Southwood Drive inThe Beaches, Toronto, on September 25, 1932, the only child of Russell Herbert Gold and Florence Emma Gold (born Greig, a distant relative of the Norwegian composer and pianistEdvard Grieg),[6]Presbyterians of Scottish, English, German, and Norwegian ancestry.[7] The family's surname was informally changed to Gould around 1939 to avoid being mistaken for Jewish, given the prevailingantisemitism of prewar Toronto.[fn 3] Gould had no Jewish ancestry,[fn 4] though he sometimes joked about it, saying, "When people ask me if I'm Jewish, I always tell them that I was Jewish during the war."[8]
Gould's interest in music and his talent as a pianist were evident very early. Both parents were musical; his mother, especially, encouraged his musical development from infancy. Hoping he would become a successful musician, she exposed him to music during her pregnancy.[9] She taught him the piano and as a baby, he reportedly hummed instead of crying, and wiggled his fingers as if playing a keyboard instrument, leading his doctor to predict that he would "be either a physician or a pianist".[10] He learned to read music before he could read words,[11][12][13] and it was observed that he hadperfect pitch at age three. When presented with a piano, the young Gould was reported to strike single notes and listen to their longdecay, a practice his father Bert noted was different from typical children.[12] Gould's interest in the piano was concomitant with an interest in composition. He played his pieces for family, friends, and sometimes large gatherings—including, in 1938, a performance at the Emmanuel Presbyterian Church (a few blocks from the Gould family home) of one of his compositions.[14]
Gould first heard a live musical performance by a celebrated soloist at age six. This profoundly affected him. He later described the experience:
It wasHofmann. 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 allorchestral sounds, butI was playing them all, and suddenly I was Hofmann. I was enchanted.[11][15]
At age 10, he began attending the Toronto Conservatory of Music in Toronto (known since 1947 asThe Royal Conservatory of Music). He studied music theory withLeo Smith, organ withFrederick C. Silvester, and piano withAlberto Guerrero.[16] Around the same time, he injured his back as a result of a fall from a boat ramp on the shore ofLake Simcoe.[fn 5] This incident is apocryphally 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.[17] He used this chair for the rest of his life, taking it with him almost everywhere.[11] The chair was designed so that Gould could sit very low and allowed him to pull down on the keys rather than striking them from above, a central technical idea of Guerrero's.[18]
Gould developed a technique that enabled him to choose a very fasttempo while retaining the "separateness" and clarity of each note. His extremely low position at the instrument permitted him 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 ofRavel'sLa valse andLiszt's transcriptions of Beethoven'sFifth andSixth Symphonies. Gould worked from a young age with Guerrero on a technique known asfinger-tapping: a method of training the fingers to act more independently from the arm.[19]
Gould passed his final Conservatory examination in piano at age 12, achieving the highest marks of any candidate, and thus attaining professional standing as a pianist.[20] One year later he passed the written theory exams, qualifying for an Associate of the Toronto Conservatory of Music (ATCM) diploma.[fn 6][20]
Gould's next-door neighbour as a child and lifelong best friend wasRobert Fulford, who became a prominent journalist and essayist.[21] In 1952, Fulford and Gould founded New Music Associates, which produced and promoted Gould's first three public performances, including Gould's debut performance of Bach'sGoldberg Variations.[22]
Gould was achild prodigy[23] and was described in adulthood as a musical phenomenon.[fn 7] He claimed to have almost never practised on the piano itself, preferring to study repertoire by reading,[fn 8] another technique he had learned from Guerrero. He may have spoken ironically about his practising though, as there is evidence that on occasion he did practise quite hard, sometimes using his own drills and techniques.[fn 9] He seemed able to practise mentally, once preparing for a recording ofBrahms's piano works without playing them until a few weeks before the sessions.[24] Gould could play a vast repertoire of piano music, as well as a wide range of orchestral and operatic transcriptions, from memory.[25] He could "memorize at sight" and once challenged a friend to name any piece of music that he could not "instantly play from memory".[26]
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 noted, "[I] fixed theaction 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."[29]
As a teenager, Gould was significantly influenced byArtur Schnabel[fn 10][30] andRosalyn Tureck's recordings of Bach[31] (which he called "upright, with a sense of repose and positiveness"), and the conductorLeopold Stokowski.[32] Gould was known for his vivid imagination. Listeners regarded his interpretations as ranging from brilliantly creative to outright eccentric. His pianism had great clarity and erudition, particularly in contrapuntal passages, and extraordinary control. Gould believed the piano to be "a contrapuntal instrument" and his whole approach to music was centered in theBaroque. Much of thehomophony that followed he felt belongs to a less serious and less spiritual period of art.
Gould had a pronounced aversion to what he termed "hedonistic" approaches to piano repertoire, performance, and music generally. For him, "hedonism" in this sense denoted a superficial theatricality, something to which he felt Mozart, for example, became increasingly susceptible later in his career.[33] He associated this drift toward 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.[34]
On 5 June 1938, at age five, Gould played in public for the first time, joining his family on stage to play piano at a church service at the Business Men's Bible Class inUxbridge, Ontario, in front of a congregation of about 2,000.[35][36] In 1945, at 13, he made his first appearance with an orchestra in a performance of the first movement ofBeethoven's4th Piano Concerto with theToronto Symphony.[37] His first solo concert followed in 1947,[38] and his first recital on radio was with theCBC in 1950.[39] This was the beginning of Gould's long association with radio and recording. He founded the Festival Trio chamber group in 1953 and appeared at the inaugural Stratford Festival with cellist Isaac Mamott and violinistAlbert Pratz.[40]
| External images | |
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 Glenn Gould performing at the piano in Toronto, Canada, in 1956 | |
| Glenn Gould, c. 1960s, withLeonard Bernstein andIgor Stravinsky in rehearsal with theNew York Philharmonic |
Gould made his American debut on 2 January 1955, in Washington, D.C. atThe Phillips Collection. The music criticPaul Hume wrote in theWashington Post, "January 2 is early for predictions, but it is unlikely that the year 1955 will bring us a finer piano recital than that played yesterday afternoon in the Phillips Gallery. We shall be lucky if it brings us others of equal beauty and significance."[41] A performance atThe Town Hall in New York City followed on 11 January. Gould's reputation quickly grew.
Also in 1955, Gould recordedJ. S. Bach'sGoldberg Variations.[42] The recording built Gould's reputation both in North America and internationally and led to concert tours of Europe and the Soviet Union.
In 1957, he undertook a tour of the Soviet Union, becoming the first North American to play there since World War II.[43] His concerts featured Bach, Beethoven, and theserial music ofSchoenberg andBerg, which had been suppressed in the Soviet Union during the era ofSocialist Realism.
Gould performed theBeethovenPiano Concerto No. 3 withHerbert von Karajan conducting theBerlin Philharmonic Orchestra in Berlin on 26 May, 1957.[44] Gould debuted in Boston in 1958, playing for thePeabody Mason Concert Series.[45] On 31 January 1960, Gould first appeared on American television on CBS'sFord Presents series, performing Bach'sKeyboard Concerto No. 1 in D minor (BWV 1052) withLeonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic.[46]
On 7 August 1960, Gould and cellistLeonard Rose performed Beethoven'sCello and Piano Sonata No. 3 Op. 69 at theStratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario, Canada.[47] On the same program, Gould and Rose were joined by violinistOscar Shumsky for a performance of Beethoven'sGhost Trio.[48]
On 8 November 1960, Gould performed Beethoven'sEmperor Concerto with theBuffalo Philharmonic Orchestra conducted byJosef Krips.[49]
In March 1961, Gould performed and recorded Beethoven'sPiano Concerto No. 4 with Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.[50]
On 1 and 4 March 1966, at Manhattan Center, in New York, Gould recorded Beethoven'sPiano Concerto No. 5 withLeopold Stokowski conducting theAmerican Symphony Orchestra.[51]
Although Gould's live performances were outstandingly successful, he came to believe that the institution of the public concert was an anachronism and a "force of evil", leading to his early retirement from concert performance. He argued that public performance devolved into a sort of competition, with a non-empathetic audience mostly attendant to the possibility of the performer erring or failing critical expectation, and that such performances produced unexceptional interpretations because of the limitations of live music. He set forth this doctrine, half in jest, in "GPAADAK", the Gould Plan for the Abolition of Applause and Demonstrations of All Kinds.[52] On 10 April 1964, he gave his last public performance, at Los Angeles'sWilshire Ebell Theater.[53] Among the pieces he performed were Beethoven'sPiano Sonata No. 30, selections from Bach'sThe Art of Fugue, and Hindemith's Piano Sonata No. 3.[fn 11] Gould performed fewer than 200 concerts, of which fewer than 40 were outside Canada. For a pianist such asVan Cliburn, 200 concerts would have amounted to about two years' touring.[54]
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".[fn 12] There, he could control every aspect of the final musical product by selecting parts of various takes. He felt that he could realize a musical score more fully this way. Gould felt strongly that there was little point in re-recording centuries-old pieces if the performer had no new perspective to bring. For the rest of his life, he eschewed live performance, focusing instead on recording, writing, and broadcasting.
Gould was widely known for his unusual habits. He often hummed or sang while he played, and hisaudio engineers were not always able to exclude his voice from recordings. Gould claimed that his singing was unconscious and increased in proportion to his inability to produce his intended interpretation on a given piano. It is likely that the habit originated in his having been taught by his mother to "sing everything that he played", as his biographerKevin Bazzana wrote. This became "an unbreakable (and notorious) habit".[55] Some of Gould's recordings were severely criticised because of this background "vocalising". For example, a reviewer of his 1981 rerecording ofThe Goldberg Variations wrote that many listeners would "find the groans and croons intolerable".[56] Gould was known for his peculiar, even theatrical, gesticulations while playing. Another oddity was his insistence on absolute control over every aspect of his environment. The temperature of the recording studio had to be precisely regulated; he invariably insisted that it be extremely warm. According to another of Gould's biographers,Otto Friedrich, the air-conditioning engineer had to work just as hard as the recording engineers.[57]
The piano had to be set at a certain height and would be raised on wooden blocks if necessary.[58] A rug would sometimes be required for his feet.[59] He had to sit exactly 14 inches (360 mm) above the floor, and would play concerts only with the chair his father had made. He continued to use the chair even when its seat was completely worn,[60] and became so closely identified with it that it is displayed in a glass case atLibrary and Archives Canada.
Conductors had mixed responses to Gould and his playing habits.George Szell, who led Gould in 1957 with theCleveland Orchestra, remarked to his assistant, "That nut's a genius."[61] Leonard Bernstein said, "There is nobody quite like him, and I just love playing with him."[61] Bernstein created a stir at theconcert of April 6, 1962, when, just before theNew York Philharmonic was to perform the BrahmsPiano Concerto No. 1 in D minor with Gould, 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 boss – the soloist or the conductor?", to which the audience laughed. "The answer is, of course, sometimes the one and sometimes the other, depending on the people involved."[62] Specifically, Bernstein 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 byHarold C. Schonberg, music critic forThe New York Times, as an abdication of responsibility and an attack on Gould.[63] Plans for a studio recording of the performance came to nothing. The live radio broadcast was subsequently released on CD, Bernstein's disclaimer included.
Gould was averse to cold and wore heavy clothing (including gloves) even in warm places. He was once arrested, possibly being mistaken for a vagrant, while sitting on a park bench inSarasota, Florida, dressed in his standard all-climate attire of coat, hat and mittens.[64] He also disliked social functions. He hated being touched, and in later life limited personal contact, relying on the telephone and letters for communication. On a visit toSteinway Hall in New York City in 1959, the chief piano technician at the time, William Hupfer, greeted Gould with a slap on the back. Gould was shocked by this, and complained of aching, lack of coordination, and fatigue because of it. He went on to explore the possibility of litigation againstSteinway & Sons if his apparent injuries were permanent.[65] He was known for cancelling performances at the last minute, which is why Bernstein's aforementioned public disclaimer opened with, "Don't be frightened, Mr. Gould is here ... [he] will appear in a moment."
In hisliner notes and broadcasts, Gould created more than two dozenalter egos for satirical, humorous, and 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.[66] These facets of Gould, whether interpreted asneurosis or "play",[67] have provided ample material forpsychobiography.
Gould was ateetotaller and did not smoke.[68] He did not cook; instead he often ate at restaurants and relied on room service. He ate one meal a day, supplemented by arrowroot biscuits and coffee.[68] In his later years he claimed to be vegetarian, though this is not certain.[fn 13]
In 1979 Gould narrated and appeared in a humorous episode of theCBC Television seriesCities in which he takes the audience on a sampling tour of Toronto, including a number of places he had never been to before.[69]
| External audio | |
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 Gould performing J. S. Bach'sItalian Concerto in F major, BWV 971 and various Bach Preludes and Fugues | |
| Gould performing J. S. Bach'sThe Art of Fugue, BWV 1080, on organ and piano |
Gould lived a private life. The documentary filmmakerBruno Monsaingeon said of him: "No supreme pianist has ever given of his heart and mind so overwhelmingly while showing himself so sparingly."[70] He never married, and biographers have spent considerable time on his sexuality. Bazzana writes that "it is tempting to assume that Gould was asexual, an image that certainly fits his aesthetic and the persona he sought to convey, and one can read the whole Gould literature and be convinced that he died a virgin"—but he also mentions that evidence points to "a number of relationships with women that may or may not have been platonic and ultimately became complicated and were ended".[71]
One piece of evidence arrived in 2007. When Gould was in Los Angeles in 1956, he metCornelia Foss, an art instructor, and her husbandLukas, a conductor. After several years, she and Gould became lovers.[72] In 1967, she left her husband for Gould, taking her two children with her to Toronto. She purchased a house near Gould's apartment. In 2007, Foss confirmed that she and Gould had had a love affair for several years. According to her, "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, alluding to unusual behaviour that was more than "just neurotic".[72] Specifically, he believed that "someone was spying on him", according to Foss's son.[73]
Though an admitted hypochondriac,[74][fn 14] Gould had many pains and ailments, but his autopsy revealed few underlying problems in areas that often troubled him.[fn 15] He worried about everything fromhigh blood pressure (which in his later years he recorded in diary form) to the safety of his hands. (Gould rarely shook people's hands, and habitually wore gloves.)[fn 16][fn 17] The spine injury he experienced as a child led physicians to prescribe, usually independently, an assortment ofanalgesics,anxiolytics, and other drugs. Bazzana has speculated that Gould's increasing use of a variety of prescription medications over his career may have had a deleterious effect on his health. It had reached the stage, Bazzana writes, that "he was taking pills to counteract the side effects of other pills, creating a cycle of dependency".[75] In 1956, Gould told photojournalistJock Carroll about "my hysteria about eating. It's getting worse all the time."[76] In his biography, psychiatrist Peter F. Ostwald noted Gould's increasing neurosis about food in the mid-1950s, something Gould had spoken to him about. Ostwald later discussed the possibility that Gould had developed a "psychogenic eating disorder" around this time.[77] In 1956, Gould was also takingThorazine, an anti-psychotic medication, andreserpine, another anti-psychotic, which can also be used to lower blood pressure.[78] Cornelia Foss has said that Gould took manyantidepressants, which she blamed for his deteriorating mental state.[79]
Whether Gould's behaviour fell within theautism spectrum has been debated.[80] The diagnosis was first suggested by psychiatrist Peter Ostwald, a friend of Gould's, in the 1997 bookGlenn Gould: The Ecstasy and Tragedy of Genius.[77] There has also been speculation that he may have hadbipolar disorder, because he sometimes went several days without sleep, had extreme increases in energy, drove recklessly, and in later life endured severe depressive episodes.[81]
On 27 September 1982, two days after his 50th birthday, after experiencing a severe headache, Gould had a stroke that paralyzed the left side of his body. He was admitted toToronto General Hospital and his condition rapidly deteriorated. By 4 October, there was evidence of brain damage, and Gould's father decided that his son should be taken off life support.[82] Gould's public funeral was held inSt. Paul's Anglican Church on 15 October with singing byLois Marshall andMaureen Forrester. The service was attended by over 3,000 people and was broadcast on theCanadian Broadcasting Corporation. He is buried next to his parents in Toronto'sMount Pleasant Cemetery (section 38, lot 1050).[83] The first few bars of theGoldberg Variations are carved on his grave marker.[84] An animal lover, Gould left half his estate to theToronto Humane Society; the other half went to theSalvation Army.[85]
In 2000, amovement disorder neurologist suggested in a paper that Gould haddystonia, "a problem little understood in his time."[86]
| External audio | |
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| Glenn Gould performs Bach's: Prelude & Fugue No. 1–24, BWV 846–869; Prelude & Fugue No. 1–24, BWV 870–893; English Suite No. 1–6, BWV 806–811; French Suite No. 1–6, BWV 812–817; Goldberg Variations No. 1–30, BWV 988; Partita No. 1–6, BWV 825–830; and various Inventions, Sinfonias & Contrapunctus | |
| Glenn Gould and theColumbia Symphony Orchestra withVladimir Golschmann circa 1967 in Bach's Keyboard Concertos: No. 3 in D major, BWV 1054; No. 5 in F minor, BWV 1056; No. 7 in G minor, BWV 1058 |
Gould periodically told interviewers he would have been a writer if he had not been a pianist.[87] He expounded his criticism and philosophy of music and art in lectures,convocation speeches, periodicals, and CBC radio and television documentaries. Gould participated in many interviews, and had a predilection for scripting them to the extent that they may be seen to be as written work as much as off-the-cuff discussions. Gould's writing style was highly articulate, but sometimes florid, indulgent, and rhetorical. This is especially evident in his (frequent) attempts at humour and irony.[fn 18] Bazzana writes that although some of Gould's "conversational dazzle" found its way into his prolific written output, his writing was "at best uneven [and] at worst awful".[88] While offering "brilliant insights" and "provocative theses", Gould's writing is often marred by "long, tortuous sentences" and a "false formality", Bazzana writes.[89]
In his writing, Gould praised certain composers and rejected what he deemed banal in music composition and its consumption by the public, and also gave analyses of the music ofRichard Strauss,Alban Berg andAnton Webern. Despite a certain affection forDixieland 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 criticizedthe Beatles for "badvoice leading"[fn 19]—while praisingPetula Clark andBarbra Streisand. Gould and jazz pianistBill Evans were mutual admirers, and Evans made his recordConversations with Myself using Gould's Steinway model CD 318 piano.[90]
Gould's perspective on art is often summed up by this 1962 quotation: "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."[91]
Gould repeatedly called himself "the lastpuritan", a reference to the philosopherGeorge Santayana's1935 novel of the same name.[92] But he was progressive in many ways, promulgating theatonal composers of the early 20th century, and anticipating, through his deep involvement in the recording process, the vast changes technology had on the production and distribution of music. Mark Kingwell summarizes the paradox, never resolved by Gould nor his biographers, this way:
He was progressive and anti-progressive at once, and likewise at once both a critic of theZeitgeist 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.[93]
The issue of "authenticity" in relation to an approach like Gould's has been greatly debated (although less so by the end of the 20th century): is a recording 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[94]—one knows that a two-hour film was not made in two hours—and implicitly asked why the recording of music should be 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, but none was wholly successful. While the test was hardly scientific, Gould remarked, "The tape does lie, and nearly always gets away with it".[95]
In the lecture and essay "Forgery and Imitation in the Creative Process", one of his most significant texts,[96] Gould makes explicit his views on authenticity and creativity. He asks why the epoch in which a work is received influences its reception as "art", postulating a sonata of his own composition that sounds so like one ofHaydn's that it is received as such. If, instead, the sonata had been attributed to an 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 ofmusic history. Similarly, Gould notes the "pathetic duplicity" in the reception of high-quality forgeries byHan van Meegeren of new paintings attributed to theDutch masterJohannes Vermeer, before and after the forgery was known.
Gould preferred 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?"[97]
| External audio | |
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| Gould performing Beethoven'sPiano Concerto No. 4, withLeonard Bernstein and theNew York Philharmonic in 1961 | |
| Gould performing Beethoven'sPiano Concerto No. 2 | |
| Gould performing music byOrlando Gibbons andWilliam Byrd in 1993 |
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. He gave his final public performance in 1964, and thereafter devoted his career to the studio, recording albums and severalradio documentaries. He was attracted to the technical aspects of recording, and considered the manipulation oftape to be another part of the creative process. Although Gould's recording studio producers have testified that "he neededsplicing less than most performers",[98] Gould used the process to give himself totalartistic control over the recording process. He recounted his recording of the A minorfugue from Book I ofThe 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.[99]
Gould's first commercial recording (ofBerg's Piano sonata, Op. 1) came in 1953 on the short-lived Canadian Hallmark label. He soon signed with Columbia Records' classical music division and, in 1955, recordedBach: The Goldberg Variations, his breakthrough work. Although there was some controversy at Columbia about the appropriateness of this "debut" piece, the record received extraordinary praise and was among the best-selling classical music albums of its era.[100] Gould became closely associated with the piece, playing it in full or in part at many recitals. A new recording of theGoldberg Variations, in 1981, was among his last albums; the piece was one of a few he recorded twice in the studio. The 1981 release was one of CBS Masterworks' firstdigital recordings. The 1955 interpretation is highly energetic and often frenetic; the later is slower and more deliberate[101][102]—Gould wanted to treat the aria and its 30 variations as a cohesive whole.[fn 20]
Gould said Bach 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".[103] He recorded most of Bach's other keyboard works, including both books ofThe Well-Tempered Clavier and thepartitas,French Suites,English Suites,inventions and sinfonias, keyboard concertos, and a number oftoccatas (which interested him least, being less polyphonic). For his only recording at the organ, he recorded some ofThe Art of Fugue, which was also released posthumously on piano.
As for Beethoven, Gould preferred the composer's early and late periods. He recorded all five of thepiano concertos, collaborating withVladimir Golschmann and theColumbia Symphony Orchestra (members of the New York Philharmonic) on No. 1, withLeonard Bernstein and the Columbia Symphony Orchestra (members of the New York Philharmonic) on Nos. 2 and 3, with Bernstein and theNew York Philharmonic Orchestra on No. 4, and withLeopold Stokowski and theAmerican Symphony Orchestra on No. 5. He also recorded 22 of thepiano sonatas,[104] and numerous bagatelles and variations. Gould was the first pianist to record any ofLiszt's piano transcriptions of Beethoven's symphonies (beginning with the Fifth Symphony, in 1967, with the Sixth released in 1969).
Gould also recorded works by Brahms, Mozart, and many other prominent piano composers, though he was outspoken in his criticism of the Romantic era as a whole. He was extremely critical of Chopin. When asked whether he found 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."[105] But in 1970, he played Chopin'sB minor sonata for the CBC and said he liked some of the miniatures and "sort of liked the first movement of the B minor".
Although he recorded all of Mozart's sonatas and admitted enjoying the "actual playing" of them,[106] Gould said he disliked Mozart's later works.[107] He was fond of a number of lesser-known composers such asOrlando Gibbons, whoseAnthems he had heard as a teenager,[108] and whose music he felt a "spiritual attachment" to.[109] He recorded a number of Gibbons's keyboard works, and called him his favourite composer,[110][111] despite his better-known admiration for Bach.[fn 21] He made recordings of piano music byJean Sibelius (the Sonatines andKyllikki),Georges Bizet (theVariations Chromatiques de Concert and thePremier nocturne), Richard Strauss (the Piano Sonata, the Five Pieces, andEnoch Arden withClaude Rains), and Hindemith (the three piano sonatas and the sonatas for brass and piano). He also made recordings of Schoenberg's complete piano works. In early September 1982, Gould made his final recording: Strauss'sPiano Sonata in B minor.[112]
| External videos | |
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 Glenn Gould performing onYouTube Bach'sBrandenburg Concerto No. 5 on a "harpsipiano" withJulius Baker andOscar Shumsky for CBC Television in 1962 | |
| Glenn Gould performing Beethoven'sPiano Sonata No. 17, Op. 31, No. 2 ("Tempest") in 1960 | |
| Glenn Gould performing Beethoven's Variations and Fugue for Piano in E-flat major, Op. 35 (Eroica Variations) in 1960 |
The success of Gould's collaborations was to a degree dependent upon his collaborators' receptiveness to his sometimes unconventional readings of the music. The musicologist Michael Stegemann considered Gould's television collaboration with American violinistYehudi Menuhin in 1965, in which they played works by Bach, Beethoven and Schoenberg, a success because "Menuhin was ready to embrace the new perspectives opened up by an unorthodox view".[113] But Stegemann deemed the 1966 collaboration with sopranoElisabeth Schwarzkopf, recording Strauss'sOphelia Lieder, an "outright fiasco".[113] Schwarzkopf believed in "total fidelity" to the score, and objected to the temperature:
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.[114]
Gould recorded Schoenberg, Hindemith, andErnst Krenek with numerous vocalists, includingDonald Gramm andEllen Faull. He also recorded Bach'ssix sonatas for violin and harpsichord (BWV 1014–1019) withJaime Laredo, and thethree sonatas for viola da gamba and keyboard withLeonard Rose. Claude Rains narrated their recording of Strauss's melodramaEnoch Arden. Gould also collaborated with members of the New York Philharmonic, the flutistJulius Baker and the violinistRafael Druian, in a recording of Bach'sBrandenburg Concerto No. 4,[115] and withLeopold Stokowski and theAmerican Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Beethoven'sPiano Concerto No. 5 in 1966.[116]
Gould collaborated extensively withVladimir Golschmann and theColumbia Symphony Orchestra for theColumbia Masterworks label in his recording of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 in 1958[117] and several works by Bach in the 1960s, including theKeyboard Concerto No. 3 (BWV 1054), theKeyboard Concerto No. 5 (BWV 1056) and theKeyboard Concerto No. 7 (BWV 1058) in 1967[118] and theKeyboard Concerto No. 2 in E major (BWV 1053) and theKeyboard Concerto No. 4 in A major (BWV 1055) in 1969.[119]
Gould made numerous television and radio programs forCBC Television andCBC Radio. Notable productions include hismusique concrèteSolitude Trilogy, which consists ofThe Idea of North, a meditation on Northern Canada and its people;The Latecomers, aboutNewfoundland; andThe Quiet in the Land, aboutMennonites inManitoba. 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 overdubbing and editing. His experience of driving acrossnorthern Ontario while listening toTop 40 radio in 1967 inspired one of his most unusual radio pieces,The Search for Petula Clark, a witty and eloquent dissertation on Clark's recordings.[120]
Also among Gould's CBC programs was an educational lecture on the music of Bach, "Glenn Gould On Bach", which featured a collaborative performance withJulius Baker andOscar Shumsky of theBrandenburg Concerto No. 5.[121][122]
| External audio | |
|---|---|
| Glenn Gould collaborating withVladimir Golschmann and theColumbia Symphony Orchestra inBeethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15 in 1958 | |
| Glenn Gould and Vladimir Golschmann with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra in J. S. Bach's: Keyboard Concerto No. 2 in E major, BWV 1053 and Keyboard Concerto No. 4 in A major, BWV 1055 in 1969 | |
| Glenn Gould's String Quartet in F minor, Op. 1, performed by the Symphonia Quartet in 1960 |
Gould was also a prolific transcriber of orchestral repertoire for piano. He transcribed his own Wagner and Ravel recordings, as well as Strauss's operas and Schubert's andBruckner's symphonies,[11] which he played privately for pleasure.[fn 22]
Gould dabbled in composition, with few finished works. As a teenager, he wrote chamber music and piano works in the style of theSecond Viennese School. Significant works include a string quartet, which he finished in his 20s (published 1956, recorded 1960), and hiscadenzas to Beethoven'sPiano Concerto No. 1. Later works include theLieberson Madrigal (soprano, alto, tenor, bass [SATB] and piano),[123] and "So You Want to Write a Fugue?" (SATB with piano or string-quartet accompaniment). His String Quartet (Op. 1) received a mixed reaction:The Christian Science Monitor andSaturday Review were quite laudatory, theMontreal Star less so.[124] There is little critical commentary on Gould's compositions because there are few of them; he never succeeded beyond Opus 1, and left a number of works unfinished.[125] He attributed his failure as a composer to his lack of a "personal voice".[126] Most of his work is published bySchott Music. The recordingGlenn Gould: The Composer contains his original works.
Towards the end of his life, Gould began conducting. He had earlier directed Bach'sBrandenburg Concerto No. 5 and thecantataWiderstehe doch der Sünde from theharpsipiano (a piano with metal hammers to simulate a harpsichord's sound), andGustav Mahler'sSymphony No. 2 (theUrlicht section) in the 1960s. His first known public appearance conducting occurred in 1939 when he was six, while appearing as a pianist in a concert for the Business Men's Bible Class in Uxbridge.[127] By 1957 he emerged as the conductor for the CBC Television programChrysler Festival, in which he collaborated withMaureen Forrester.[127] In the same year he also joined forces with the CBC Vancouver Orchestra as a conductor in a radio broadcast ofMozart's Symphony No. 1 andSchubert's Symphony No. 4 ("Tragic").[127]
In 1958, Gould wrote to Golschmann of his "temporary retirement" from conducting, apparently as a result of the unanticipated muscular strain it created.[127] Gould found himself "practically crippled" after his conducting appearances and unable to perform properly at the piano.[127] Yet even at the age of 26, Gould continued to contemplate retiring as a piano soloist and devoting himself entirely to conducting.[127] Immediately before his death, he was finalizing plans to appear as a conductor ofBeethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2 in 1982 and in recordings ofMendelssohn'sHebrides Overture and Beethoven'sCoriolan Overture in 1983.[128] His last recording as a conductor was ofWagner'sSiegfried Idyll in its originalchamber-music scoring. He intended to spend his later years conducting, writing about music, and composing while pursuing an idyllic "neoThoreauvian way of life" in the countryside.[129][128]
Gould is one of the most acclaimed musicians of the 20th century. 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 and highly objectionable to others. PhilosopherMark Kingwell wrote, "his influence is made inescapable. No performer after him can avoid the example he sets ... Now, everyone must performthrough him: he can be emulated or rejected, but he cannot be ignored."[130] Among the pianists who acknowledged Gould's influence areAndrás Schiff,Zoltán Kocsis,Ivo Pogorelić, andPeter Serkin.[131] Artists influenced by Gould include painterGeorge Condo.[132]
One of Gould's performances of the Prelude and Fugue in C major from Book II ofThe Well-Tempered Clavier was chosen for inclusion on theNASAVoyager Golden Record by a committee headed byCarl Sagan. The record was placed on the spacecraftsVoyager 1 andVoyager 2. On 25 August 2012, Voyager 1 became the first to cross theheliopause and enter theinterstellar medium.[133]
Gould is a popular subject of biography and critical analysis. Philosophers such as Kingwell andGiorgio Agamben have interpreted his life and ideas.[134] References to Gould and his work are plentiful in poetry, fiction, and the visual arts.[135]François Girard'sGenie Award-winning 1993 filmThirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould includes interviews with people who knew him, dramatizations of scenes from his life, and fanciful segments including an animation set to music.Thomas Bernhard's 1983 novelThe Loser purports to be an extended first-person essay about Gould and his lifelong friendship with two fellow students from the Mozarteum school in Salzburg, both of whom have abandoned their careers as concert pianists due to the intimidating example of Gould's genius. The 2009 documentary filmGenius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould, byPeter Raymont andMichèle Hozer, also examines Gould's private and creative life, including his relationship with Foss.[136]
Gould left an extensive body of work beyond the keyboard. After retiring from concertising, 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 theelectronic age on media consumption. (Gould grew up in Toronto at the same time that Canadian theoristsMarshall McLuhan,Northrop Frye, andHarold Innis were making their mark on communications studies.)[137][138] Anthologies of Gould's writing and letters have been published, andLibrary and Archives Canada holds a significant portion of his papers.
In 1983, Gould was posthumously inducted into theCanadian Music Hall of Fame.[139] He was inducted intoCanada's Walk of Fame in Toronto in 1998, and designated aNational Historic Person in 2012.[140][141] Both his childhood home and his longtime apartment on Saint Clair Avenue West bearHeritage Toronto plaques honouring his life,[142] and a federal plaque was erected next to asculpture of him in downtown Toronto.[143] TheGlenn Gould Studio at theCanadian Broadcasting Centre in Toronto was named after him. To commemorate what would have been Gould's 75th birthday, theCanadian Museum of Civilization held an exhibition,Glenn Gould: The Sounds of Genius, in 2007. The multimedia exhibit was held in conjunction with Library and Archives Canada.[144]
TheGlenn Gould Foundation was established in Toronto in 1983 to honour Gould and keep alive his memory and life's work. 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", and its prime activity is the triennial awarding of theGlenn Gould Prize 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."[145] The prize consists ofCA$100,000 and the responsibility of awarding theCA$15,000 Glenn Gould Protégé Prize to a young musician of the winner's choice.
The Royal Conservatory of Music Professional School in Toronto adopted the nameThe Glenn Gould School in 1997 after its most famous alumnus.[146]
Gould received many honours both during his lifetime and posthumously. He was awarded the 1969Molson Prize, then worth C$15,000.[147] In 1970, the Canadian government offered him theCompanion of the Order of Canada, but he declined, believing himself too young.[148]
TheJuno Awards are presented annually by theCanadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Gould won three, accepting one in person.[149]
| Year | Award | Nominated work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | Best Classical Album of the Year | Hindemith: Das Marienleben (withRoxolana Roslak) | Won |
| 1981 | Best Classical Album of the Year | Bach Toccatas, Vol. 2 | Nominated |
| 1982 | Best Classical Album of the Year | Bach: Preludes. Fughettas & Fugues | Nominated |
| 1983 | Best Classical Album of the Year | Haydn: The Six Last Sonatas | Nominated |
| Bach: The Goldberg Variations | Won | ||
| 1984 | Best Classical Album of the Year | Brahms: Ballades Op. 10, Rhapsodies Op. 79 | Won |
TheGrammys are awarded annually by theNational Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Gould won four and, as with the Junos, accepted one in person.[150] In 1983 he was inducted posthumously into theGrammy Hall of Fame for his 1955 recording of theGoldberg Variations.[151]
| Year | Award | Nominated work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | Best Album Notes – Classical | Hindemith: Sonatas for Piano (Complete) | Won |
| 1982 | Best Classical Album | Bach: The Goldberg Variations (with producer Samuel H. Carter) | Won |
| Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without orchestra) | Bach: The Goldberg Variations | Won | |
| 1983 | Best Classical Performance – Instrumental Soloist or Soloists (without orchestra) | Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Nos. 12 & 13 | Won |
| 2013 | Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award[152] | Won |
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