A Glimpse into Glenn Gould
Glenn Gould was a renowned Canadian pianist, born in Toronto in 1932, where he lived until his death in 1982. Among the words that have been commonly used to describe Gould include “unorthodox”, “eccentric”, and “idiosyncratic”.
Referring, oftentimes, to both his character and his approach to music (to the extent that these are separable), Gould was indeed remembered for being unconventional in a multitude of ways. He was dismissive of early Romantic composers (e.g. vowing never to record Chopin, as he was, in his opinion, “[not] a very good composer” (Page, 1984, 34)), but an intensive pursuer of J. S. Bach. He frequently made unusual interpretative decisions, such as playing Mozart at a tempo significantly faster or slower than the norm, or playing Bach preludes staccato where most others have played it legato (to the chagrin of his critics and delight of his fans). He made it foremost his mission to assert his prerogatives as a performer, rather than adhere closely to established theoretical or historically-oriented notions of how particular musical works ought to be played.
Gould made one of his most momentous statements when in 1962, he stopped giving live concerts altogether. From that point on, he resolved that the only access the public would ever again have to his piano performances are those that he decided to release on record. Gould’s retirement from the concert hall and retreat into the recording studio seemed to have been founded on both pragmatic and philosophical grounds. On one level, he simply disliked the physical toll that concert touring took on his body, and on another level, he was deeply enthusiastic of the ideals he thought the various emerging innovations in audio and recording technology embodied. Musical engagement that consisted predominantly of producing and listening to records (rather than attending live performances), Gould seemed to think, would endow both the artist and the audience with greater creative control. The ‘Gouldian strand’ of this joint project thus seeks in particular to examine Gould’s optimistic outlook toward technology and the new kinds of musical cultures he seemed to think would jointly arise from its development.