Glenn Gould Reader

Rating:
Summary: brilliant
Review: Glenn Gould has occassionally been accused of being different just for the sake of being different. I believe this was not the case. Everything he did had a clear motive and this book lays out most of these motives. Besides being entertaining and stimulating reading, the Glenn Gould Reader contains a peek into the brilliant mind of the genius who created some of the greatest recordings of piano music of all time.

Rating:
Summary: A delighful collection of dissenting ideas.
Review: Glenn Gould has occassionally been accused of being different just for the sake of being different. I believe this was not the case. Everything he did had a clear motive and this book lays out most of these motives. Besides being entertaining and stimulating reading, the Glenn Gould Reader contains a peek into the brilliant mind of the genius who created some of the greatest recordings of piano music of all time.

Rating:
Summary: Not only a great musician, a great thinker
Review: Glenn Gould was one of the best piano players ever. But he not only achieved the highest level of virtuosity, he re-invented the music of Bach and other composers. He was not only faster than other musicians (as this is the trivial criteria of virtuosity), every of his interpretations contains a thought beyond the music. This book shows the world of Gould's thoughts beyond the music. It's almost pure philosophy of art, almost, because Gould doesn't want to create complex system, his points are straight. Two examples:
- "The determination of the value of a work of art according to the information available about it is a most delinquent form of aesthetic appraisal"
- "The computer repositories file away the memories of mankind and leave us free to be inventive in spite of them"
Makes you think, huh?
The book contains dozens of short texts written during many years, and are grouped into few parts:
1) Music - about Art of Fugue of course, Goldberg Variations, Beethoven, Schoenberg and Mozart. Deep look into the music.
2) Performance - Gould gave up live performances and was accused for eccentrism There was a good reason beyond this decision, figure out why he did it.
3) Glenn Gould interviews Glenn Gould. What? Yes, his interviewers weren't good enough, so he conducted an interview with himself.
4) Media - how recording has changed the perception and performance of music, Gould's favourite radio with explanation of the "Idea of North" and "Latecomers", exceptionally original radio pieces by Gould, comparable with the XX century avant-garde. Radio as music.
5) Miscellany.
Sometimes it requires quite good musical background and education, as Gould lets the music speak for itself, on paper, by reproducing notes. Sometimes it requires knowledge of this recordings, which he refers to. But most of it is about music per se, the universal language Gould mastered. Highly recommended to all people who believe in music.

Rating:
Summary: brilliant
Review: I disagree with most of the opinions expressed herein, yet I enjoyed all of them immensely. Glenn Gould was a brilliant pianist, an erudite and deep thinker, and a man with a very great knowledge of music.

He hated the Beatles, yet I think he and the Beatles unwittingly had a lot in common--as cultural phenomena, I mean. Gould and the Beatles were on top of their form and at the height of their popularity when they abruptly announced they would cease performing publicly, declaring the impersonal--and arguably "de-humanizing"--medium of recording to be the true art form of the present and future. In this collection Gould derisively calls the Beatles's "Strawberry Fields Forever" "Monteverdi played by a jug band", not realizing it was created much the same way that Gould explains (elsewhere in this collection) he was wont to create his own works: by splicing together radically different recorded snippets.

Also recommended: PENTATONIC SCALES FOR THE JAZZ-ROCK KEYBOARDIST by Jeff Burns.