Disclaimer: So what exactly do I know about Glenn Gould? Not very much. Would you learn a lot about him browsing this site? I don't know. That depends. If you totally don't know who Glenn Gould is, chances are you wouldn't be here anyways. If you think you've heard the name before and are interested in learning more about him, read on. If you're like me in being appreciative of Glenn Gould's many talents and know a thing or two, please bear with me, pardon my relative ignorance, and please enlighten me to further sources of info on him. If you've written biographies about Glenn Gould, I'm sorry, my website won't live up to your expectations, unfortunately...
So who is Glenn Gould? He is arguably one of the greatest pianists that Canada has ever produced. Glenn Gould (1932-1982) first achieved fame with his recording of J.S. Bach's "Goldberg Variations" with the now defunct Columbia Masterworks (CBS, now Sony Classcial), and went on to enjoy a tremendously successful career as a concert pianist while he was still in his 20's. Associated with his piano playing were a number of habits often considered eccentric, such as humming along with the music and always carrying his own piano chair to his performances, among others. These did not prevent him from winning international acclaim as a pianist, however, and Gould retired from the concert hall at the age of 32. He continued to record music for CBS, his extensive discography including works by composers from Beethoven to Brahms to Hetu to Schoenberg to Wagner. Gould is, however, perhaps best known for his rendition by J.S. Bach's keyboard/piano music.
In addition to his career as a recording artist, Gould composed a number of works, both vocal and instrumental, and was a prolific writer of scholarly and critical work. Gould was also intrigued by the use of media technologies (and in particular, the radio, with which he and his contemporaries grew up) to communicate ideas. Influenced by the contrapuntal nature of Bach's music, Gould became interested in the human ear's ability to process several things simultaneously, for which he wrote and produced the "Solitude Trilogy" radio documentaries where the listener is subject to multiple ongoing dialogues, speeches, or sounds at the same time. The writing of the documentaries was invested with the same intensity and energy that went into his musical compositions, and in a way, his documentaries were works of music.
Despite his untimely death at the age of 50, Glenn Gould has left behind him a rich legacy of music recordings and compositions, radio documentaries, and essays, which serves to provide a glimpse into the life of this remarkable genius and is sure to inspire many generations of artists, writers, and thinkers to come.
CBC Radio Two recently aired a special documentary on Glenn Gould, entitled "Theme and Variations: the Radio Documentaries of Glenn Gould" by Eiten Cornfield, as part of CBC's Special Series "Great Canadian Performers of the 20th Century". If you have RealPlayer, you can listen to most of it HERE. You can also view CBC Radio Two In Performance's listing for the documentary.
I have included below an excerpt from Glenn Gould's interview with journalist Eric McLean in 1956, copied from the above website.
[beginning of excerpt]
Eric McLean: You've been signed by the New York Philharmonic, you have the Berlin Philharmonic after you -- how many orchestras from the States?
Glenn Gould: Half a dozen of the major ones.
McLean: For most people, they have good reason to feel they've arrived when they reach this state of affairs. How do you feel about it?
Gould: Well, I think it's very nice that this has happened, and happened so suddenly, in a way. I only am a little bit afraid at this point that -- if this career keeps on growing, as far as the performance aspect is concerned -- that it's going to very seriously interfere with what I really want to do, which is to compose. At the moment, I can already see signs of this happening, because my time seems to be getting …
McLean: You mean that if the piano interfered seriously enough with your career as a composer, about which most people don't know anything, you would be prepared to give it up?
Gould: Definitely -- if it could be done, if it is feasible financially and so on, I would definitely give it up.
McLean: You'd give up the piano, and devote yourself entirely to composing?
Gould: I've long aimed to retire at 26 anyway! [laughs] The deadline is getting close, you know?
McLean: All right, let's talk about your retirement, then. At 26, you retire and you start to compose. You must have some project as a composer in mind.
Gould: I have a lot of projects in mind. One which I have had in the talking stage for almost two years is an opera for television, which is still not really out of the talking stage, I'm afraid.
[end of excerpt]
And of course, included below are several links to other websites about Glenn Gould. Please check them out!
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Site last updated on February 9, 2001.
© 2001 by Mannie