Glenn Gould (22 page)
Authors: Mark Kingwell
99
GGR,
p. 358.
100
GGR,
p. 355.
101
GGR,
p. 353.
102
Notably that of Scarborough native Mike Myers: see
Shrek
and its sequels, the
Austin Powers
movies,
So I Married an Axe Murderer,
and justly forgotten
Saturday Night Live
sketches about a store that sells only Scottish items, including the inherently hilarious foodstuff haggis.
103
All quotations here are my transcriptions from the audio disc and liner notes.
104
He is called Teddy Slotz in Jonathan Cott's 1974 conversation with Gould about the “doppelgänger syndrome” and tricksterism running through Gould's thought (first published in
Rolling Stone
magazine). Cott hazards that Slutz/Slotz is a takeoff of Lorin Hollander, the celebrated American pianist and conductor. Gould insists on his New York cabdriver provenance. To my ear, the closest cultural analogue is a somewhat obscure one: Slutz sounds like the drunken occult writer Sidney Redlitch, played by Ernie Kovacs in the 1958 witch-love comedy
Bell, Book, and Candle
(d. Richard Quine).
105
Online amazon.com review.
106
GGR,
p. 399.
107
Herbert Fingarette, “Insanity and Responsibility,”
Inquiry
15 (1972): 6â29.
108
GGR,
p. 309.
109
The psychologist Jordan Peterson suggested this reading of Elvis Presley at a conference on new classical music (Royal Ontario Museum, 2005); the reading of Hughes as driven mad by postmodernity is nicely portrayed in Steven Carter's novel
I Was Howard Hughes
(New York: Bloomsbury, 2003).
110
GGR,
p. 47.
111
The story is that Cage made his first version of the remark during a lecture about Erik Satie at Black Mountain College, North Carolina, in 1950. He then repeated it often, notably to the poet John Ashbery during a Manhattan cocktail party; Ashbery spread the tale further. In
The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century
(New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2008), music critic Alex Ross's accessible account of music's later development, Cage's view is discussed as part of a general avant-gardiste turn in the United States during the 1950s; see ch. 14.
112
My transcription of the liner notes; also
GGR,
p. 13.
113
GGR,
p. 447.
114
GGR,
p. 246, as part of the general argument of the 1962 essay “Let's Ban Applause,” first published in the journal
Musical America;
also quoted in Payzant,
Glenn Gould,
p. 64.
115
This promise may be disappointing as well as moving: see, for example, Alexander Nehemas,
Only a Promise of Happiness: The Place of Beauty in a World of Art
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007) and, for an optimistic but finally unconvincing extension of the argument, Elaine Scarry,
On Beauty and Being Just
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999).
In writing about this remarkable artist I have tried to create a vision of his thought suitable to the contradictions and complicated pleasures of the post-historical world. Along the way I have been aided by many works: several useful biographies of the narrative kind, especially Kevin Bazzana,
Wondrous Strange: The Life and Art of Glenn Gould
(2004); Otto Friedrich,
Glenn Gould: A Life and Variations
(1989; 2002); and (advisedly) Peter Ostwald,
Glenn Gould: The Ecstasy and Tragedy of Genius
(1998); the indispensable
Glenn Gould Reader
(1984), edited by Tim Page; Jonathan Cott,
Conversations with Glenn Gould
(1984); and the illuminating early philosophical study by the late Geoffrey Payzant,
Glenn Gould, Music and Mind
(1978; 1984). I have not attempted to document, let alone assess, the vast volume of scholarly Gouldiana that grows by the year, but various books and articles of larger philosophical interest are cited in Sources.
My thanks to Diane Turbide at Penguin Canada and general editor John Ralston Saul for the opportunity to be part of the Extraordinary Canadians series. Esther Shubert provided extremely valuable aid with research, permissions, and proofing. The Glenn Gould Estate and Key Porter Books were generous with permission to quote directly from
Gould's published writings. Discussions with many friends have been useful, sometimes especially when not explicitly about music. A conversation and performance by Angela Hewitt in February 2009 clarified for me the ways in which interpreting J.S. Bach is so challenging and rewarding.
Small portions of this work appeared first in
The Globe and Mail
and in volume ten of
Alphabet City: Suspect
(Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2006). Audiences at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto (2005), Groningen University in the Netherlands (2008), Trinity College, University of Toronto (2008), and Cornell University (2009) listened patiently to early versions of some ideas and offered valuable feedback. Finally, my students in several recent seminars on philosophy of art have been important and I would like to think mostly willing participants in thinking about the mystery that is music. Thank you all.
All the words in this book were composed with Gould's music audible in the background. I do not count that as
listening
, except merely factually; but it may be understood as an optimistic osmotic gesture. Listening to Gould in a real senseâthat is, playing every recorded piece of his at least three times and some, such as the 1981
Goldberg Variations
and his single Byrd and Gibbons disc, too many times to countâhas been the great gift of this project. In 2007
Columbia Records released a boxed compact disc set of every LP Gould recorded for them, reproduced with facsimile covers. This treasure is something no Gould fan can be without; in a perfect world a version of it would accompany each copy of this book.
| 1932 | Glenn Herbert Gould is born on September 25 to Russell Herbert Gould and Florence Emma Gould in their home at 32 Southwood Drive in the Beach, Toronto. He is their only child. |
| 1938 | At the age of five, Gould gives his first public performance for the thirtieth-anniversary celebration of the Business Men's Bible Class (of which Bert Gould was a member) in Uxbridge, Ontario, on June 5. He also accompanied his parents' vocal duet. |
| 1945 | Gould makes his professional debut on organ at the Eaton Auditorium on December 12, playing Mendelssohn's Sonata no. 6, the Concerto Movement by Dupuis, and the Fugue in F Minor by J.S. Bach. |
| 1946 | After passing both his piano exams in June 1945, with the highest marks of any candidate, and his written theory exams, Gould is awarded the Associate diploma at the Toronto Conservatory of Music (later the Royal Conservatory of Music) on October 28. |
| On May 8 Gould gives his first performance with an orchestra, playing the first movement of Beethoven's Concerto no. 4 at Massey Hall with the Conservatory Symphony Orchestra. | |
| 1947 | Gould makes his professional debut on piano in the Secondary School Concerts series on January 14 and 15 with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, playing all four movements of Beethoven's Concerto no. 4. |
| On October 20, Gould makes his official recital debut as a professional pianist at Eaton Auditorium as part of the International Artists series; the recital includes works by Scarlatti, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, and Mendelssohn. | |
| 1949 | At age sixteen, Gould has his original work played in public for the first time, during a student performance of Twelfth Night by the Malvern Drama Club on February 18; he plays his own piano suite. |
| 1950 | On December 24 at 10:30 A.M. on the CBC, Gould gives his first professional radio broadcast, playing a Mozart sonata in B-flat Major [K 281] and a Hindemith Sonata in B-f lat, op. 37. Gould recalled this event as the beginning of his “love affair with the microphone.” |
| 1952 | The first public performance of the Goldberg Variations is broadcast on the CBC on June 21. |
| 1953 | Gould tapes his first commercial recording, of Berg's Sonata, at the Bloor Street United Church with Hallmark Records on November 3; this is also his first opportunity to publish writing, in the form of liner notes. |
| 1955 | Gould has his American debuts, in Washington, D.C. (January 2), and New York City (January 11), playing works by Gibbons, Sweenlinck, Webern, Beethoven, Berg, and J.S. Bach. The day after the New York performance, David Oppenheim, director of artists and repertoire for Columbia Records' Masterworks division, contacts Gould's manager to offer Gould an exclusive recording contractâthe first time Columbia signs an artist based on one hearing. |
| Gould signs a three-year contract with Columbia on May 1, making him the first Canadian to sign with this label; he announces that he wants his first recording to be of the Goldberg Variations . | |
| Gould records the Goldberg Variations in Columbia's 30th Street studios from June 10 to 15. Even before the album is released, word of Gould's talent and eccentricities spreads: the disc becomes the most anticipated recording debut in classical-music history. | |
| 1956 | The Goldberg Variations is released in Januaryâ an instant popular and critical success. |
| On May 21, the world premiere of Gould's String Quartet in F Minor, op. 1, written between April 1953 and October 1955, is performed by the Montreal String Quartet on CBC's French radio network. | |
| 1957 | During the summer, Gould embarks on his first overseas tour, beginning in the Soviet Union, the first Canadian musician and the first pianist from North America to appear in post-Stalinist Russia. His performances in Moscow and Leningrad are overwhelming successes. Among other stops Gould also performs in Berlin with the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Herbert von Karajan. |
| 1958 | After the first performance, in Salzburg, of Gould's second overseas tour in late summer through to winter, he complains of a cold due to the air conditioning. He feels well enough to perform in Brussels, Berlin, and Stockholm but cancels all performances for October, citing bronchitis. Later he describes his month-long stay in Hamburg as the best month of his life. |
| 1959 | During Gould's December 8 visit to Steinway in New York, chief technician William Hupfer playfully slaps Gould on the back. Soon after, Gould begins complaining of a major injury and begins daily orthopedic and chiropractic treatments. He also cancels three months of concerts, including a European tour scheduled for February 1960, and files suit against the company and Hupfer, demanding $300,000 in personal damages. |
| 1960 | Gould gives his first Canadian public performance of Schoenberg's Piano Concerto with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in December. |
| 1962 | On August 8, Gould broadcasts his first attempt at a radio documentary, Arnold Schoenberg: The Man Who Changed Music, on the CBC. |
| 1964 | Gould's last public performance is on April 10, a recital in Los Angeles, where he plays four fugues from Bach's The Art of the Fugue and the Partita no. 4 in D Major, Beethoven's Opus 109, and Hindemith's Third Sonata. |
| 1965 | In June, Gould takes CN Rail's Muskeg Express to Churchill, Manitoba; while aboard he meets and befriends Wally Maclean, a retired surveyor. The trip becomes the inspiration for “The Idea of North.” |
| 1967 | “The Idea of North ” is aired December 28 on the CBC Radio program Ideas . “The Latecomers ” (1969), about Newfoundland, and “Quiet in the Land ” (1977), about Mennonites, complete the so-called Solitude Trilogy . |
| 1974 | Gould wins the only Grammy awarded in his lifetime, for Best Album NotesâClassical ( Hindemith: Sonatas for Piano, performed by Glenn Gould). |
| 1975 | On July 26 Gould's mother dies of a stroke at eighty-three; unable to overcome anxiety about hospital visits, Gould has final conversations with her by telephone. |
| 1979 | Gould's film about Toronto, including a scene of him singing Mahler to the elephants at the Toronto Zoo, debuts on September 29. |
| 1979 | Gould and French director Bruno Monsaingeon begin filming a projected six-part work, Glenn Gould Plays Bach . |
| The first Sony Walkman portable cassette tape player is available for sale. | |
| 1980 | The Glenn Gould Silver Jubilee Album is released in August, celebrating his twenty-fifth year as a Columbia recording artist; it includes the bizarre piece “A Glenn Gould Fantasy.” |
| 1981 | Over six studio sessions from April through May, Gould rerecords and films the Goldberg Variations as the third instalment in Glenn Gould Plays Bach; the film is shown in France on January 2, 1982. |
| 1982 | Gould completes his last recording sessions, of Wagner's Siegfried Idyll, at St. Lawrence Hall in Toronto from July 27 to 29. |
| Gould's second recording of the Goldberg Variations is released in September. | |
| Gould suffers a severe headache and is admitted to the Toronto General Hospital at 8:44 P.M. on September 27; the preliminary diagnosis is a stroke with left-side paralysis caused by a blood clot. | |
| On October 4, after Gould experiences further complications and evidence of brain damage is discovered, Gould's father decides to withdraw life support; Glenn Gould is pronounced dead at 11 A.M. | |
| Compact discs become commercially available in October. | |
| 1983 | Glenn Gould is inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. He wins a posthumous 1982 Grammy Award for Best Classical Album ( Bach: The Goldberg Variations ) and Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without orchestra) ( Bach: The Goldberg Variations ). |
| 1984 | Gould wins a third posthumous Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without orchestra) ( Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Nos. 12 and 13 ). |
| 1989 | In April, the first patent is issued for MP3 format for compression of digital audio files. |
| 1999 | Starting in February, independent record company SubPop Records is the first to distribute music tracks in MP3 format. |
| Apple introduces the iPod portable MP3 player in November. | |
| 2007 | On the seventy-fifth anniversary of Gould's birth and the twenty-fifth of his death, worldwide iPod sales top 100 million units. |
