Glenn Gould Reader

As a pianist, Glenn Gould was both a showman and a high priest, an artist whose devotion to music was so great that he eschewed the distractions of live performance. That same combination of flamboyance and aesthetic rigor may be found in this collection of Gould’s writings, which covers composers from Bach to Terry Riley, performers from Arthur Rubinstein to Petula Clark, and yields unfettered and often heretical opinions on music competitions, the limitations of live audiences, and the relationship between technology and art. Witty, emphatic, and finely honed, The Glenn Gould Reader presents its author in all his guises as an impassioned artist, an omnivorous listener, and an astute and deeply knowledgeable critic.   The Glenn Gould Reader abounds with the literary voice of one of the most extraordinary musical talents of our time. Whether Gould’s subject is Boulez, Stokowski, Streisand, or his own highly individual thoughts on the performance and creation of music, the reader will be caught up in his intensity, intelligence, passion and devotion. For those who never knew him, this book will be a particular treasure as a companion to his recordings and as the delicious discovery of a new friend.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments       Introduction      PROLOGUE: Advice to a Graduation            PART ONE: Music                                                                         William Byrd and Orlando Gibbons                   Domenico Scarlatti                                           Art of the Fugue The “Goldberg” Variations Bodky on Bach Of Mozart and Related Matters: Glenn Gould in Conversation with Bruno     Monsaingeon Glenn Gould Interviews Himself About Beethoven         Beethoven’s Pathétique, “Moonlight,” and “Appassionata” Sonatas Beethoven’s Last Three Piano Sonatas Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in the Piano:  Four Imaginary Reviews Some Beethoven and Bach Concertos N’aimez-Vous Pas Brahms?     Should We Dig Up the Rare Romantics?. . . No, They’re Only a Fad Piano Music by Greig and Bizet, with a Confidental Caution to Critics Data Bank on the Upward-Scuttling Mahler An Argument for Richard Strauss Strauss and the Electronic Future Richard Strauss’s Enoch Arden The Piano Music of Sibelius     Arnold Schoenberg—A Perspective The Piano Music of Arnold Schoenberg Piano Concertos by Mozart and Schoenberg     Arnold Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony No. 2  A Hawk, a Dove, and a Rabbit Called Franz Josef        Hindermith: Will His Time Come? Again? A Tale of Two Marienlebens Piano Sonatas by Scriabin Prokfiev       Music in the Soviet Union The Ives Fourth            A Festschrift for “Ernst Who???” Piano Music of Berg, Schoenberg, and Krenek Korngold and the Crisis of the Piano Sonata Canadian Piano Music in the Twentieth Century The Dodecacophonist’s Dilemma Boulez The Future and “Flat-Foot Floogie” Terry Riley Gould’s String Quartet, Op. 1 So You Want to Write a Fugue?   PART TWO: Performance   Let’s Ban Applause! We Who Are About to Be Disqualified Salute You! The Pyschology of Improvisation Critics Stokowski in Six Scenes Rubinstein Memories of Maude Harbour, or Variations on a Theme of Arthur     Rubinstein Yehudi Menuhin The Search for Petula Clark Streisand as Schwarzkopf   INTERLUDE: Glenn Gould Interviews Glenn Gould About Glenn     Gould   PART THREE: Media   The Prospects of Recording Music and Technology The Grass Is Always Greener in the Outtakes:  An Experiment in Listening “Oh, for heaven’s sake. Cynthia, there must be something else on!” Radio as Music: Glenn Gould in Conversation with John Jessop Prologue from “The Idea of North” “The Idea of North”: An Introduction “The Latecomers”: An Introduction                                                                                                 PART FOUR: Miscellany Three Articles Published Under the Pseudonym Dr. Herbert von     Hochmeister Toronto Conference at Port Chillkoot     Fact, Fancy, or Psychohistory: Notes from the P.D.Q Underground The Record of the Decade Rosemary’s Babies A Desert Island Discography   The Film Slaughterhouse Five A Biography of Glenn Gould       CODA: Glenn Could in Conversation with Tim Page   Index  

About the Author :
Tim Page's photography career began in Laos, where at the age of 18 he covered the civil war for UPI. He photographed the war in Vietnam for the Associated Press, UPI, and Paris Match. He was wounded four times, the final time almost fatally. He returned to England in 1979 and was the subject of the BBC film Mentioned in Dispatches. His search to discover the fate of his friends Sean Flynn and Dana Stone, who disappeared in Cambodia, was the subject of another film, Darkness at the Edge of Town, in 1991, more than 20 years after they vanished. Page's return to Cambodia led him to found the Indochina Media Memorial Foundation in 1994 and was the genesis of Requiem. His books include Tim Page's Nam (1983), Sri Lanka (1984), Ten Years After (1987), Page after Page (1988), Derailed in Uncle Ho's Garden (1990), and Mid-Term Report (1995).