Re: GG: Humming

[PROMONDE@aol.com]

Its not what you play, how you play it or who is playing it. It is about what 
you like. 

Glenn built his niche. He "recomposed" or finished composing what he thought 
the music was supposed to make you feel as well as hear. 

So what if he used it as "cues".  When he arrived; everyone was doing Chopin, 
Rach', and Liszt . How many were doing Bach? Very few. And on the piano? 
Fewer still!  He chose composers that matched his interests, talent and 
comfort levels. Sure there is a large; What if? factor to his recorded work.  
But how much Horowitz Bach is there? Or Van Cliburn Bach? I don't hear anyone 
giving short shrift to those gapping holes.

Sometimes I feel as if people wish to hear his Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninof of 
Chopin, just to see if he could "do it". Some seem to imply that they think 
it would be awful and only wish it existed so they could heap more criticism 
on someone whose Mozart was a joke they "didn't get." 

I feel like Glenn's playing stands out as fresh, exciting, controversial and 
always, always, Glenn.  It is as if he knew what would ring "my" bell and get 
me to pay attention. Apparently, so do many other listeners.  If someone 
wants to appreciate the technical or accuracy merits of another artists, then 
that is fine too.

Regarding his singing along? So he broke a few rules. Again, there are 
hundreds of recordings by people who don't sing along. I am sure that many of 
them offer equal if not superior playing minus the "nasal continuo", but how 
many of them, are people arguing over.  If it were possible for the "Singing 
Contrapuntist" to appear: How many of us would trample over each other to be 
the first in the door? How many current artist's would elicit that response 
for an upcoming concert if they advertised: "Guaranteed, No Singing, Just 
Piano" ?

There is so much music, played by so many great artists, all reading through 
the same rose colored glasses of fealty to the printed note. Don't you think 
that there might be some room for  a Glenn Gould with the ability to read the 
same pages through a kaleidoscope.? We should all feel a little grateful that 
there was,  just so we could have options on how we hear and feel  about the 
same old stuff. 

In any case, he was probably the first to realize the "phenomena"of Glenn 
Gould before anyone else and did his best to exploit that particular option 
available to his career. 

He paved the way for subsequent artists in the classical world to take 
advantage of each successive advance in new media, as it became available. 
And in doing so, not only Glenn, but many other artists learned the 
importance of exploiting their personae into lasting images of visual and 
auditory programming of historical importance.  

Which is why we spend time tapping out passionate messages to each other .

I hope this adds something constructive to the debate.