Re: GG: GG as vocalist

[Arin Murphy <la_murph@alcor.concordia.ca>]

I'm with you all - I wouldn't get rid of the humming for anything. (I 
thought there was something wrong with my CD player when I first heard it!)

I read somewhere (and being a good student I usually look up the refernce 
for you all, but I'm just too lazy right now) that Gould explained his 
vocalising as his uncontrollable attempts to make up for the inadequacy 
of the instrument he was playing. Hence the reason the humming varies 
from recording to recording. He used different pianos for different 
composers when he could, and if he had to `make do', he compensated for 
the piano's shortcomings by singing. He did admit that he tried to stop 
once or twice, but the concentration it took to control himself took away 
from the music he was playing and he got all muddled up. I too am working 
on a theory on why he found it necessary to communicate some of the 
music himself, via human voice - has something to do with words, I think, 
and the medium Gould was communicating with, but it's not quite formed yet.

Voila - my two cents have been spent.

PS - I'd love to have a copy of The Chair! What an incredibly wacky, 
useless but must-have object! And I wouldn't be surprised if there were 
several more of us lurking about, in and outside of the list, who feel 
the same!

 Arin Murphy
 Concordia University, Montreal
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The absolute requirements of literary labour not unfrequently compel an 
irregular distribution of time, and with it irregular social and moral 
habits. (J.W. Kaye)