[f_minor] The Idea of North -- GG's Winnipeg-to-Churchill MNwilderness train in a few weeks! Polar bears! Aurora!

[Jörgen Lundmark]

Hello Mary,

Thank you for the Night Train links. A truly brilliant film in every 
respect. But I can't really see the connection with the IoN. The latter 
is a contrapuntal voice exercise, with actual interviews being used (no 
matter where they were conducted; the idea of something actually taking 
place at a certain place is in this kind of work secondary in my 
opinion). The former has a direct, but very effective use of meter and 
pulse, in the latter something much more complicated is attempted. You 
can argue whether Gould was successful in his attempt -- I haven't 
decided yet -- but it is a completely different genre than the "Night 
Train". Also it is problematic to compare film and radio. Auden is one 
of the great poets of the 20th century, Gould is a documentary maker 
with an idea to combine the form with musical thinking. And of course he 
worked in a tradition, following the ideas proposed by others.

I have to disagree with you as far as this appraisal of Gould's spoken 
activities. You might just be right about the Serling connection. I 
can't tell since we in Sweden didn't grew up with "The Twilight Zone". 
Still there is marked difference between that albeit effective, but 
rather stereotypic voice quality of Serling and Gould's very personal 
character of voice. Even more importantly, Gould had humour which you 
cannot accuse Serling of having. Gould's nervous stutter, and at the 
same time charming and warm might be words to use when describing it. He 
did use over long sentences, he did make mistakes and he did obscure 
simple statements with very convoluted expressions and he did use a 
script. But that is part of the package, that is what makes it so personal.

One instance where Gould's voice does have a specific impact on me is 
part of the radio essay "In Search for Petual Clark". The transition 
from the babbling radio presenter and the actual presentation of the 
song is to me magical. And that has very little do with Serling.

We have discussed the pros and cons of "32 Short films..." before. It is 
a very problematic film. As far as performing Gould, Feor is very 
impressive. Apart from one aspect: the voice. Without that specific part 
of the GG persona something is very much missing.

Regards,
Jorgen

On Fri, Sep 21, 2012 at 8:11 PM, maryellen jensen 
<maryellenjensen28 at hotmail.com <mailto:maryellenjensen28 at hotmail.com>> 
wrote:


    "And none will hear the postman's knock
      Without a quickening of the heart
      For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?"

      - W.H. Auden(1936)

      Another, older, better *_train_ *of thought

      When Glenn Gould was 4 years old living at "The Beaches" district
    of Toronto Canada, there happened to be a great English poet Wystan
    Hugh Auden and a great English composer, conductor, pianist Benjamin
    Britten who, working with/for John Grierson (later to head Canada's
    NFB) created one of the most breathtaking, original documentaries
    ever: "Night Mail" - 1936 - *starring a train* (see "Night Mail"
    Wikipedia): "According to F. Hardy's biography of Grierson, "Auden
    wrote the verse on a trial and error basis. It had to be cut to fit
    the visuals, edited by R. Q. McNaughton, working with Cavalcanti and
    Wright. Many lines were discarded, ending as crumpled fragments in
    the wastepaper basket. Some of Auden's verbal images -- the rounded
    Scottish hills 'heaped like slaughtered horses' -- were too strong
    for the film but what was retained made Night Mail as much a film
    about loneliness and companionship as about the collection and
    delivery of letters. It was that difference that made it a work of
    art."

      For those who have never seen "Night Mail" before now, you're in
    for the ride of your life: "the gradient's against her but she's on
    time":

    - this is the finale of the film featuring Auden/Britten:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gmq6mFAEqNQ

    - this is the entire film (all 22 magical minutes of it):

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkLoDg7e_ns&feature=related


      Trains. Distance. The Post. Connections.

      Nuncle Pat and Bob, I'm not at all thrilled with Idea of North as
    a work of anything. Gould's tiresome alliteration and tone of voice
    annoy me to the point of distraction. Forget Bill Burroughs (who I
    have met and have heard 'reading' live) - Gould saw far too many
    episodes of _Roger Serling_'s "The Twilight Zone" and for some
    unfortunate reason or other decided to adopt Serling's "tone of
    voice" throughout all of his (Gould's) documentaries be they film or
    radio. I laugh because it's so utterly dreadful; all that's missing
    is Serling's cigarette and accompanying curls of smoke. I love Rod
    Serling for his slightly mad gravitas presenting the weird of life
    but GG was a rank amateur and noone dared tell him to cut it out.
    Who was it that said "but then he would play and it would be
    alright" or words to that effect?? (from Bazzana's book) Well
    whoever it was was a real friend of GG's although GG wouldn't have
    even known it.

    So now crucify me,

    Mary

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