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GG: Competition
Hello!
Well, like Roy, I have been a subscriber for a couple of months and I
have been waiting for a chance to jump in somewhere. Here it is! :)
Well, while I am a great admirer of Gould, his extraordinary talents, his
brilliant recordings, his artistic integrity and witty approach to music
and life, I disagree with him on many of his thoughts about music and
music-making, particularly his thoughts on competition. Personally, I
enjoy competition and performing live, for that matter. That adrenaline rush
you get before you go on, when your throat goes dry and you have this feeling
in the pit of your stomach...it's hard to describe...anybody else had these
feelings before? It's frightening, but it's also empowering. I find that
performing for people brings out the best in me. True, there's always
that cut-throat, win-at-all-costs mentality shows up sometimes in a
couple of people in competition, but the majority of the people that I
have met in competitions are willing to share their ideas, discuss the
choices they made in their performances, and are just all-round friendly and
nice :)
I've also had a couple of opportunities to do some recording too. Not a
big studio recording or anything, but I can see the positives that Gould
emphasized throughout his career - the fact that you can record and re-record
until you find the exact performance you want, that you have no pressure
except that which you put on yourself, etc. But when I listen to those
and compare them to the ones I did live, there's always something
missing. Even on the "un-live" ones I was really happy with, there's
something that's not there, some spark. I think that adrenaline does
something for you! :) Anybody else had this experience?
But, as I say, I am a great fan of Gould's and I enjoy reading his
essays, especially when I disagree with him :) Thank you all for being
as, or more "obsessed" (as my friends say) with him as I am! <grin>
Christy Leung
christle@unixg.ubc.ca