Re: GG: "The Pilgrim Pianist"

[aq094@lafn.org (Eugene Selig)]

Great stuff. I'm suprised at the reference to GG's "brown" hair. In  
a book published after his demise, Leonard Bernstein reflected upon the 
incident when the 24 year-old GG visited LB and a very pregnant Mrs. LB, 
during which visit Mrs. B. summarily shampooed GG's unkempt BLOND hair. 
She even CUT it! 
 



>
>
>	It's now been about a year since f_minor began and our
>conversation has covered much ground. In an effort to keep things
>fresh, I'll quote from time to time, passages of articles and reviews that
>present unique viewpoints on Gould, his ideas and his art.  This week,
>I've chosen an article that has made me consider the packaging of
>Gould as a celebrity.  
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>From "The Pilgrim Pianist" by Sanford Scwartz in _The New Republic_ (1984)
>
>	"When Gould became internationally prominent (he was in his
>early 20's) he was an awkward, gangling kid, and he was also
>extraordinarily handsome.  Part of the incredible success of his 1955
>debut album, the 'Goldberg Variations'-- one of the industry's
>best-selling classical music disks-- was due to Dan Weiner's album
>jacket photos, which showed Gould in different stages of recording.
>With his high cheekbones and long brown hair, he was a budding matinee
>model..."
>
>	"...Gould's public couldn't help seeing him as a rebel. (In
>pictures of him in _Variations_ where he waits during a pause in the
>recording session, or reads at the piano, he's reminiscent of the
>surly young Brando.)"
>
>	"As a theorist, [Gould] is a combination of mystic, futurist,
>and the take-charge leader of a boy's adventure story.  He's like a
>hip Mountie, and you may find yourself drawn to him even while being
>uncertain about his ideas."
>
>	"...there is another story in the [Glenn Gould Reader], one
>that is inferred.  I heard someone concocting an elaborate myth for
>himself.  I had the image of a child who is born with a great gift--
>an unthinking command of the keyboard, an effortless ability to read
>and feel music-- and who is mystified and troubled by this gift and
>proud of it. Looked at in one way, Gould's story is about the burdens
>that a prodigy may feel and the way he comes to live with his genius.
>It is a story about a person who, never believing that he has earned
>his universally admired power, first begins to deny that it means
>much, then to sabotage the system that supports it, and finally to
>envision a world in which such a superstar doesn't exist."
>
>	"He frequently recorded works that shift quickly back and
>forth between the high-flying and the sorrowful, and though it doesn't
>sum up his range, he often conveys the state of a man who is
>alternately elated and under some kind of gun."
>
>	"Beginning in the mid-60's, he sometimes appeared distant and
>disapproving on album jacket photos, as if to announce that he didn't
>want us to buy his records because he was his own glamourous selling
>point.  In his last jacket photos he seems impatient, angry at himself
>and at us, and his face and his eyes look worn out.
>
>	[on the Monsaingeon film of the Goldbergs] "...the most
>defined part of him is his dark, heavy-rimmed glasses, and they make
>no sense, not only because he generally didn't wear glasses but
>because he isn't, after all, reading music; he usually played with his
>eyes closed.  The glasses don't seem to be there to help him see out;
>they're more like the lid on a bottle that seals off what's in the
>bottle..."
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Comments?
>
>-Mary Jo,
>mwatts@rci.rutgers.edu
>
>