Re: GG: Lacrimosa: Physiology and the Arts...

[KImmoor@aol.com]

>On the conscious level, the mind is already familiar with the form and
structure of the music. It has memorized the music and anticipates its many
magical moments. But to complete the perception, the music is also received
by the parser. ...the parser never remembers. What it hears, it hears for the
first time.<
   Now this I find truly fascinating! Where is this essay published, and is
it available to the casual reader or do I need to find the rare library that
stocks "The Journal Of The Micro-Neuro Musicologist, v.IV"? I am always
intrigued by theories on human memory storage, and I think the concept of an
eternally enthusiastic and fresh-faced parser is very attractive indeed. How
else would we keep from becoming unbearably jaded? 
   Just think of how many routines, objects, and sensory stimuli we
automatically ignore or write off because we think we know them by heart -
how many more we would also pass over were it not for the heavenly parser!
There must be some sort of barometer for how well someone's parser works...
but I wonder if there is any way to distinguish between that level of
effectiveness and the intervention of personal preferrence. Say, for
instance, that I find listening to the Macarena to be tedious and uneventful,
and I have always felt thus. My coworker, on the other hand, thinks the song
is a hoot every single time. Is my parser not kicking in, or do I just have
better taste than my companion?  (You didn't think I was going to let a good
opportunity to slam the Macarena go to waste, did ya?) 
   Which reminds me! While cruising around the classical music Usenet groups
I ran into a bizarre volley of mail that ran the header "Gould Bashing". Sure
enough, that's what it was! Not very learned stuff though; one person slammed
Gould for "squelching the voice of the instrument," whatever that meant
(probably a Horowitz groupie ;-) and for "playing the piano as though it were
a harpsichord." I found the last remark somewhat humorous in light of the
harsh critiques GG got after releasing the Handel Harps. Suites, from critics
who said he played the harpsichord like a piano!
   Incidentally, while listening to the Beethoven Cello Sonatas today it
occurred to me that if Glenn Gould had been born a cellist, he would have
been Pablo Casals. Does anyone know of any way to get a copy of GG's 1974
"Pablo Casals, a Portrait For Radio", short of making a visit to the NLC? The
CBC doesn't sell it as part of their Perspectives collection.