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GG the Technician
My thanks again to all those who responded recently to my queries about the
piano sound/tone/quirks on the 2 & 3 Part Inventions. I had asked whether
that tone could *really* be accidental. Had I then read this extract from
Friedrich's book, I think I would have known that it could't *possibly* be
an accident....
Friedrich is writing of GG's soundtrack for the film
of Tim Findley's novel THE WARS:
>>>>> "Performance by now was only the beginning of a Gould
creation....Of that Strauss "Klavierstuck" that he had used
in the opening sequence of the film, he wrote to the engineer:
'Both segments of the Strauss should be dubbed again and/or
run straight from the master during the mix...If you do
choose to go with the master for the mix, it will
involve the all-important pitch alteration (Studer 500
to 504) which occurs at the end of bar 18, immediately
before a cut to bar 47; otherwise expressed, it occurs
1 minute, 51 seconds into the opening segment. The other
general comment about the Strauss is that, in the Soundmix
Theatre, at least, it seemed decidely bass-oriented. I recall
that during, during the dubbing session at my studio, I urged
Kevin {Doyle, a sound engineer] to effect a steeper bass cut
in order to compensate for the characteristics of the dubber
itself....' That one specimen of engineering instructions
>>>>> continues for seven single-spaced pages."
-- Otto Friedrich, GG: A Life & Variations, pp.270
Accidents?
Best, Alun
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| ...[it is my] sober conviction that no piano need feel duty-bound |
| to always sound like a piano. - Glenn Gould
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