GG: a new article on the Idea of North

["Junichi Miyazawa" <walkingtune@bigfoot.com>]

Dear f_minorians:

An article of mine on GG will be published soon (I have just got the 
offprints): "Glenn Gould's Radio Documantery 'The Idea of North'"(in Japanese),
*The Annual Review of Canadian Studies*(The Japanese Association 
of Canadian Studies), vol. 17 (September 1997), pp.34-49.

This is a kind of analysis on the documentary, but mere a description
of the plot, just for an introduction of the work to Japanese "Canadianists".

Anyway, let me post the synopsis attached to the article written in English.
I am afraid there is almost nothing new, but I hope you will find something
of use.

Regards,

Junichi

P.S. If anyone of you should care for a copy of the offprints, 
I would be glad to send you one via snail mail.

---------

Glenn Gould's Radio Documentary "The Idea of North"

by Junichi Miyazawa (Waseda University/Hosei University)

     The Canadian pianist, Glenn Gould (1932-82), who "dropped out" of concert
performance and devoted himself to studio recording, was also a producer of radio
broadcast.  Of various programs, Gould made seven "contrapuntal" radio
documentaries, the first one of which is called "The Idea of North"(CBC, 1967).
     "The Idea of North" is a documentary drama on the Canadian North.  The one-hour
program consists of interviews of four persons who experienced and were influenced
by life in the North: J. Lotz (geographer), F. Vallee (sociologist), R. Philips
(government official), and M. Schroeder (nurse).  Their "voices," which are
controlled by the narrator, "a pragmatic idealist, a disillusioned enthusiast," W.
MacLean (surveyor), are connected or overlapped in various musical forms in order to
examine the condition of solitude which enriches a person's life.
     The four characters, however, are not equal: there is a hidden hero.  In the
analysis of the plot, the drama can be interpreted as a story of a young man, Lotz,
who is going on a train journey to the North.
     The program consists of the Prologue, five scenes and the Epilogue, many parts
of which are played on the "basso continuo" of running trains.  The Prologue is an
experimental "trio sonata" of three voices, serving not only as a demonstration, but
also as the manifestation of the "contrapuntal radio."  The First Scene is an
introduction to describe the start of Lotz's experiencing the North.  The Second
Scene is "a scene on isolation and its effects," the topics of which are: (a) the
extreme intimacy in closed societies, which makes one "realize the value of another
human being" and (b) the geographical vastness, which have one come to believe in
one's own role.  The Third Scene contrasts the expectation with the disillusion of
the North experience. Though Gould says that the plot of the scene is a "very
unusual structure": CD-BABAB-DC, the middle part of which is "a sort of inverted
rondo," it can be regarded as a conventional rondo-sonata form with two themes:
AB-C-BA.  The Fourth Scene focuses on the difficulties in the coexistence with the
Eskimo.  The situation is a dining car:  voices are being caught by a steward
walking in the aisle.  The Fifth Scene is a discussion about the prospects of the
North.  Lotz is optimistic in the development of the area, expecting it being a
place for people's "re-creation."  The Epilogue is a hybrid of conventional music
and monologue: with the last movement of Siberius' Fifth Symphony, the narrator Lotz
emphasizes the importance of "going North" as a challenge, which is "the moral
equivalent of war."
     Though the documentary-drama is on the Canadian North, there are little
concrete description of its geographical and social realities.  For Gould, the North
was an "excuse" of examining the "condition of solitude," the crucial subject of his
creative activities.  The program is a highly speculative drama of the "idea of
Glenn Gould."

***************************************
 Junichi Miyazawa, Tokyo 
 walkingtune@bigfoot.com / junichi@poetic.com
  (aliases for:  farnorth@mbc.infosphere.or.jp )
***************************************
  http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/3739