Re: GG: Music and Morality

["John P. Hill" <jphill@frank.mtsu.edu>]

On Mon, 23 Mar 1998, Michael D. Benedetti wrote:

> GG's judgements often did not seem very deep; often they seemed to be the
> results of someone who was nuts. GG was a hypocrite about so many things
> that it seems ridiculous to expect consistency from him.

I think "nuts" might be taking it a bit far.  If one looks at GG's habits
that were viewed as "eccentric", many of them had a basis in very
rational thought.  The hand-soaking and wearing of cut-out mittens, for
example, make complete sense for a pianist with circulation/blood pressure
problems whose hands were his livelihood.  We now know that a lower
seating position at the keyboard and the soaking of hands can help to
prevent tendonitis and other hand/joint/blood flow-related problems that
have plagued many pianists.

On the other hand (and we've hit on this before), Gould's public
pronouncements and "sermonizing" were not infrequently at odds with
his actual day-to-day behavior.  For example, he professed ideological
agreement with various aspects of socialism, but demonstrated considerable
skill at playing the stock market and was anything but a socialist in
his own handling of money and other issues related to his career.

On "puritanical" matters, there are other notable "disconnects".
According to Kazdin, GG made a *big* deal over Kazdin's wife having a
Cosmopitan magazine in their home (during the nude Burt Reynolds period?)
and really wanted them to know how much he disapproved of that.  Yet, this
disapproval of soft-core porn (and someone *else's* at that) didn't
apparently stop him from having a very close personal (sexual?)
relationship with the wife of a well-known conductor/composer.  What's up
with that?  Doesn't sound too "puritanical" to me.
 
> I find your argument that "we would not have stood up to the Nazis, therefore
> we cannot judge Karajan" to be fatuitous.  Karajan did not flee the Reich;
> this says something about him. We are all responsible for our actions, even
> though we don't always want to be.

I agree.  Lots of famous composers and musicians *did* leave (Hindemith,
et. al.).  And while some Germans undoubtedly were misled or were ignorant
of the horrors of what went on, undoubtedly many were not.  Hatred
and bigotry on that scale does not exist in a vacuum and folks who witness
it taking place without taking a stand against it *do* bear a measure of
responsibility, in my mind.  That doesn't mean that their later
accomplishments are without worth, but it does make the question
originally posed about GG's thoughts/feelings on HvK quite relevent and
interesting;  all the more so by virtue of the possible derivation of
GOULD from the Jewish "GOLD" that has been speculated upon here and
elsewhere.

jh