Please accept my sympathies that you and Sony have inadvertently
fallen into the
violent controversy (on the Glenn Gould fan list f_minor)
between the
Anti-Hummists and the Hummists. I'm a devout Hummist.
The wonderful guy hummed while he tickled the ivories,
and from the moment I
first heard a Gould recording, I was entranced at his
joy and enthusiasm -- he was
playing Mozart and he was a Happy Guy, and he made Happy
Noises.
If my voice might have any weight in decisions to come,
please do nothing
synthetic to edit out Gould's humming in future releases.
Even the notion of
offering Humming and Non-Humming editions strikes me
as bizarre and insulting
to the artist's spirit and intentions -- for no one exercised
such meticulous control
over the ultimate sound of his recordings as Gould. Deleting
this intentional part of
his work after his death strikes me as a ghoulish posthumous
betrayal of a lifelong
respect and understanding between artist and label.
Sorry again that you've stumbled into a fight between
obscure warring cults. But
the Hummists are best!
Yours,
Bob Merkin
jv wrote:
I have just received an email from annette_rudel@sonymusic.com, part of
which I quote here:"...Although the technology has long been available to edit out his
voice, there are as yet are no plans to do so. But, with so many Gould
fans asking for the release of edited versions of his recordings, it is
quite possible that Sony Classical and the Gould Estate will alter their
views sometime in the future."I immediately replied saying I was such a fan, and that I would pay
premium prices for such versions of Gould's work. I would ask all of
you who are of like mind to do the same; if we are successful, the
result will be that Gould's music will reach even greater numbers of
listeners.Bardolph