Re: GG: Humming - Lichter's Vermeer argument

[Bradley P Lehman <bpl@umich.edu>]

On Wed, 1 Sep 1999, jv wrote:

> 	If Gould is permitted to interpret Bach and add humming, why must the
> buck stop there?  Why can't I, the listener, "interpret" Gould
> interpreting Bach - and remove the humming?  If Gould refused to PLAY on
> the COMPOSER'S terms, why must I LISTEN on the PIANIST'S terms?

Let us all pause to remember that Glenn Gould himself wrote about wishing
for end-user kits.  Take the exposition of a symphony, splice in the
development section from somebody else's recording, etc....make your own
customized interpretation.  (And this is fun to do: the finale of
Beethoven's 7th is particularly easy to experiment with.)

> I,
> inspired by the example of the iconoclastic Gould, will also refuse to
> conform to the Establishment's rules, one of which is expressed by
> Lichter's "Either listen on the pianist's terms, or choose another
> pianist."  I say, NO.  Gould's choices affected all his listeners; my
> choices in this regard, should I succeed in my editing goals, will
> affect only myself and individuals who actively seek to emulate me.

Before Sony reissued Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue" last year, I made myself
a cassette copy for the car using a retail-purchased copy of the first CD
issue.  And in making the cassette I CORRECTED that silly pitch problem
that plagued part of the album.  I made a cassette of what I wanted to
hear, rather than what was issued.  What's the problem?  And then when
Sony reissued the album with the pitch problem solved, I bought it and no
longer use that home-fixed cassette copy.

A difference here is that the cassette copy is not for sale.

If you can't stand GG's humming, why not just slam a couple of the
relevant sliders on your equalizer to the bottom?  Listen to him the way
you want to.  But the recordings should be *sold* with fidelity to the
recording sessions.

The same argument can be made against too much CEDARing on reissues of
early recordings.  Yeah, slippery slope.  But that noise reduction is to
remove sonic flaws in the medium, not elements of the performance.  GG's
humming is part of the performance.

Now let us all pause again to remember that Glenn Gould himself wrote
about wishing for end-user kits.

How about issuing a CD-ROM where the default output is a straightforward
GG recording, as faithful to the master tape as possible, but where
various filters can be put on by the user?  The CD would play normally in
a standard player, but have options when played through a computer.  I,
for one, would like to hear some of GG's interpretations played
artificially faster or slower but at the correct pitch.

Bradley Lehman | http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl/ | Dayton, VA, USA