Re: GG: A Hearty Slap on the Back...

[John Hill <jphill@home.com>]

Anne M. Marble wrote:
 
> That's what I remember, too. It's often referred to as a handshake,
> but that's probably because people remember the Glenn Gould attitude
> toward handshakes and connect it with this incident.

> I also remember reading that the Steinway rep. was a teensy bit
> annoyed with GG at about the time this incident occurred. Most of the
> biographical coverage of the incident seems to ignore this side of the
> incident and cover it from the "Wasn't Glenn Gould bizarre?"
> viewpoint. Why haven't more of them covered the incident from all
> sides, examining the motivations and underlying feelings of the rep.
> as well? It's easy to point the finger of blame at GG, because he was
> a known eccentric. But how come none of them point out that slapping
> Glenn Gould on the back does seem like a bad career move for a
> Steinway rep.?

The Ostwald book goes into some detail on this one and does present
some different perspectives (Rashomon, anyone?).

One of the doctors who examined GG at the time claimed that, in his opinion,
many of Gould's physical complaints (including the shoulder injury from the
Steinway back-slapping incident) were psychosomatic.  According to the
Steinway technician, he had "brushed against him", whereas Gould's version
indicates something more like a crushing blow.  Where's a good film director
(Kurosawa) when you need one?

jh