[F_MINOR] Malvern Collegiate

[Alwin Tong <alwintong@YAHOO.COM>]

 

Dear F Minor List,

 

simply wanted to share some thoughts that might be of interest to the GG fan in regards to Malvern and the surronding area.

 

I work as a private music teacher in the beaches area these days, and have about 3 different students who attend Malvern currently.

 

When I mentioned to my oldest Malvern student, that GG attended there, she mentions that she has shadowed GG's life by growing up and attending all the same schools as he..   apparently she walks by old 32 southwood house "all the time", but w/o the same fanatical excitement that we probably have over the situation. 

 

For us this would be a serious deal!  but for her as perhaps most in the area, of minor consequence? The house still stands and an unknown family lives there, it is simply a place, she is more interested in learning john mayer or green day songs currently.

 

Update on Malvern. If you have ever seen Malvern, it is a big gigantic red/gray block.  It is a rather hulking school, that is anathema to the British Isles meets Bay Area Sausalito feel that permeates and defines the beaches.  Malvern is located actually on the upperside of the beaches, on Malvern ave. and Kingston road, which is further up the beach from the waterfront.  It now must be near or overpopulated as the population in the area has been getting dense for the past, 50+ years?  It currently hosts a French immersion program in addition to the normal classes.

 

The school 60 years after Glenn attended it, has not really changed much. Which is amazing.  

 

The demographic is typically still quite a bit more affluent than the median, but it is a public school, and it is interesting to note that the Goulds had such wealth, though not flamboyantly held, within the family. 

 

What is immediately apparent also, and funny to consider, is how Glenn despite dissociating from it ? could have NOT come from the Beaches?  He is absolutely a part of it, and very much an outgrowth of the beaches, in ways he probably did not see.

 

First off, everyone in the Beaches, and every one of my kids that I teach from that area, have some form of rooted appreciation of art.  They are esthetes, (and I should also add amiable, and precocious too but esthetes nonetheless). for eg.  I can describe a sentiment or imagery to a 12 y/o student from the beaches versus an Oakville kid say (newer comparable suburb) and though they both have their strengths, something, maybe the water make, makes this metaphor or nature idea more palpable to the beaches kid.. maybe the greenery in the area.  or Maybe that is a coincidence, I teach in several other areas though, and believe it to be fairly noticeable.

**(I should mention, that though most of those kids are not so hot on classical music, most are wickedly into some form of music, pink floyd, beatles or whoever else.)

 

The more and more I think about this, the harder it is to describe, but there is a great aesthetic conciousness in this part of town, which becomes immediately apparent if you are there, but hard to show if you have not visited toronto.

 

Both these things by themselves are nothing new, but it is in a manner which is entirely different from other small areas of Toronto, even other affluent areas, such as rosedale, or  Yorkville (both old and new) or forest hill say? There is a casualness in the beaches which is an integral part of Glenn, which I had not seen before until having spent more time there..

 

Walking down the many roads, you see evidence of this.  In fact, many families who unaware of Glenn Gould and where he grew up, have pianos sitting in their living room, and good books on the shelf, with the street lined by cafes and other haunts.

 

It is this style of casualness and preoccupation w/ art that to this day define this area, as is integral part of the Gould?s own make up as a personality.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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