[F_minor] Gould and jazz

["Colin Smithers" <cdsmithers@hotmail.com>]

Dear All,

I'm very interested to learn about Glenn Gould's views on jazz, and, in 
particular, on the jazz pianists contemporaneous with himself. I would 
imagine (and seem in fact to recall reading somewhere) that he was not 
especially keen on the whole genre, perhaps because of the improvisatory 
qualities normally inherent therein. Those qualities would seem to go quite 
against his often rather rigorous (conservative?) stance towards musical 
structure and argument, his evincing a particular disregard towards the 
ornamental digressions and frivolities of such a composer as Chopin, for 
instance, who's own often 'improvisatory' style he perhaps felt detracted 
from far more important musical considerations such as long-range tonal 
tensions, thematic development, and counterpoint, of course. And those are 
aspects of music which are not associated with jazz, necessarily!

But, on the other hand, perhaps the single most characteristic thing about 
fugues, say (which Gould felt, I think, in Bach's hands at least, to contain 
the most exciting possibilities for musical argument of any form), is surely 
their distinctive improvisatory quality! More accurately, the variegated 
ways in which they could take just one single idea (in most cases), and 
expose it to a myriad of different contexts without, crucially, any true 
structural underpinnings (as opposed to the treatment of themes in sonata 
form, for instance). And therein lies the paradox, it seems, where Gould is 
concerned. I just wonder whether he felt that the improvisatory qualities 
found in fugues, for instance, and that found in jazz, was really all that 
different in certain important respects. And if so, how? I use that as a 
rather specific example, but I would love to hear people's views on and 
insights into Gould's feelings generally towards jazz.

Best wishes to all,

Colin Smithers

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