Re: [F_minor] What has f_minor been to you?

[promonde@aol.com]

 Through you Glenn still lives and plays for all of us. 


 


 

-----Original Message-----
From: Mary Jo Watts <mwatts@rutgers.edu>
To: f_minor@email.rutgers.edu
Sent: Wed, 26 Nov 2008 2:09 pm
Subject: [F_minor] What has f_minor been to you?









Hello All,Â
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I launched f_minor in March of 1996 hoping at that time that I could find about 8-10 people out there who wouldn't mind talking to me about Gould and his work.  (I spent a fair share of the early days convincing people that the king of Nigeria had nothing to do with Mr. Gould.  I think he would have found it amusing, no?) The mailing list grew exponentially and before I knew it was an international forum.  We've consistently averaged between 350-400 users.  At of today, we have 349 users from around the globe.Â
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I'd like to take a breath here and ask a question of every member (longtime lurkers can uncloak now):  what have been your experiences with this f_minor phenom?  Memorable moments?  Connections made?  Ideas absorbed?  Prejudice debunked?  Kindred spirits? Annoyances? Favorite threads? Best off-topics?  What about Mr. Gould have we NOT explored to your satisfaction? What's been overdone?  Practically everything he recorded is available on Youtube.  We now know all about that cert. beaut. girl. I'm told by an authority who knows all about these things that Gould's popularity in NYC is at an astonishing low.  Do we know too much? Did he outlast his ghostly welcome? What do his
 performances still have to teach us? Why has the mailing list format been so successful?Â
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Some Ancient History and Some Shout-Outs:Â
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In 1996, I was in grad school in comparative literature, an obsessive academic. And I spent about 3 years trying to answer my own burning question: "Why did Hannibal Lecter specifically require Glenn Gould's recording of The G'bers and why, once he escaped, did he enjoy Gould's Two and Three Part Inventions with his BÃtard Montrachet?" Contrary to what the movie told us, that and a big Amarone were Lecter's wines of choice. (I came  to love a nice Chianti in the course of my research because, unlike a fine BÃtard Montrachet, Ruffino Ducale fit my splurge budget.) Even a good table wine wouldn't serve Lecter's palate so why, oh why, Glenn Gould specifically? I set about to answer that question by annotating the entire novel, The Silence of the Lambs, teaching it to hundreds upon hundreds of undergraduates, and setting up a website for the world's use to see what people would say.  That was a fascinating experience and I learned a great deal.  I enjoyed that project until I received correspondence from an individual who believed Lecter to be real and had details of his own exploits he wanted to share with the master.  He asked me to introduce him. Now this was the premise of the plot of the prequel to Silence.  It terrified me and I took the website down and called the police but what were they to do?  The internet was
 different then. And thanks to archive.org my initial attempts to document the labyrinth that is that novel are still available if you know how to look. I figured in the future I would keep public discussions public...Â
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I had a question to answer and at 26 with the time of a grad student, I decided that required me of me total immersion in all things Gould.  I don't trust shallow responses.  I knew nothing of classical music (or wine!) and all I had at my disposal was that organ recording.  See why you can't trust a shallow response?  With only Gould at the organ (and not knowing why that's a problem and an oddity) how are you going to explain why Hannibal Lecter appreciated him?Â
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Thanks to Bradley, I wasted much less time.  In fact, thanks to Bradley I had access to the expertise I couldn't find anywhere at school and certainly at no cocktail party.  (I found a like spirit when i immersed myself in HIS tuning theory-- and the recordings! Even to my totally untrained ear the difference is palpable.  If only I had such Youtube-able skill!) Who knew f_minor would bring Mr. Merkin to my mailbox?  A surreal name for an indomitable spirit!  I can't quantify how blessed I feel to have had the opportunity to work with Junichi Miyazawa, translating some quirky Gouldese into English so that he could translate that into Japanese.  It was a happy day when I took the results to my advisor, a Japanese specialist, for her to decode it back to me.   The 
Gould Estate and foundation (thank to Messrs. Posen and Miller) have been supportive over the years, granting me amazing opportunities.  Can I just say how AWESOME it was to sit in a CBC radio booth?  That was the BEST!  I spent about two years spent working with Katherine Lee, formerly of the former DNA multimedia while she produced the interactive CD-ROM, Glenn Gould:The New Listener. Klee was so pateint and receptive to lengthy missives full of  Gouldian enthusiasm.  Miss Mary in Lima, Ohio-- who read the archive on-line and responded to me with letters, touched me with her passion and fortitude.  And Silvio!  Silvio... you made me feel like a spy in on a secret...grazie.  Now there are so many people who've enriched my life thru this project, I can't list you all-- all 349 of you-- so please know I appreciate every last one of you.  Sincerely.Â
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I have only had to intervene to keep the peace a handful of times in the nearly 13 years of the life of the thing-- incredible and against all expectations.  You're a civilized bunch but-- without  Anne, I'd have lost steam! Without the steadfast dedication of Karl Berry, I couldn't have kept the list running for these long years.  Thank you Karl for the archive which has brought so many others into our community and for his continued service in helping me manage the list. When I leave Rutgers (I hope to graduate FINALLY this Spring. I'm slow and life got all twisty on me) it will be Karl who will help us transition
 to a new server.  Watch for notices in the Spring.Â
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Let the feedback roll in!!!Â
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-Mary JoÂ
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