GG as a loner/egocentric

[Sara Churchill <salchurchill@cplace.net>]

One of the topics that has come up almost quite nicely in the past few emails replying to my statement in favor of Glenn Gould, has been his isolation. His supposed life as a loner, an egocentric/eccentric personality. Most of you seem to think that there was more to him than that. I agree, but would also like to think that you would consult some of his own words on the manner. Here are a few from an interview with Elyse Mach, after being asked this question:

With all of our discussion of Glenn Gould, the musician, we've heard little about Glenn Gould, the person. What are you like outside the recording studio? What is your lifestyle?

"First of all, I can't divorce the studio from my personal life. The recording studio and the kind of womblike security that it gives is very much integrated with my life style. I guess it's all a part of my fantasy to develop to the fullest extent a kind of Howard Hughesian secrecy. I'm a very private person, I think. I'm alone, or quasi-alone, a lot because the recording studio, with its small crew, provides me with an atmosphere that I need to work productively-to make music or, indeed, to work on a radio or television program."

-From 'Great Pianists Speak For Themselves"

Also, from the sudddenly popular book, "Glenn Gould: Some Portraits of the Artist", by Jock Carroll....

"Now that Gould and I had landed in Nassau, the story, whatever the hell it was going to be, had come to a dead halt. So had the photos. Gould had checked into his hotel room, hung a 'Do Not Disturb' sign on the door, and disappeared inside.

After several days of waiting around the hotel without any word from my wunderkind, I began to get panicky. I knocked on his door. Somewhat reluctantly, he let me in."

Gould later says to the author:

" I've been working. I've gotten three bars of my opera written since we got here. I have to be alone a lot. It's going to take me about three years for the opera. I did a radio interview a few weeks ago in which I developed a theme I stole from Thomas Mann - how a creative artist has to be a bit of an antisocial human being in order to get his work done."

Just a few words from the actual person's mouth to consider in your ponderings of him NOT being a loner.


Sara-Anne Churchill