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[F_minor] HAPPY BIRTHDAY GLENN GOULD
Noone else has mentioned it so I will although it's already the 26th where I am (and cold and windy).
HAPPY BIRTHDAY GLENN GOULD
What would one have offered Gould on his 76th birthday? I will assume that he'd have finally left the St. Clair penthouse for some ground floor living arrangement perhaps a little less urban in which case I shall offer his collie a first class bone and for GG a Russell-Hobbs electric tea kettle that shuts down automatically when it's on the boil. Safety first.
Mr. Merkin, I just love my trips to Vleeptron. To the discussion on harpsichords I add the following: Bob Merkin says:
"But what I can't shake myself out of is the knowledge that Bach and his contemporaries composed for the harpsichord, and in the composer's "ear-mind," the sound and mechanical characteristics of the harpsichord were what the composition was "supposed" to sound like and reflect."
and Artur Schnabel says:
"...I do not believe that great composers are ever inspired by the specific qualities of instruments.... I believe that the conception of musical ideas in the composer's mind is followed by a gradual inner indication as to which of the available instruments might be best suited to convey those ideas."
and I say:
"When Bach's Partitas are on my record player, Gould's liquid glistening counterpoint world fills up the void to overflowing. His piano: birdsong just before dawn compared with the Phil Spector Wall of Sound of the harpsichord." But that's just me.
Off topic: "Why So Serious? How the classical concert took shape" by Alex Ross (of The Rest is Noise fame):
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/musical/2008/09/08/080908crmu_music_ross?currentPage=all
Anyone else ever see the Menuhin Plaque for Gould at Mt. Pleasant Cemetery? The GG Estate aren't talking about it. I've got photos.
Mary Jensen
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