Re: GG: GG as vocalist

[Gregory T Romero <gregory.romero@yale.edu>]

On Wed, 12 Feb 1997, Arin Murphy wrote:
> 
> I read somewhere (and being a good student I usually look up the refernce 
> for you all, but I'm just too lazy right now) that Gould explained his 
> vocalising as his uncontrollable attempts to make up for the inadequacy 
> of the instrument he was playing. Hence the reason the humming varies 
> from recording to recording. He used different pianos for different 
> composers when he could, and if he had to `make do', he compensated for 
> the piano's shortcomings by singing.  > 

   Arin- Do you mean the singing became permanant as a result of his
having to change pianos earlier in his career?  I thought that after he
acquired CD 318, he used that exclusively (until the drop), and when he
wanted to record different performers, instead of switching pianos, he
would drive the Steinway technicians crazy by having them change the tone
of the piano for him, without changing the action.  I can understand his
wanting to enhance the vocal aspect of something like the adagio from the
Strauss sonata, which is really a vocal melody with large chords spread
between the hands filling in the melody.  However, I wouldn't exactly call
his Bach, in which he does a great deal of singing, a vocal Bach: it's too
austere, too detached.  For example, how about his A minor Invention. 
It's played tremendously fast and clipped, yet GG can be heard bellowing
away.  I'd be really interested in reading some of GG's other explanations
for his singing.