Re: GG: Genes & Genius (part II)

[Katherine Lee <klee@dna.bc.ca>]

>>... Glenn Gould's original family was Gold.  It's true.  His birth
>>certificate says "Gold, Glenn Herbert".  His father signed the official
>>document with the name, "Russell Herbert Gold".  Why this fact has been
>>overlooked in all of the bios, etc. that have been published so far is a
>>mystery.
>
>...but seriously folks,
>        yes, this is quite a surprise. I do wonder why extremely thorough
>bios overlooked this factoid. Perhaps in the 50's or 60's it might have
>been thought wise for a potential international artist to hide any sort of
>"unpopular" ethnicity, but it would seem that, at this point in the Gould
>story, that sort of cover-up would have been leaked. Two potential reasons
>I can see for biographers to continue to overlook the name-change might be
>the fear that to reveal (what seems to be) the Gould family's desire to
>hide a possible link to Judaism would seem to indicate that, if indeed
>there was such a link, the family was "ashamed" of their heritage. Also,
>Bert Gould was still alive at the release of the last round of bios, and I
>can understand that to "out" him would have been very disrespectful.
>Incidentally, are there uncorrected/reviewer's proofs of the
>Bazzana/Ostwald bios out?

Good point about the cultural issue.  I think the fear of persecution runs
quite deep ... and may take some time to resolve, if indeed that was the
case.  But now that the immediate family has passed on, I wonder if there's
any way (or reason, aside from historical curiosity) to trace the family's
roots.  Perhaps it's my own view of boundaries, but even though I have a
great personal interest in issues of culture and history, I feel a bit
uncomfortable delving too deeply into an area that someone has taken such
pains to disguise.  On the other hand, maybe this is even more reason to
find out the "truth", if only to fill in historical gaps.  Glenn Gould does
have surviving relatives, such as an uncle named Grant Gould, who's an M.D.
... and there may even be other branches of the family named "Gold" (such
as Wallace "Gold" ;-]) ... who knows?

About the biographies.  Dr. Peter Ostwald's psychobiography, _Glenn Gould:
The Ecstasy and Tragedy of Genius_, is being published by W.W. Norton &
Company of New York.  The book is due out in April, and Lise
Deschamps-Ostwald has mentioned that she'll be giving a talk about it this
March, at the next Gould symposium in San Francisco.

According to Kevin Bazzana, his book focuses on Gould's work, in the
context of music history.  The book is being published by Oxford University
Press in Toronto, and it's due out in the fall.  Apparently, Kevin's also
been invited to talk at the symposium in March.

Hope this helps.


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