Re: GG : About Authenticity

["John P. Hill" <jphill@frank.mtsu.edu>]

Re:  C min. Prelude (Book 1)

There *is* something magic about this interpretation.
The tempo feels right, the first section with the sixteenths
in both hands *is* rock solid and it *swings*!  I think this
segment worked particularly well in the 32SF as well, with
318 introducing itself on this piece.

Re:  Gould's "Revisions"

There is some reference to this in the Kazdin book.  Occasionally
Kazdin would notice a note (or notes) that GG "just played wrong"
and wondered what the reason was.  I've spotted a few of these and
wondered the same thing (there's a really nice one in the tenor
voice toward the middle of the B-flat min. Prelude, book 1).

There are, of course, different manuscripts and editions out there, which
might explain some of these questionable spots, but with regard to Gould
"correcting Bach's counterpoint".....I wonder.  Bach broke *lots* of
strict counterpoint rules and I wonder if Gould would have really felt
comfortable with making *that* type of a change to the score.  It's one
thing to take liberties with tempo, articulation and phrasing (the Urtext
represents a kind of "tabula rasa" on those issues anyway).  It's quite
another thing to "correct" Bach's part-writing, voice-leading or chromatic
inflections.

food for thought....

jh