GG: from my report

["Junichi Miyazawa" <walkingtune@bigfoot.com>]

Dear f_minorians,

Besides the translation of GG linernotes,
I am now writing an article for the next bulletin of Friends 
of GG:  a report describing how GG is accepted in Japan.
When finished, I will have the manuscript corrected and polished
by a friend of mine who is a native speaker of English (a f_minorian), 
Before that, however, I would like all of you to read the following part, 
the most controversial part, for I want to know if my explanation 
(and quotation) makes sense.
Do let me know if it does or not.  
Also, any response to Yuji Takahashi's idea is welcome.(I want to know
if his idea is really "worth reading".)

-------------------------

.. . . Many favorable reviews appeared for the "Glenn Gould Edition II" [the set
including the video of the Goldberg Variations], but there was only a single review,
though a skeptical one, which is worth reading:  a review by one of the leading
composers in Japan, Yuji Takahashi (b. 1938).
     Takahashi says, "the approach of Glenn Gould's performance virtually finished
appealing by 1970," and he regards it as a "self-oppressive stoicism of North
American intelligentsia before the Vietnam War, who believed in technology." 
Gould's performance, according to Takahashi, achieved by excessive control at the
sacrifice of physical mechanism, is the one where "every note on the score is
visible": "a performance praised in North America in 1960's."  Even the re-recording
of the *Goldberg Variations *, integrated by a single 'pulse,' is a representation
of the stoicism.  It was a performance version of what American composers, such as
Eliot Carter, had tried in their composition in 1950's: a composition which varies
rhythmically, but the music itself is stative and homogeneous.  Moreover, Gould's
controversial understanding of J. S. Bach's image that a composer who abandoned his
self-indulgence and pursued stoic expression is "a projection of the Eastern
American Puritanism." Gould overestimated Bach's "indifference about instruments" so
much that he neglected the importance of timbre.  This is also a result of
"self-oppressive stoicism." "After ten years or so, gourmets of music enjoy the
'sound' of Gould as a most musical interpretation, but that is a passing fad of
retrospect missing 1960's"(*On-Stage Shinbun*, January 27, 1995).
     Takahashi, a pupil of Xenakis, who studied and taught in the United States in
1960's, is also a distinguished pianist who tried performing and recording many of 
Bach's keyboard music on the piano.  Takahashi's criticism against Gould's approach
is a manifestation to dismiss "metaphysical" music-making which both Gould and
Takahashi might have had in common.  Anyway, his opinion must be discussed not only
in Japan, but also in North America and other areas in the world. (By the way,
Takahashi is now seeking for non-homogeneous fingering on the keyboard to revive the
character of each finger, which makes music a "physical" achievement.) . . .

----------

Thank you.

Regards,

Junichi

***************************************
 Junichi Miyazawa, Tokyo 
 walkingtune@bigfoot.com / junichi@poetic.com
  (aliases for:  farnorth@mbc.infosphere.or.jp )
***************************************
  http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/3739