Re: Glenn Gould in Space

[jerry and judy <jerbidoc@zianet.com>]

>I wrote:
>
>> >I'd be
>> >the first to run three miles to the store if there were a GG "My Ladye
>> >Nevells Booke" for sale.
>
>Jerry responded:
>
>> I guess I don't understand the reference, a GG "My Ladye Nevells Booke"?
>> The keyboard volume was prepared for Rachel, wife of Sir Edward Nevill, in
>> 1591 by one of Byrd's colleagues at the Royal chapel, overseen by Byrd?,
>> and then presented to Elizabeth the first.  We can be quite sure we have
>> his true intentions.
>> Oh! I just got it!?!  Did you mean an edition with GG's ornaments written
>> out?  That's what I would run three miles for! in the rain!
>
>Nope.  I meant I'd like to hear a GG recording of the whole thing.  Of
>"Parthenia," too.  Well heck, the whole Fitzwilliam Virginal Book,
>especially the wacky stuff by John "wild man" Bull and Peter Philips'
>sparkly geodes.  Lacking that, I'd settle for a GG album that has at least
>a coupla Walsinghams and Passamezzo P-&-G's, and the Picchi toccata.

I can almost hear the critics now. 'Bull and Philips are very odd choices
for a piano record, but the dynamic range of the instrument allows the
artist to highlight the part-writing in a way that was impossible on a
contemporary keyboard, such as the virginals. Gould's vivacity in coping
with the intricately stylized ornamentation is one of the aspects that
makes his readings so compelling.  Aside from his mischievousness (how he
loves to tweak the noses of the establishment or those employed in the
groves of Academia), all these performances are of a unique musical
sympathy enhanced by a no less unique articulacy. Narrow arguments
concerning authenticity are magically erased and these pieces emerge truly
mesmeric in Gould's inspired hands.'

As Leno would say, just being silly!!

The sad fact is that pianists are cut off from these works (because of the
piano).  I play a few Bull pieces as warm up, finger exercises but...

>Last night I put in the evening working on Byrd's Fantasia that is #52 in
>the Fitzwilliam.  One of our cats comes to listen whenever I play the
>virginal, and this one had him commenting aloud about something.

I've read that cats (and dogs etc.) are many times more sensitive to
changes in pitch (or changing pitch) than humans.  I don't know exactly
what that means.  Of course it's an advantage during hunting, but it might
also be helpful in discriminating the subtle meanings in their
communicative vocalizations.  They are very limited in the pitch range of
their relational *conversing voices*.  Anyway my dogs are comical too.  My
labrador runs out of the room when I sit down to play! while my terrier
sleeps for hours on an adjacent chair!  Of course, it's her favorite chair
whether I'm playing or not!  :-(

> What a
>great piece, with the alternations of contrapuntal and free sections
>(sorta typical fantasia stuff at the beginning, but then it really gets
>going), and especially those passages where one hand is playing in 3/8
>while the other is in 4/4 (those crazy cross-rhythms, like hearing two
>radio stations at once!) and those measures where the beat is 2+2+2+3,
>2+2+2+3 ("Bela Bartok, This Is Your Life!")...  And there's a seriously
>bizarre harmonic surprise *and* meter change at one startling point:
>after I'd practiced enough I brought my wife in to listen to the whole
>piece, and when I got to that spot she laughed out loud thinking I had had
>a spectacular train wreck, but no, the piece really is that way.  It's a
>Dionysian feast.

Great piece!  Enjoyably long-winded!! I transcribed it for print out from a
midi file and I see what you mean. There's an abrupt shock at bar 204 with
a new *key* and meter till measure 242. Then starting about *measure* 270
(out of a total 290 in my file) the left hand starts on an A and takes off!
Byrd threatens to almost *lose* it, which I assume is the expressive point
he's making!  Inventive ideas!

>  It would be interesting to hear how GG's different
>approach would have intersected with this one.

Sadly, we can only imagine it.

>Say, did you realize that GG's recording of the Beethoven 2nd concerto (Bb
>major) and Toscanini's recording of Mendelssohn's 4th symphony (A major)
>have almost exactly the same timings, and are both mono, and if you mix
>them to a tape where each is restricted to one channel, and then listen on
>headphones, it's totally a trip?  (That's what I did in college instead of
>substances.  But I never got up the nerve to actually broadcast this tape
>on my show.  A pity.  And I wish I'd kept a copy of it.)

Glenn and Arturo! huh?  Yeah, I'm not into that.  Guess I'd have to be on
substances, but then again, I'm sure in that condition they would really
cause inner consternations!  :-)

>
>Bradley Lehman ~ Harrisonburg VA, USA ~ 38.44N+78.87W
>bpl@umich.edu ~ http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl/
>...driving rhetoric home with poetic learner's permit
>...oh, great, my name anagrams to "Happily label him 'nerd'!"

Well, 'nerd',
My wife won't even let me upgrade to a bigger Baldwin grand, so I don't
imagine she'll let me get a real harpsichord.  :-O

Jerry