Re: Much Ado About Humming - Glenn Gould's Imaginary Orchestra

[Sean Malone <spm29386@oregon.uoregon.edu>]

> Hi Guys,
>
> To link a couple of threads going on at the moment, anyone out there with a
> good enough ear to know just what notes Gould hums at the end of
> Contrapunctus one?  Is he adding a different note to the music than the one
> he's playing at the keyboard?

Most of my transcriptions for contrapunctus one, from several different
performances, has Gould humming written lines, however he jumps from line to
line at seemingly unrelated points. This goes to the context-dependent
pressure idea I was speaking about. His choice of what notes to sing, if
they are part of the score, usually defy the things we would usually think
of - like the upper-most voice, or the most active voice at that moment.

Perhaps I can put a .pdf of my contrapunctus transcription up for those
interested to see it.

>
> And here are a few more questions for Sean and anyone else out there who may
> have paid particular attention to the humming.
>
> Does he do it more in the early, mid, or late recordings?  Or maybe the
> level was consistent.
>
> does he hum more to contrapuntal music than not?

There doesn't seem to be a preference.

>
> More in Bach or not?  For instance, how much humming is there on the Mozart
> sonatas?  (do find that out, though, we'd have to listen to them.  :)  Just
> kidding, sort of.  I love some of those recordings and think the Turkish
> March should be required listening for all Gould and Mozart fans.  What a
> "strong" interpretation.)

Gould stated that he felt his conducting and humming were as if he was
urging a "reluctant cellist" (or other member of the orchestra) to play more
expressively.

>
> How about tempos?  Does he hum more to slower or to faster pieces?

Not if, but what. In the Chemins de la Musique film, Gould tries several
tempi for a section of one of the English suites. In the slower temp, he
sings every note, in the faster tempo he sings the tones that are more
structural (those belonging to the local harmony).

>
> Gould was known to "add" voices at the keyboard, with the above mentioned
> Mozart sonatas for example.  I doesn't seem outlandish to suppose he might
> have vocally sung a few of those notes into the work.
>
>
> I know these are hard questions to answer and to do so would require lots of
> listening time.
>
>
> Jim