Re: GG: Much Ado About Humming, and vocal syllables

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

>
> Not to forget "BEE-yum BEE-yum diddle-liddle" in the opening movement of
> the c minor partita.  That one's from "Off the Record."  He starts that
> fugal section over and over until it feels right, then sings it especially
> loudly, then decides it isn't quite right yet, and he darts up from the
> piano.  He goes over to the window and looks out, still singing the piece
> with vigorous articulation, then a few seconds later darts back and plays
> it again, with no break in the vocalization.  It's as if the piano playing
> is totally subsidiary under the vocal performance and imagination.

Then listen to how he begins to sing with the sequence in the left hand,
then "pedals" on the note G. At this point in the video he closes his eyes
and I propose he was thinking of the dominant harmony at that moment, rather
than the surface melody. He sings in time with the left hand, but is
hovering primarily on the pitch G. (This transcription is included in my GG
magazine article.)

>
> It's kind of like the way tabla players in India are taught to vocalize a
> piece or pattern before they ever get to try it on the drum.  I have an LP
> of Alla Rakha doing a solo: he sings his pattern with some astonishing


The complex 'bols' you speak of are a deliberate method of representing,
vocally, the strokes made on the tabla. I don't believe there is anything
remotely as deliberate in Gould's vocalizations. Bols serve a pedagogical
function.