Re: Clarification

[Elmer Elevator <bobmer@javanet.com>]

Hiya Paige Poe,

Yeah, we've done Gould + Synaesthesia at least once on the List since I've
been here, and it certainly takes wing and flies with me bigtime. One of my
favorite books, "The Mind of a Mnemnost," (I hope I spelled that right, I
can never remember how to spell that) is about a Russian fellow with an
almost infinite memory, whose extremely profound dose of synaesthesia is
quickly perceived by the Soviet psychologist Luria. The fellow smelled
numbers and saw musical sounds, etc.

It seems to me that any declared fan of GG has pretty much broken through
barriers of "accepted norms of interpretation" and left most of their
hangups about this behind. What strikes me is that, of all musicians I've
ever read about, Gould seems to have been by far the most dedicated scholar
of the history of keyboard interpretation; and yet his results raise such
critical howls and 911 calls. That really makes no sense, unless you
attribute it to his knowing much more than most critics about the history of
interpretation.

Bob

-----Original Message-----
From: Paige Poe <Viviandarkbloom3@AOL.COM>
To: F_MINOR@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU <F_MINOR@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Sunday, May 06, 2001 3:21 PM
Subject: Re: Clarification


Since everyone has been delurking--is that the correct term?--lately, I
thought I might, too. I have been on the list for a few weeks and am a
relative newcomer to Gould himself--a serious listener of about only a year,
but I am practically a child, so I don't feel too left out.
There were a few things about this "clarification" that made me think a
little bit. I've known many people involved in various art forms who
reminded
one of Sir Nigel Twitt-Thornwaite, and this "perverse" comment, unless it
was
sarcastic, struck me as something a person like that--should I say, with
those sorts of opinions--might say. And I'm not attempting to start any sort
of argument; I'm coming to this with practically no knowledge of classical
music. What I'm wondering is, how far is too far in the classical spectrum?
Where do you draw the line between a valid artistic interpretation with
merit
and--well, whatever might constitute musical perversity? Or is this (what
I've always thought) simply a matter of taste?
Incidentally, I came to really love Gould through reading the Ostwald
biography. I did not, however, love the biography. It's been troubling me
for
some time, as I re-read it, that exactly the sort of psychoanalyzation that
was some people's trouble with Asperger's syndrome (and mine, too) was
streaked throughout the book. I also got the feeling that perhaps Ostwald
and
Gould weren't as close and Ostwald would have liked to think. I wondered if
anyone else had probelms with this book, because I didn't want to feel like
a
schmuck.
One psychological quirk I thought Gould may have had was synaesthesia. Would
this have anything to do with his sensitivity to color? I'm a lot like that
myself--certain colors make me absolutely nauseated.
I have had so much fun reading the posts to this list, which I enjoy very
much.

Sincerely, &c.,
Paige Poe