Re: in defense of Gould's Bach

["Baldwin, Daniel" <baldwin@baermarks.com>]

        An excellent example of GG's Schoenbergian thinking is his analysis
of the E major fugue from WTC II in the video "An Art of the Fugue." I
recall him saying that the greatness of this fugue lies in the fact that
(among other things) "everything is material to the material." This ties in
more with the theory and practice of 12 tone music than it does with Bach.

-----Original Message-----
From: Bradley P Lehman [mailto:bpl@UMICH.EDU]
Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2001 3:32 PM
To: F_MINOR@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU
Subject: GG: in defense of Gould's Bach


I wrote:

>(...) Gould's Bach (as opposed to regular Bach...) was a modern
>concoction through Schoenberg and others, anyway...Bach as seen from the
>future, rather than Bach as a culmination of 17th century music.  Doesn't
>playing Bach on Bach's own terms require a solid grounding in 17th
>century music and techniques (Italian, French, German, ...)?
>Bach-as-seen-from-the-future is fine and enjoyable, it's just something
>quite different.
(...)
>Most people probably think of Gould as a "Bachian," but
>no........Schoenberg groupie through and through.  *That's* why his Bach
>performance style sounds so unlike anyone else's.  Not historical
>keyboard practice at all, but Schoenbergian compositional practice.
>Gould's dream was to be a composer............

Lest anyone take that the wrong way, I add:

Gould's Bach (as opposed to regular Bach) has generated some very good
things in our culture:

- Countless new fans of classical music

- Countless new fans of Bach

- Countless new fans of Gould

- The f_minor list

- A recording contract in which Gould could record pretty much anything
else he wanted to

- Interesting books

- A large estate fund for the humane society


Bradley Lehman, Dayton VA
home: http://i.am/bpl  or  http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl
CD's: http://listen.to/bpl or http://www.mp3.com/bpl

"Music must cause fire to flare up from the spirit - and not only sparks
from the clavier...." - Alfred Cortot