From the John Zorn mailing list..........
Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 21:58:17 +0200
From: "Artur Nowak" <arno@emd.pl>
Subject: Glenn Gould (zero Zorn content)
Many artists who have nothing to do were discussed on the list,
just because
they play good music, but I don't remember anybody mentioning
Glenn Gould,
who became my hero during last few months. It all started with
"Goldberg
Variations" - of course, you would say, but you probably don't
expect, that
it started with... Uri Caine weird record. After hearing the
twisted Caine
versions I wanted to listen to the original. I heard some Bach
before, as a
kid (late night radio before sleep), but I didn't bother about
BWV numbers
at all. Gould was the first interpreter to !
get familiar with,
since Caine
mentioned him as an influence. I got the 1981 recording of
Variations and
whole new world has opened to me. I just can't stop listening to
it, every
time it's a very intense experience. Meanwhile I got some dozen
of other
recordings (including the other two by Gould), but nothing is
comparable
with his interpretations. Next step was Wohltemperierte Klavier
("wow, there
is a music which can actually sound nice!") and Kunst der Fuge.
It's a very
demanding piece, but it moved my "internal ear" to a new level
of
sensibility. I just listen to music in a different way now.
Nothing is the
same. All of the sudden, some stuff which seemed complex sound
easy now, I
can identify structures in music, which were hidden before. OK,
you will
quote the Dilbert strip "if you have to increase you IQ, listen
to some
classical music", naive, but true. What's more, the only two
"types" of
m!
usic which kick my ass now is Bach and free jazz. I listen to
Kunst der
Fugue and Shape of Jazz to Come only. I wonder, where it will
take me...
Anyway, who is after Gould? Other than Canadians on the list of
course!
Who was reading his articles? I just read an excellent book
about him by
polish (!) critic who lives in France, Stefan Rieger, the book
is great,
because it's not just a biography with a list of all Goulds
strange
behaviours, but almost a philosophical dialogue with Gould about
the music
per se. And the artist. And the perception of music by a
listener. And about
judging the music. Just one quote:
"The determination of the value of a work of art according to
the
information available about it it is a most delinquent form of
aesthetic
appraisal" - what about that?
__________________________________________________________________
Artur Nowak [arno at emd dot pl] !
muzyka.emd.pl
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 13:08:54 -0700
From: Tosh <tosh@loop.com>
Subject: Re: Glenn Gould (zero Zorn content)
Glenn Gould is great. I love his Wagner album. A way back
there was a
collection of his letters that was interesting. He was a good
writer. I
suggest getting the Glenn Gould Reader. Have anyone seen his
T.V.
performances or videos?
- -
Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 16:22:45 -0400 (EDT)
From: Ken Waxman <mingusaum@yahoo.ca>
Subject: Re: Glenn Gould (zero Zorn content)
Artur:
One thing you should look into -- if you haven't
already -- is a movie called "24 Short Films About
Glenn Gould". It's fiction starring Coilm Feore
playing Gould at most stages of his life. Because it's
neither a documentory or a straight drama it probably
reveals more about the enigmatic Gould than either of
those straighter medium could.
Ken Waxman
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 16:26:22 -0400
From: James Hale <jhale@sympatico.ca>
Subject: Re: Glenn Gould (zero Zorn content)
Here in Can!
ada, Gould is almost as well known for his
(non-musical) work on
radio as for his recordings.... well, he's also known for his
whacked-out
behviour, but that's another matter.
Gould did a number of major documentaries for CBC Radio,
including a
stunning sound-montage called 'The Idea Of North' that was way
ahead of its
time (especially given that it's all manually edited using razor
blade and
tape) and captured a lot of his ideas about the influence of
isolation and
space on artistic works. For a couple of years I kicked around
the idea of
writing a book that would transpose Gould's concepts about space
(and being
"the other" in a continent dominated by its southern neighbour)
to jazz
musicians. It's certainly something you can hear in the music of
Paul Bley,
Sonny Greenwich and Kenny Wheeler, to name three Canadians that
non-Canadians are likely familiar with, and the concept also
rang true with
lesser-kn!
own Canadian musicians like Ingrid Jensen, Andy Milne
and Jeff
Johnston.
The National Film Board of Canada has a number of films about
Gould, which
you can probably access on video if you live in New York,
London, Paris or
one of the other cities where there's a major Canadian cultural
presence. I
would also recommend the semi-documentary "32 Short Films About
Glenn
Gould". There are also a number of online sources for Gould
material. The
CBC did a number of things on Gould for his 65th(?) birthday,
but I'm not
sure whether they're still posted somewhere or not (the CBC site
is
www.cbc.ca). The National Library of Canada also has a major
trove of
Gouldbilia, since its the repository for all of his papers and
recordings.
It also has his huge, black Steinway, which is used by visiting
artists
(Renee Rosnes played it this summer during the jazz festival).
James Hale
- Oliver Alden