Whether Gould's subject is Boulez, Stokowski, Streisand, or his own highly individual thoughts on performance and creation of music, the reader will be caught up in his intensity, intelligence, passion and devotion.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A delighful collection of dissenting ideas.,
By Shannon W. Mack (megamack43@hotmail.com) (Los Alamitos, California) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Glenn Gould Reader (Paperback)
Glenn Gould has occassionally been accused of being different just for the sake of being different. I believe this was not the case. Everything he did had a clear motive and this book lays out most of these motives. Besides being entertaining and stimulating reading, the Glenn Gould Reader contains a peek into the brilliant mind of the genius who created some of the greatest recordings of piano music of all time.
33 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not only a great musician, a great thinker,
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This review is from: Glenn Gould Reader (Paperback)
Glenn Gould was one of the best piano players ever. But he not only achieved the highest level of virtuosity, he re-invented the music of Bach and other composers. He was not only faster than other musicians (as this is the trivial criteria of virtuosity), every of his interpretations contains a thought beyond the music. This book shows the world of Gould's thoughts beyond the music. It's almost pure philosophy of art, almost, because Gould doesn't want to create complex system, his points are straight. Two examples:- "The determination of the value of a work of art according to the information available about it is a most delinquent form of aesthetic appraisal" - "The computer repositories file away the memories of mankind and leave us free to be inventive in spite of them" Makes you think, huh? The book contains dozens of short texts written during many years, and are grouped into few parts: 1) Music - about Art of Fugue of course, Goldberg Variations, Beethoven, Schoenberg and Mozart. Deep look into the music. 2) Performance - Gould gave up live performances and was accused for eccentrism There was a good reason beyond this decision, figure out why he did it. 3) Glenn Gould interviews Glenn Gould. What? Yes, his interviewers weren't good enough, so he conducted an interview with himself. 4) Media - how recording has changed the perception and performance of music, Gould's favourite radio with explanation of the "Idea of North" and "Latecomers", exceptionally original radio pieces by Gould, comparable with the XX century avant-garde. Radio as music. 5) Miscellany. Sometimes it requires quite good musical background and education, as Gould lets the music speak for itself, on paper, by reproducing notes. Sometimes it requires knowledge of this recordings, which he refers to. But most of it is about music per se, the universal language Gould mastered. Highly recommended to all people who believe in music.
18 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
brilliant,
By A Customer
This review is from: Glenn Gould Reader (Paperback)
I disagree with most of the opinions expressed herein, yet I enjoyed all of them immensely. Glenn Gould was a brilliant pianist, an erudite and deep thinker, and a man with a very great knowledge of music.He hated the Beatles, yet I think he and the Beatles unwittingly had a lot in common--as cultural phenomena, I mean. Gould and the Beatles were on top of their form and at the height of their popularity when they abruptly announced they would cease performing publicly, declaring the impersonal--and arguably "de-humanizing"--medium of recording to be the true art form of the present and future. In this collection Gould derisively calls the Beatles's "Strawberry Fields Forever" "Monteverdi played by a jug band", not realizing it was created much the same way that Gould explains (elsewhere in this collection) he was wont to create his own works: by splicing together radically different recorded snippets. Also recommended: PENTATONIC SCALES FOR THE JAZZ-ROCK KEYBOARDIST by Jeff Burns.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Three bars into the ninth and last variation of "Sellinger's Round" (William Byrd's final contribution to this disc), a solitary B-flat-the only note of its persuasion to grace this 182-bar opus-at once proclaims the end of this work and the beginning of that new key-oriented chord system to which within a few years most music would subscribe. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Richard Strauss, Arnold Schoenberg, North America, Port Chillkoot, World War, Soviet Union, Fifth Symphony, High Fidelity, Alain Pauvre, Anton Webern, The Art of the Fugue, Homer Sibelius, Napoleon Bonaparte, Piano Quarterly, The Latecomers, Alban Berg, Maude Harbour, Orlando Gibbons, Professor Bodky, Sir Norman, Fourth Symphony, Gustav Mahler, Leopold Stokowski, Professor von Blau New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Three bars into the ninth and last variation of "Sellinger's Round" (William Byrd's final contribution to this disc), a solitary B-flat-the only note of its persuasion to grace this 182-bar opus-at once proclaims the end of this work and the beginning of that new key-oriented chord system to which within a few years most music would subscribe. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Richard Strauss, Arnold Schoenberg, North America, Port Chillkoot, World War, Soviet Union, Fifth Symphony, High Fidelity, Alain Pauvre, Anton Webern, The Art of the Fugue, Homer Sibelius, Napoleon Bonaparte, Piano Quarterly, The Latecomers, Alban Berg, Maude Harbour, Orlando Gibbons, Professor Bodky, Sir Norman, Fourth Symphony, Gustav Mahler, Leopold Stokowski, Professor von Blau New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 31
books:
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39
books
cite this book:
See all 39 books citing this book
- Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut on page 324, and page 442
- Ein Heldenleben: Tone Poem for Orchestra, Op. 40 (Dover Miniature Music Scores) by Richard Strauss on page 84, and page 91
- Flaubert: Selected Letters (Penguin Classics) by Gustave Flaubert in Back Matter
- Der Rosenkavalier: English National Opera Guide 8 (English National Opera Guides) by R. Strauss in Back Matter
- War and Peace by Lev Tolstoy on page 83
See all 31 books this book cites
- Glenn Gould: The Ecstasy and Tragedy of Genius by Peter Ostwald on 5 pages
- Virtual Realism by Michael Heim on page 205, and page 225
- Art Matters by Peter de Bolla in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Richard Strauss: Man, Musician, Enigma by Michael Kennedy in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- A Glenn Gould Catalog (Discographies) by Nancy Canning in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 39 books citing this book
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