Glenn Gould's Solitude Trilogy: Three Sound Documentaries [Box set]

Glenn Gould (Composer), Kitchener-Waterloo United Mennonite Church Congregational Choir (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Kitchener-Waterloo United Mennonite Church Congregational Choir
• Composer: Glenn Gould
• Audio CD (December 1, 1992)
• Number of Discs: 3
• Format: Box set
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: CBC
• ASIN: B000028803
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #333,354 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unlike Anything Else You Own, October 14, 2001

By 

R. Williams (Austin, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: SOLITUDE TRILOGY (Audio CD)

Between 1967 and 1977 a frighteningly gifted concert pianist focused his formidable energies on creating a symphony of sound using no instruments beyond an odd cacophony of unrehearsed and unscripted human voices. I know of no other recordings like these three journeys.

If you listen with your analytical left brain to the ebb and flow of the overlapping, recorded interviews of Gould's carefully chosen cast of characters, you will become profoundly frustrated, irritated and confused. In passages, the voices are mixed so equally as to become equally unintelligible. At other times, the background noises are a bit too loud for us to clearly discern the precise content of what is being said.

But the mood. Ah, the mood. If you will but listen with your artistic right brain and simply let the sound of it wash over you without trying to determine what it "means," you will gain deep and profound insight from each of these 3, 1-hour masterpieces that will stay with you for life. And each time you listen, you "get it" better and deeper than the time before. These works are neither documentary nor commentary in any traditional sense, but a strikingly human conveyance of time and place.

You can only hate them or love them.

I dearly love them, and believe that you will, too.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one of the century's greatest.. composers?, August 24, 2001

By 

joseph k kudirka (chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: SOLITUDE TRILOGY (Audio CD)

this cd set is made up of three radio "documentaries" made by gould after he'd given up piano performance, ostensibly to pursue a career as a composer. while works such as his early string quartet are quite good, this is gould's real compositional output. critiqued as pieces of music, these could be called "sound collage", but a think a musical comparison that would give one a better sense as to where these could be placed are the operas of robert ashley. why? the original recordings are of speech, though there is no libreto -- all text is culled from interviews, collaged with other sounds, from ocean waves to janis joplin. the best of the three is probably, "the idea of north", which is glimpsed in "32 short films about glenn gould". if you liked that, get this!! -- one of the dearest recordings i own.

5.0 out of 5 stars Ingenius, January 16, 2010

By 

Feral Puma "(Sea tea bee)" (Northern California, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Glenn Gould's Solitude Trilogy: Three Sound Documentaries (Audio CD)

If you're the kind of person who enjoys sitting and talking with your grandparents about "the way things were," and if you think that the way things were then might've been superior to today's world, then you might treasure this recording. The first time I heard it I knew that it was going to be one to keep forever. Random snippets of utopian-minded conversations about the benefits of working hard, small town living, fishing, small government, etc. A perfect antidote to today's MTV world.