A Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould's Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano [Paperback]

Katie Hafner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 28, 2009

“When Gould was paired with the right composer…he could make you wonder if he was altogether human. And reading Hafner on Gould is sometimes as much fun as listening to him play. And that’s saying a lot.”—Newsweek

Hugely talented and famously eccentric, pianist Glenn Gould fought a running battle with a long list of lessthan- perfect pianos. A Romance on Three Legs is the story of a love that changed Gould’s life: his partnership with the Steinway CD 318, a piano whose peculiar action and temperament ushered Gould closer than ever to interpretive perfection. Katie Hafner weaves the compelling tale of Gould, his favorite piano, and the men who worked on it, revealing new details and nuances in the work and mind of one of the twentieth century’s greatest artists.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This evocative, detailed account of the compulsive search for a sensitive, highly responsive concert piano by Canadian musical wunderkind Glenn Gould combines the parallel histories of one of the most controversial and brilliant pianists of the last century and the incredible keyboard instrument on which he played for some of his most important recordings. Hafner, a New York Times correspondent, presents a fascinating biography of Gould, who was known for his quirks, including his wearing of winter gear on summer days, his donning of fingerless gloves while playing, his manic fear of germs and hand shaking. The book will greatly appeal to those intrigued by the history of the influential German-bred Steinway piano company, but it is the close interaction of Gould and Charles Verne Edquist, the nearly blind piano tuner, with a Steinway CD 318 concert piano, that lift the book above the usual biography. This book will aid the reader to fully appreciate Gould's creative work in interpreting the early sonatas of Mozart and his majestic rendition of the Goldberg Variations. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

“A source of delight and illumination.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“More books will be written about the famously eccentric pianist Glenn Gould. Perhaps none will be as intriguing as Hafner’s.”—Booklist

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA (April 28, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596915250
• ISBN-13: 978-1596915251
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #41,700 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #1 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( G ) > Gould, Glenn
  • #93 in Books > Arts & Photography > Music > History & Criticism

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Story That's Never Been Told, June 15, 2008

By 

Clara Olding (CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould's Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano (Hardcover)

A Romance on Three Legs by Katie Hafner is a masterfully written story about Glenn Gould and his love for a Steinway piano called CD318. He found the love of his life long after he had become one of the most revered concert pianists and interpreters of Bach. Hafner tells about Gould's long search for his "perfect piano" which often involved skirmishes with the Steinway Co. who counted him as one of their most prestigious Steinway Artists.

Hafner relates how, quite by accident, Gould found the instrument of his dreams covered with dust in the back of Eaton's Department Store in Toronto. It was about to be shipped back to Steinway in New York. How this piano became the realization of Gould's ideal instrument involves the story of a blind boy, Verne Edquist, born in rural Sakatchewan. How Verne managed to rise from his poverty and handicap to be a very skilled technician and tuner of concert grands and Gould's personal assistant for many years is a moving story which goes hand in hand with CD318's story.

Hafner has carefully researched the history of the Steinway Co. and its method of producing a concert grand piano She tells in fascinating detail the intricate and labor intensive construction of the Steinway piano. Despite the technicalities of Hafner's description of this process, the reader will be able to understand and fully appreciate the making of the "Instrument of the Immortals."

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Two great love stories!, July 6, 2008

By 

Robert S. Reis (Palo Alto, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould's Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano (Hardcover)

If someone would have told me that I would be up reading this book at 2:00 am learning how someone voices a Steinway Piano, I would have said that they were nuts. But, it was true. Once I entered this Romance on Three Legs, I needed to hear how massaging of the felt, lacquering the soundboard and needling the hammers made each piano a unique sound and of unique personality.

Katie Hafner has taken this true story and created this wonderful voyage through intertwined stories of love and compassion. The feature story is about this eccentric, gifted pianist [Glenn Gould] and his search for his 88 key, life partner. But via Hafner's weaving of extraordinary detail, I found myself feeling close to this unloved, unappreciated, abandoned World War orphan piano [Steinway unit number CD318] and its quest for a caring home. Eventually the two find each other.

Then another compelling love story emerges. This one is about a once great manufacturer and its courtship of customers. Hafner takes us into the foundation and history of a last century institution called Steinway Piano. Like our `Breakfast of Champions' [Wheaties], we learn how Steinway goes to extraordinary measures to become known as the "Instrument of the Immortals".

For a while you feel that both romances are on safe footing. Then disaster strikes both.

Don't think of this book as a story written for students of music. This is a rich and enjoyable voyage about people, companies and their obsessive quest for perfection.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Real Gem, June 17, 2008

By 

Teresa Carpenter "cafe reader" (New York,NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould's Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano (Hardcover)

An engrossing account of concert pianist Glenn Gould's search for the perfect instrument. He had already passed out of his teen prodigy stage when, in l960, he found a battered Steinway grand in the back of an auditorium in Toronto. The CD 318, as it was known, was old and out of tune, but one touch of the keyboard and the artist apparently recognized his inanimate soul-mate. For almost a decade, Gould and a nearly-blind technician would toil over the piano in the pursuit of "perpetual refinement." The pair were searching for, what the author describes as, a "dry, clean, light" tone, something akin to a harpsichord's. And they were still inching toward perfection, when the CD 318 met its tragic demise.

Hafner's keen eye and ear illuminate a world where tones take on the characteristics of colors-- and the qualities of fine wines. There's never a false step, and her style is so hypnotic and personal that even the laymen among us come to love this ugly duckling of grands.