The Glenn Gould Reader

As a pianist, Glenn Gould was both a showman and a high priest, an artist whose devotion to music was so great that he eschewed the distractions of live performance. That same combination of flamboyance and aesthetic rigor may be found in this collection of Gould's writings, which covers composers from Bach to Terry Riley, performers from Arthur Rubinstein to Petula Clark, and yields unfettered and often heretical opinions on music competitions, the limitations of live audiences, and the relationship between technology and art. Witty, emphatic, and finely honed, The Glenn Gould Reader presents its author in all his guises as an impassioned artist, an omnivorous listener, and an astute and deeply knowledgeable critic.

The Glenn Gould Reader abounds with the literary voice of one of the most extraordinary musical talents of our time. Whether Gould's subject is Boulez, Stokowski, Streisand, or his own highly individual thoughts on the performance and creation of music, the reader will be caught up in his intensity, intelligence, passion and devotion. For those who never knew him, this book will be a particular treasure as a companion to his recordings and as the delicious discovery of a new friend.

Acknowledgments          
Introduction     
 
PROLOGUE: Advice to a Graduation                
 
PART ONE: Music
                                                                                                                                             
William Byrd and Orlando Gibbons                                  
Domenico Scarlatti                                                                                   
Art of the Fugue
The “ Goldberg” Variations
Bodky on Bach
Of Mozart and Related Matters: Glenn Gould in Conversation with Bruno 
      Monsaingeon
Glenn Gould Interviews Himself About Beethoven              
Beethoven’ s Pathé tique, “ Moonlight, ” and “ Appassionata” Sonatas
Beethoven’ s Last Three Piano Sonatas
Beethoven’ s Fifth Symphony in the Piano:  Four Imaginary Reviews
Some Beethoven and Bach Concertos
N’ aimez-Vous Pas Brahms?        
Should We Dig Up the Rare Romantics? . . . No, They’ re Only a Fad
Piano Music by Greig and Bizet, with a Confidental Caution to Critics
Data Bank on the Upward-Scuttling Mahler
An Argument for Richard Strauss
Strauss and the Electronic Future
Richard Strauss’ s Enoch Arden
The Piano Music of Sibelius      
Arnold Schoenberg— A Perspective
The Piano Music of Arnold Schoenberg
Piano Concertos by Mozart and Schoenberg       
Arnold Schoenberg’ s Chamber Symphony No. 2 
A Hawk, a Dove, and a Rabbit Called Franz Josef           
Hindermith: Will His Time Come? Again?
A Tale of Two Marienlebens
Piano Sonatas by Scriabin Prokfiev           
Music in the Soviet Union
The Ives Fourth                    
A Festschrift for “ Ernst Who? ? ? ”
Piano Music of Berg, Schoenberg, and Krenek
Korngold and the Crisis of the Piano Sonata
Canadian Piano Music in the Twentieth Century
The Dodecacophonist’ s Dilemma
Boulez
The Future and “ Flat-Foot Floogie”
Terry Riley
Gould’ s String Quartet, Op. 1
So You Want to Write a Fugue?
 
PART TWO: Performance
 
Let’ s Ban Applause!
We Who Are About to Be Disqualified Salute You!
The Pyschology of Improvisation
Critics
Stokowski in Six Scenes
Rubinstein
Memories of Maude Harbour, or Variations on a Theme of Arthur 
      Rubinstein
Yehudi Menuhin
The Search for Petula Clark
Streisand as Schwarzkopf
 
INTERLUDE: Glenn Gould Interviews Glenn Gould About Glenn 
      Gould
 
PART THREE: Media
 
The Prospects of Recording
Music and Technology
The Grass Is Always Greener in the Outtakes:  An Experiment in Listening
“ Oh, for heaven’ s sake. Cynthia, there must be something else on! ”
Radio as Music: Glenn Gould in Conversation with John Jessop
Prologue from “ The Idea of North”
“ The Idea of North” : An Introduction
“ The Latecomers” : An Introduction
                                                                                                                                                                                             
PART FOUR: Miscellany
Three Articles Published Under the Pseudonym Dr. Herbert von 
      Hochmeister
Toronto
Conference at Port Chillkoot       
Fact, Fancy, or Psychohistory: Notes from the P. D. Q Underground
The Record of the Decade
Rosemary’ s Babies
A Desert Island Discography  
The Film Slaughterhouse Five
A Biography of Glenn Gould      
 
CODA: Glenn Could in Conversation with Tim Page
 
Index