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7 REVIEWS Glenn Gould 7 REVIEWS Glenn Gould : a life and variations. By Otto Friedrich. Toronto : Lester & Orpen Dennys, c1989. (xviii, 441p., $27.95) - a review essay by Helmut Kallmann The Literature in addition to a thousand concert and In 1976, when I put up bookshelves in my record review in newspapers and new study, a mere six inches held all my magazines. (No doubt an enterprising Canadian musical biographies: Lapierre's CAML member will one day compile a Calixa Lavallge, Albani's memoirs, short Gouldiana bibliography.) books on Kathleen Parlow and Leo Smith, a couple of collections of "portraits" I have perused enough of this literature and "soundprints" -- nearly all that was to know that Geof frey Payzant ' s available. Thirteen years later, pioneering study of Gould's work and biography has crowded out three shelf- aesthetics (Glenn Gould, Music & Mind feet of other books into basement 1978) will remain a landmark as the first storage; in fact I have given up acqui- in-depth examination of any of our ring every last one that appears. Mart musicians. Of those essays that I have Kenney and Ignatius Rumboldt, Don Messer read I found the one by Sanford Schwartz and Henri Pontbriand, Healey Willan and (The New Republic, Sept. 1, 1986) the Barbara Pentland and other strange most penetrating. And now we have a couples now rub covers; MacMillan and fullscale biography. Friedrich, a New Weinzweig should follow soon. In the York author and senior writer for Time 1980s biography and memoirs became a magazine, was the first person allowed thriving branch of Canadian literature, by the Gould estate to examine the whole and its subjects extended beyond broad- range of materials, including corres- cast personalities and unemployed pondence, scratch pads, scripts, tapes politicians. and discs, films and photos. In addition he interviewed some 80 people and quoted Among the musical subjects Glenn Gould from many reviews, although less fre- occupies a special place, and for more quently from the existing essay than one reason. Let the world celebrate literature. A final chapter outlines the Gould simply as one of the century's sources. This is followed by lists of great pianists -- to us music librarians concert appearances, of discs, CBC radio he holds a second distinction, one he and TV shows, Gould's published writings shares with R. Murray Schafer: they are (the last three edited by Nancy Canning) our first musicians to have produced and and an index. called forth a whole body of writing. When I browsed through the bookstore at Friedrich, the virtuoso writer the National Arts Centre the other day, Friedrichls is a real virtuoso perfor- I found no fewer than six different mance. I admire his skill in presenting Gould books in French! Already this a vast amount of factual material literature is wide-ranging. There are without becoming tedious or pedantic. I essays by and about Gould, anthologies, admire him equally for finding for each conference proceedings, interviews, an of the thousands of-bits of information archival inventory (soon to be pub- that accumulate in haphazard order a lished), a Gould periodical, a Gould suitable place, a place that not only calendar, Gould exhibition guides, all connects with and enhances neighbouring bits of information, but reinforces the precisely the achievement of a large overall understanding of the subject. measure of that desired control, with its attendant overreliance on his own One might call this a technique of inte- judgment, in practical matters of health gration. From the first page, where the and diet as well as in artistic affairs, annoying intrusion of microphones and that proved the disruptive element in television cameras at the artist's Gould's last years? memorial service is linked to Gould's welcome of such technology, Friedrich Life and Work makes every biographical event reveal The traditional dilemma of the biogra-- one more aspect of Gould's personality. pher -- to separate or to interweave the The recording session for the first chronological account of the "life" and Goldberg (p.49) introduces his wearing the orderly review of aspect after of warm clothing and his dependence on aspect of the "work" is neatly solved, all sorts of pills. His compassion for not by Friedrich, but by Gould himself. animals, his hypochondria, his occasio- From prodigy concert pianist Gould con- nal clowning, his need for physical veniently moved chronologically through isolation and other traits, all are one phase after another, many of short introduced in the context of events and duration: composer, lecturer, studio activities. In fact, it is often hard recording artist, documentary designer - to decide whether Friedrich intersperses - first for radio, then for television, his account of external events with the deviser of movie music, transcriber of revelation of character traits, or orchestral scores and, at the edge of whether he examines such traits and death, conductor. Only his work of fleshes them out with biographical facts. pianist and writer continued throughout life. It was therefore easy to organize We pay one price for this gradual un- the book satisfying chronology and peeling of the layers of Gould's subject matter at once. (one phase, persona: the lack of a summing up. At that of festival organizer at Stratford, the end Friedrich modestly admits that Ont., has been given somewhat short Gould's personality remains a mystery shrift. ) (299). Still, should the book not have attempted at least to tie together the But hold it. Is this really a "life and . different traits, such as Gould's work"? Early on it becomes apparent that craving for control, his strategies for the book is first of all about a fasci- self-protection and self-promotion, his nating personality, only secondarily showmanship, his rationalizations as about an artist's interpretation of well as his idealism, pacifism, com- great music and a thinker's coming to passion and communicativeness. The terms with the electronic age. We learn chapters The Private Life (from p.294 more about Gould's approach to recording on) and The Goldberg Variations (11) do session procedures than about his inter- indeed penetrate close to the human pretations of the music he records(l32); essence of Gould, in Friedrich's own we find out about his manner of picking words and in quotations from Harvey a piano but hardly about the nature of Olnick, John McGreevy, Leonard Bernstein the piano he needs(306-307). We do read and others, but hardly arrive at a con- about Gould's work in the sense of nected whole. Such an attempt might activity but much less in that of relate individual traits to the creativity, mission and ideas. The book fundamental problems and contradictions is first and foremost a biography, the of having to live and cope with one's description of a life, and as such it is exceptional gifts and of shaping a life- as detailed, authoritative and sympa- style to suit evolving goals -- to "the thetic a one as ever will be written effort of being Glenn Gould," as about Gould. McGreevy called it (298). Was it perhaps The Gould estate which commissioned the childish desire to shock the grownups, book deserves congratulations for its and perhaps a touch of envy toward liberal attitude. Surely there have music's most celebrated child prodigy" been few "authorized" biographies so (142) but I also feel stimulated by free from imposed restrictions, so unin- Gould's point that the young Mozart, the hibited and honest in delving into all Mozart of the Kijchel 200s, had certain corners of their subject's life, from youthful qualities rarely found in the Gould's relationship with women and his later works. playing the stock market to his increas- ing tendency toward medical self- To be sure, the debunking ingredient in diagnosis and excessive medication. Friedrich's approach is an antidote to those who have tended to build the After not too many pages the book gets genius into a superhuman, a near-saint. to the unavoidable questions of Gould ' S Above all else, Friedrich humanizes personal eccentricities and musical Gould and reveals him as animmensely idiosyncrasies and Friedrich explains gifted but frail human being. He has many of them as rational responses to written a "human interest" book in the specific situations. best sense of that term. If departing from the even path of What have I learned about Gould? clinical objectivity at all, Friedrich Reading Friedrich's book, all of us will occasionally leans to the negative side. adjust our personal picture of Gould in Friedrich is quite expert in detailing one way or another, but adjust it we Gould's weaknesses in recording the late will. Speaking for myself, I have Beethoven sonatas so early in his career learned, for instance, that his physical (68) and wilfully misinterpreting cer- illnesses were far more real than one tain Mozart works (141-149). But if I would expect in a hypochondriac. From a wished to build up my record collection childhood injury of his spine (27) to a with the best of Gould, I would have pat on the shoulder that turned out to little analytical comment to go by hurt (87-88), or a wrist problem that beyond such labels as "admirable" and affected his muscular functioning (249- "splendid" (Bach, 129), "miraculous" 50), they were real enough to justify (Bach, 132), "gorgeous" and "stunning" worrying. (Grieg and Bizet respectively, 2521, or "beautiful" (Haydn, 273) What does make Similarly, Gould's aversion to giving Gould's playing so distinct, so concerts was more than an obstinate extraordinary? whim. His stage career was not quite the unbroken series of successes disappoin- Similarly, the passages dealing with the ted admirers assumed it to have been.
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