The Glenn Gould Reader

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When Glenn Gould died in 1982 at the age of fifty, he left behind an astonishing in twenty-six years he had proved himself to be not only an extraordinary pianist but a gifted filmmaker and broadcaster and a brilliant critic. His writing-which appeared primarily in music journals and on record album covers-was often as provocative as his demanding, compelling, occasionally infuriating, but always stimulating, and always the product of a singular artistic vision. Now, for the first time, nearly everything that Gould wrote or spoke for publication-from the liner notes for his first "Goldberg" Variations recording in 1956 to a poignant and revealing interview with Tim Page shortly before his death-has been gathered together. And, perhaps for the first time as well, we can begin to comprehend fully the scope of the intellect behind the musical artistry. Gould wrote about from Byrd, Bach, and Mozart to Schoenberg , Berg, and Terry Riley ; from Beethoven to Richard Strauss . Gould wrote about music competitions , about applause , and about his own reasons for refusing to give concerts - reasons he discusses in a fascinating, delightful interview with Arthur Rubinstein. There are articles on recording , on the purpose of art , and on technology and art, which begins with a chronicle of his own "love affair with the microphone." We read him on Leopold Stokowski and on Barbra Streisand , on Petula Clark and Ernst Krenek, on radio as music and P.D.Q. Bach as both fact and fancy, on the state of music in Russia and in Canada, and on an extraordinary range of matters dealing with the creation and appreciation of music. THE GLENN GouLD READER is that rare phenomenon, a book that gives us the critical vision of someone who was not only an observer but a practicing artist. It is crucial to our understanding of one of the most influential musicians of our day. Tim Page writes on music and cultural affairs for the New York Times, and his articles have also appeared in Vanity Fair, Horizon, Harper's Bazaar, the Wall Street journal, and other publications. In 1983 he was the recipient of the Deems Taylor Award for music criticism. He was born in San Diego and studied at the Mannes College of Music, the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood, and Columbia College, from which he received his B.A. He lives with his wife in New York City, where he is the host of a daily radio program on WNYC-FM devoted to new and unusual music.