# Jeez, STFU Glenn Gould! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 15, 2012, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeez-stfu-glenn-gould/631528 "2012-08-15T03:54:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeez-stfu-glenn-gould/631528/41 "2012-08-16T05:05:06Z")
Bach. Harpsicord? Piano? Nah – Carlos. ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeez-stfu-glenn-gould/631528/42 "2012-08-16T05:17:55Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Since you seem to be the leading classical expert here for the moment, I’d be very interested in your opinion on the Perahia recording. It’s available on Rhapsody streaming – maybe on Pandora too, though I’ve started a station with him as a seed and the Variations haven’t played yet I can’t comment – I dont’t recall Perahia’s Goldbergs. I like Tureck’s, and barenboim’s, by for me the coherence achieved n he two studio Gould inerpetations are major, nfluential events. I never had the technique nor the cnception to play the whole set brilliantly. Even the aria comes off for me as either Tureck’s or the two Gould/. Not an expert at rectal fare in general – Just an average workmanlike basic level of competent e. since I began tailoring my set lists as a solo pianis, my MO is to maintain a basic minimum of professional standard. Make sure the audience gets t hear the passion and all I hope for is that it gets over. When lately I just play for fun and tips, I use the ground bass idea and just try to make it sound fun. It’s more an idea I use n tunes like Green Leaves of Summer. Both an interesting tune in he relative minor of G and a way to get into something like Joplin’s triple meter Bethena. A wild id that can go anywhere. For the rare job with some decent paper and comped drinks, it is just a way t tread the line between sounding pretty and getting across. The point is I am not that great a pianist, but I have a knack for reading the room and playing what people want. In fact anybody pretty much can cut hell out of me, but people respond to the love, passion, and care Wth which one can spin virtually anything. I haven’t played live in pickup combos or a rock and roll grup n a few Years, xcept for private paties. It is not worth it to me to schlep all m stuff for less than at least a bill, out of which comes transportation via cab. I am not a go-to guy for anything but backup and booking for society gigs, and that’s what I want. If I doesn’t pay decent paper I am.not interested unless I a least be paper and cover my transportation and good paper for m guitarist and maybe drummer. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeez-stfu-glenn-gould/631528/43 "2012-08-16T11:01:53Z")
> [@Jaledin](#): > > Hey man you know I’m kidding! You are not only hep for a guitar slinger but you are able to write legitimate cultural criticism about music. Of course! I should’ve included a ;). And thanks. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeez-stfu-glenn-gould/631528/44 "2012-08-16T13:38:10Z")
> [@Jaledin](#): > > Not an expert at rectal fare in general I should hope not! (Note to self: proofread CV very carefully.) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeez-stfu-glenn-gould/631528/45 "2012-08-16T13:58:20Z")
> [@antonio107](#): > > Being Canadian and involved in the classical music scene, you get him crammed pretty far down your throat. I’m glad you brought up the inventions. How he decided that invention #2 goes at 60 beats per fortnight, and #4 (my personal favorite) goes at warp 9.7, is completely and utterly beyond me. I have more time for his interpretation of second Vienna School piano music, despite loathing expressionism, but weird is weird is weird. You just need to look at the chair he played in–a good foot and a half below where you’d want a piano bench–to see he wasn’t the paragon of orthodoxy. Obviously, YMMV. 🙂 The one that I can’t get used to is his weird legato-staccato phrasing on Bach’s [Prelude in C Major](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0egJr6nvCQI). Like I said above, I kind of appreciate the different approach and interpretation, but it just sounds a bit, I dunno, is “precious” the right word? “Gimmicky”? “Different to be different”? That whole staccato interpretation is just disruptive and calls attention to itself, so much so that I can’t really pay attention to the song as a whole. I suspect that even had I never heard more fluid renditions of this tune, it’d still bother me. ---
**Author:** ![antonio107](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ea924/32.png) [@antonio107](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antonio107)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeez-stfu-glenn-gould/631528/46 "2012-08-16T20:52:59Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > Bach. Harpsicord? Piano? Nah – Carlos. Yeah, Moog Bach is pretty sweet. I once saw a thrash metal band from school cover his music, as well. I’ve no problem tinkering, but then it’s all or nothing. T-pain the four part chorales with synthesizers, or play with a harpsichord! No middle ground! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeez-stfu-glenn-gould/631528/47 "2012-08-16T21:20:04Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Years ago, in the LP era, someone came out with a “Glenn Gould Filter.” Don’t know whether it worked. I think that was one of Charles Rodrigues’ Stereo Review cartoons, with an annoyed audiophile installing a “Glenn Gould hum filter” in his system. By the way, what do you folks think of Kimiko Ishizaka’s playing on [The Open Goldberg Variations project](http://www.opengoldbergvariations.org/)? > [@antonio107](#): > > Yeah, Moog Bach is pretty sweet. I once saw a thrash metal band from school cover his music, as well. I’ve no problem tinkering, but then it’s all or nothing. T-pain the four part chorales with synthesizers, or play with a harpsichord! No middle ground! 😃 The soundtrack for the brilliant and unjustly maligned _The Last Action Hero_ is classical music played by a metal band. “He killed Mozart!” “Mo who?” “Zart!” ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2012, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeez-stfu-glenn-gould/631528/48 "2012-08-17T04:03:22Z")
> [@Jaledin](#): > > The point is I am not that great a pianist, but I have a knack for reading the room and playing what people want. In fact anybody pretty much can cut hell out of me, but people respond to the love, passion, and care Wth which one can spin virtually anything. Here you have hit upon something I think about a great deal. There is a huge difference in playing for an audience of ordinary folk and playing for other musicians. (like myself) Musicians can’t enjoy music on the level as regular folk. I’m not saying which level is better or higher. They are just different. Different people react differently to the same stimulus. Now our OP, being a sound recording person, is really complaining about the sound recording. Not the musicality of the playing because that is ruined for him by the sound recording. I’m sure they recorded it in such a way as to make sure you could hear him because that makes it a Glen Gould. I work with an acting company and I tell them that there is a huge difference in performing for other actors and for an audience of non-acting people. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2012, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeez-stfu-glenn-gould/631528/49 "2012-08-18T04:00:55Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > Do you play? My friend **Mr Jaledin** can use big words, but, like other keyboard Dopers like **pulykamell** clearly knows the craft of playing and has invested a lot of time listening hard. I came into this thread looking for folks like them to help me fight a little ignorance, which they did, so I can take a little pretension, thanks.. It has nothing to do with using big words. It has to do with coming in and telling everyone that their opinion of the guy is wrong because they are too stupid to have an opinion. Those who think people who have another opinion then them are stupid are not people who can add value to any conversation. ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2012, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeez-stfu-glenn-gould/631528/50 "2012-08-18T04:04:27Z")
What are you on about. Stupid? Nobody called anyone stupid, at least at the time I started my post. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2012, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeez-stfu-glenn-gould/631528/51 "2012-08-19T13:07:41Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > It has nothing to do with using big words. It has to do with coming in and telling everyone that their opinion of the guy is wrong because they are too stupid to have an opinion. Those who think people who have another opinion then them are stupid are not people who can add value to any conversation. That’s where conversations about modern art break down. People are welcome to look at Jackson Pollack’s work as childish paint drippings, but if a trained artist with experience in the technique pipes up and tries to 'splain what they see, using the words of the craft, it can feel pretentious when it is really a geeky breakdown of the craft. If someone chooses to hate Gould’s interpretations and/or mumbling, that’s cool. I appreciated hearing a player’s pov. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeez-stfu-glenn-gould/631528.md?page=2)