[f_minor] Perfectionism and Deterioration

Tue Jul 23 13:29:24 MDT 2013

Hi all

Mary made a reference to british composer and musician Brian Eno, probably most famous for his  absolutely brilliant ambient recordings.

Eno has admitted at least once that he greatly admired Glenn Gould. something along the lines that he (GG) used the same piano for years on end
and that they both saw the recording studio as an additional instrument. Eno is of the opinion that it is sometimes more interesting to play an untuned guitar or simply let an instrument deteriorate for a while and see what happens. He is also known to be a perfectionist. Eno probably misunderstood GG’s intentions or maybe he got it and I am just too daft.

For here, ladies, gentlemen and other sufferers from a current heat wave, is a paradox. We have talked about GG’s perfectionism some time ago with interesting posts by Jörgen Lundmark and Bob Merkin and most probably some other people as well.

How come a man who was a prefectionist to the level of Control Freak when it came to playing and recording his music hung on to the same piano for years, even when it had been severely damaged in the early 70s and it would probably have been cheaper and easier to find a new one that would fit the high standards of Mr. Gould ? Instead he spent money on expensive repairs, renovations etc and he even made a recording on that bleeding harpspiano or whatever that monstrosity is called bacause CD318 was not available. Sheer sentimentality ? Fear of the New Unknown Instrument ?

Call me daft, I don’t get that. GG has often been described as “enigmatic” in some of his opinions and Mary will probably scold me for that one, but could it be that this is just one of these little puzzles that make this personatlity so interesting to study ? Or is it really just too hot and I can’t think logically ?

Pat

From: maryellen jensen 
Sent: Tuesday, July 23, 2013 8:53 PM
To: f_minor at glenngould.org 
Subject: Re: [f_minor] and I swore I wouldn't

Peter Glenister and Nuncle Pat thanks for braving the melting European heatwave ("Fright X" on the sidewalks is an understatement) with your correspondence.

I'm amazed no one has "pulled me up" on my spelling "renown" with the Special K - which is wrong.

Such fun with Tom Lehrer (didn't he also do that brilliant anti-Christmas tune sung so lyrically by Christopher Hitchens?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZJ0mo0r3zs

...but

"Alma soon became resentful that, on Mahler's insistence that there could only be one composer in the family, she had given up her music studies. She wrote in her diary: "How hard it is to be so mercilessly deprived of ... things closest to one's heart". Mahler's requirement that their married life be organised around his creative activities imposed strains, and precipitated rebellion on Alma's part; the marriage was nevertheless marked at times by expressions of considerable passion, particularly from Mahler."  That's a Wikipedia quote.

You'll remember Cornelia Foss complaining of the same sort of "prohibition" thrown up against the pursuance of her own art because of some weird edict issued by Glenn Gould... the same sort of "You're here for me" mentality of Mahler.  (So Cornelia left. So Alma found other avenues.)

To be 100% honest I still cannot figure out exactly whether Gould's "review" of de la Grange's "Mahler Volume One" was written tongue in cheek or not...but then again Gould was a Past Master at "passive/aggressive" behaviour in his personal/professional life. Of course he was always right, right? (il avait toujours raison...) Ha ha ha.

Another "Alma" (old Manzanera-Eno stuff) but also try out "Miss Shapiro" and "Big Day" all you modern  Brian Eno fans:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVnSGwiZmAA

Hell, it's summer 
Mary

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From: Peter.Glenister at msvu.ca
To: f_minor at glenngould.org
Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2013 17:43:17 +0000
Subject: Re: [f_minor] and I swore I wouldn't

And, of course, the best and most musical "tribute" to Alma is by Tom Lehrer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH4J8CIBc7Q

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From: f_minor [f_minor-bounces at glenngould.org] on behalf of Pat [pzumst at bluewin.ch]
Sent: Tuesday, July 23, 2013 2:26 PM
To: f_minor at glenngould.org
Subject: Re: [f_minor] and I swore I wouldn't

Hi all

Mary is right, as usual.

Alma Mahler wasn’t exactly an angel, more of what the locals in my rural hamlet call “house dragon” and if memory serves right she later made some rude remarks about her late husband. Not that he was beyond any doubts, he tended to fits of rage, shouting matches that make Toscanini look very well behaved, and probably neurosis. Then again his life wasn’t exactly easy. Isolation, depression, antisemitism, ignorance, summet that looks like a difficult marriage, the loss of his beloved daughter and later terminal illness. Doesn’t sound like a lot of fun, from where he took the energy to write some of the most interesting and intense music of the last century is beyond me. But then, what do I know ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf8lDWsOgWg

And before someone complains that there is no GG in this post, here are some elephants:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57kR6RsV2iA

Pat

From: maryellen jensen 
Sent: Monday, July 22, 2013 9:12 PM
To: f_minor at glenngould.org 
Subject: Re: [f_minor] and I swore I wouldn't

Thanks for the vote of confidence (on Bernstein/Mahler) Nuncle Pat. 

"He didn’t think in musical categories, he thought in Music. You can say about him what you want, but he was a very clever man."
That goes for both Bernstein and Mahler...
I have recently finished re-reading Jonathan Cott's "Dinner with Lenny: the last long interview with Leonard Bernstein". For those of you curious only as to what "Leonardo" has to say about GG I shall reveal just this: before the last long interview begins, Cott is admiring the diverse photos, drawings and paintings arrayed in Bernstein's Fairfield Connecticut "barn-red music studio (formerly a spacious groom's quarters)" adjacent to the 1750's farmhouse. Pointing out a photograph of Glenn Gould Bernstein remarked: "There he is, my man, my baby!"  Get yourself a copy of the book to find out more and more and more.

Radio France Musique is presenting a 5 part series on Bernstein, with a lot of "Leonardo" at the piano - GLORY !

http://www.francemusique.fr/emission/les-riches-heures-de-l-orchestre-national-de-france/2013-ete/leonard-bernstein-1-5-par-jean-pierre-derrien-07-22-2013

- just press the little white triangle under "reecouter".

As for what GG had to say in his "Data Bank on the Upward-Scuttling Mahler" (a book review of "Mahler: Volume One by Henry-Louis de la Grange): "...his works do impose unusual musical and psychological demands upon the auditor." "However disillusioning the revelation, the mass of data de la Grange has subpoenaed suggests that, notwithstanding his celebrations of the joys of rusticity, his Tolkienesque attachment to a poetry peopled by nymphs and gnomes, Gustav Mahler was a very nasty man - relentlessly opportunistic, blithely indifferent to the fragility of any ego other than his own."  Takes one to know one Mr. Gould - "blithely indifferent" -  indeed. As for Mahler's marriage to Alma, Mr. Gould -  that reknowned expert practitioner of finesse in all aspects of sex, love and happiness -  remarks that Volume One  "draws to a close as the composer is about to commit the major blunder of his life: his marriage to the twenty-three-year-old concert-hall courtesan Alma Schindler."  Perhaps Mahler should have instead sought solace with the wife of a close friend and her children? For a while anyway?? N'est-ce pas? 

Mary  

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From: pzumst at bluewin.ch
To: f_minor at glenngould.org
Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2013 12:53:22 +0200
Subject: Re: [f_minor] and I swore I wouldn't

Mary, good thing you did ! Mahler deserves to be heard. The music is not exactly easy since it ranges from Absolute Joy to Infinite Sadness and you get a mix of various styles, but it is definetly something woth diving into. And good old Lenny might be the best intepretor of Mahler’s music one could imagine. He didn’t think in musical categories, he thought in Music. You can say about him what you want, but he was a very clever man.

And just in case you are new to classical music or only a casual listener I would highly recommend Lenny’s Concerts for Young People series probably on utub or DVD. This stuff was made for louts like me in mind. How come there’s nothing like that on TV anymore ?

Mr. Gould also had a few things to say about Mahler somewhere in his essays, if I only knew where my GG Reader is...

Pat

From: maryellen jensen 
Sent: Friday, July 12, 2013 3:04 AM
To: f_minor at glenngould.org 
Subject: [f_minor] and I swore I wouldn't

7th of July 2013 :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvBbe8Nkgz8

My young Belgian neighbour Virgile (20 years old) shares the same birthdate and he has fallen in love with Mahler.

Mary

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