Glenn Gould - Bach, The Art of the Fugue (OFFICIAL)

[@GIguy]

He was definitely one of a kind, not to mention a very kind gentleman. My families cottage wasn’t far from where the cottage he spent much of his time at was located, so I had the privilege of meeting him as a young boy several times. Even at that age I knew exactly what he represented, but you wouldn’t know it talking to him. He was absolutely brilliant, but at the same time incredibly humble, just a kind, decent, compassionate soul, Who even invited myself and my sister in so we could hear him play, as I would often hide behind a tree listening to him practicing, standing there in bewildered awe. He lived a relatively solitary lifestyle from what I could gather, but he definitely was not antisocial as so many people thought he was, if anything he was quite charming, perhaps because we were so young he treated us with such great respect, but he also treated my family the same way. Even though it was a long time ago, and I only spoke to him a handful of times, he was gracious in every respect, and I admired him so much. I had it not been for my horrendous health, I would have loved to follow in his footsteps, but sadly I lack 99% of the talent he had. There will only ever be just one Glenn Gould, a prodigy, a genius, dare I say often underappreciated for the amount of talent he had to offer all of us.

[@fmoll2509]

What a happy person you are! Thank you for these wonderful memories 💓. Yes, there will only ever be just one Glenn Gould. Just one forever.

[@GIguy]

@@fmoll2509 thanks Marina, and you’re so right, there will never be another one like him… but I try to look at it differently, every generation has their own version of Glenn Gould. The newer ones like Lang Lang, Valentina Lisitsa, Tiffany Poon, plus a few new up and comers, each with their own unique style, their own strengths and talents, will keep classical piano alive, forever. No two pianists will ever be alike, but that’s what makes it so fascinating, and so beautiful, at least for me. I love to hear each performers, individual techniques, although there I say, Mr. Gould outshined them all. Once every century along comes a performer, that is far far ahead of their time, he was one such person, but it doesn’t stop me from opening my mind to new performers, because they’re all incredibly talented people. Ever since I was a child, I have loved classical piano, not sure why, I just do. I don’t come from a musical family, in fact, I am the only person in my family that’s musically, inclined, but perhaps that’s why I appreciate it that much more, because by introducing my family to something they knew nothing about, they are passing it along to their children. Music is not just notes on a page, it’s an international language, one that everybody can understand and appreciate. It brings us all together, no matter where we are from. It has the most amazing ability to make all of us forget about our differences, set aside our problems, and just be together as one to listen to the works of some of the greatest geniuses that ever existed. Perhaps I’m exaggerating a bit, but I’ve always believed music has the ability to cross all socioeconomic, political, and racial barriers, and I think it always will. I’ve travelled the world as much as I could to learn new cultures, to hear his new music, to witness the birth of new performers. I was in China long ago, when Lang Lang was not yet famous. I saw him perform a concert in a small hall with perhaps 100 people, as soon as I heard him play, I knew he was going to be an international superstar, and I consider myself so fortunate to have met two of the greatest pianists within my lifetime. When it comes to music, we have to let go of our preconceptions, political beliefs, hatred’s, and just enjoy, binding us together in one unified force of humanity. Suddenly we’re not members of a country, but of a species. That’s how powerful classical music, or for that matter, all music, can be. That’s why I believe it to be absolutely essential we never let it die, to do so, would be killing a part of ourselves. Anyways, my apologies for rambling, but when it comes to this subject, I could talk forever. Thank you again, enjoy your weekend, and many blessings to you and yours, cheers!

[@fmoll2509]

@@GIguy Вы прекрасно и четко излагаете свои мысли - чувствуется, с кем Вы имели дело по соседству)). И я Вас очень хорошо понимаю и полностью согласна. Дай нам Бог в это непростое время слышать Музыку, тогда мы все понимаем друг друга, как люди, жители одной планеты. Жизнь продолжается, и музыка продолжается, во всем ее богатстве и многообразии, но я могу слушать других, только если это не исполнял Гленн Гульд. Я упрямый однолюб 😄. Всех Вам благ и хорошего дня!

[@fmoll2509]

Уважаемый мистер TJ in Toronto! Прошу прощения, что пишу на своем языке - так быстрее, но английский я понимаю хорошо и буду рада, если у Вас будет настроение поделиться воспоминаниями детства и поговорить о музыке. Ютуб отличная штука! Гленн Гульд был бы счастлив пообщаться со слушателями в таком формате, я уверена. Тем более, на разных языках, без проблем 🤩.

[@m0ment219]

I love this! Thank you for sharing! I'd love to read more of your encounters with him if you can find the time to write here.

[@thomthum2000]

The depth of Gould's analysis of Bach raises my own appreciation of music to a much greater level.

[@Hajjmusic_]

thomthum2000 me too bro!

[@0poison014]

AGREEEEEEEEE!!!!

[@pianosbloxworld4460]

@@0poison014 fugue…well there is indeed a standard beauty to it

[@invinoveritas2377]

I TEAR UP WHEN I HEAR THIS MAN BEYOND WORDS ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL..

[@tatumraul9845]

A trick : you can watch movies at kaldroStream. Me and my gf have been using it for watching a lot of movies during the lockdown.

[@renegerald3289]

@Tatum Raul yea, I have been watching on kaldrostream for since november myself :)

[@paxtonhunter6308]

@Tatum Raul Definitely, I have been watching on Kaldrostream for since december myself =)

[@colemandylan5184]

@Tatum Raul definitely, been using kaldroStream for since november myself =)

[@potatopotato0715]

@@tatumraul9845 shut up

[@sunnyd4734]

Glenn Gould was so unbelievably intelligent even beyond music 🎶. He speaks like he's reading 📚 a Music Appreciation history book written by a PhD.

[@Dr.RolyndDellaSylvan]

@sunnyd4734 Stop if you already know these things. My apologies. Glenn Gould was indeed reading cue cards in some of these broadcasts … and in so many of his broadcasts, he “scripted” in advance what he wanted to say… even in his interviews, the questions and answers were planned in advance. Yes, it’s said that he had photographic memory, perfect pitch… and dystonia, etc. This does not diminish the depth and passion with which he spoke … but it evidences his overarching and crushing aim of perfection … his understanding and goal that his broadcasts and, indeed his recordings, were to last forever. This pressure that he put on himself led to his retreat from concertizing and from recording… and his need to splice, chop up, and paste different “takes” together, and perpetually edit his recordings. There were, of course, other issues-including his mental and physical health- that led to his feeling the need to script ahead of time and to perpetually edit the broadcasts and recordings. Glenn was a tragic artist, a scholar, a genius, and an inspiration. And, for those “in the know,” he was also quite funny… many of his quotes, parts of interviews, etc. were meant to be funny or sarcastic. I wish you health and joy and, many more rapturous musical moments. hug 🫂 from the road, Dr D

[@PointyTailofSatan]

He is SO right about Bach being a musical architect. So many composers try to paint a kind of musical picture in sound. To me, Bach's work is more like an amazing structure, like a kind of musical Eiffel Tower.

[@pianosbloxworld4460]

I know I always compared Bach to an architect, Beethoven to an author and Chopin to a painter for some reason

[@michaelwu7678]

@@pianosbloxworld4460 what about Mozart?

[@pianosbloxworld4460]

@@michaelwu7678 oh yeah, idk

[@bercaferca4554]

Obviously Mozart is a Preacher!

[@bercaferca4554]

Unless Vivaldi is…

[@SlateFx]

There's nothing more harmonically and sonically interesting and unusual to me than that 4th fugue. What emotion is trying to be conveyed? Happiness, sadness, ecstasy, anger, longing, introspection, it seems to be all at once and all extreme forms of each one. Such an intense piece and I can't really find a rival anywhere.

[@hugoclarke3284]

Try Robert Hill's performance of contrapunctus 11 on harpsichord

[@luizashabetnick8059]

so he literally made a power point presentation on his bach love. what a legend

[@pianosbloxworld4460]

@@LuluBodhi Yeah, he’d be able to give 5 hour long presentations on his favorite subject- The fugue.

[@CALVINBYKELVIN]

🎶 Contrapunctus 4 fills my heart with joy 💖💖💖, again and again 🎶

[@mariacasemyr]

I love this harpispiano

[@CodeNameParis]

uh, how can i put this.. thats a steinway grand piano.

[@SouthParkGermany100]

@@CodeNameParis No it's a steinway grand harpsipiano

[@theavodkado]

​@@CodeNameParis you're not wrong but neither is she. It's a modified piano. What point, exactly, were you trying to make?

[@PointyTailofSatan]

It's an experimental harpsipiano made for Gould by Steinway. Basically, they added small T shaped metal bars into the end of the hammers. The metal bars hitting the piano strings produced a metallic harpsichord like sound, but still allowed the dynamic control of a piano. Is a way, it's rather like a kind of super clavichord, but without the ability to bend notes like one can do on a true clavichord.

[@chavruta2000]

Its a neat experiment.

[@laurent7549]

C'est colossal l'art de la fugue, quelle technique exceptionnelle de Glenn gould.

[@iguarni]

Two geniuses! The very best is the composer, the second one Glenn!

[@ssdelacruz_]

Finally... composers are so old that people avoid that detail. The pianist is only playing, the real genius was the one who created it !! It is also difficult to interpret and that is valued. It is the first comment I have read clarifying that. Since these composers were born so long ago, people godify them so much that they end up admiring the prophet more than the creator himself. Thank you

[@waltercarter6163]

That nut's a genius.

[@pianosbloxworld4460]

So now there’s a nickname- Glenn Almond Gould?

[@aslanmustafazadeh4371]

Best of the world

[@anthonysomogyi4153]

What a remarkable, moving and unique performance. Sends chills up one’s spine. And what an illuminating commentary!

[@Patrick_Bentolila]

his mastery of fingers is unparalleled

[@symfoniatragic]

This is incredible...

[@Twentythousandlps]

Watching this and the other Gould videos, it is evident that he wrote his texts and memorized them. Gould had an extraordinary capacity for memorization of music, and here we see no reliance on a prompter; instead he occasionally bows his head while trying to focus on what comes next. A difference between him and Bernstein's teaching is that Gould's scripts are more-or-less textbook prose for the highbrow intellectual, where Bernstein actually wrote scripts to be spoken and to reach the open-minded middlebrow (or would-be middlebrow), who he is trying to reach.

[@markhedman1884]

Bernstein's scripts can be found in the internet. He wrote them by hand. I have a book "The Joy of Music" based on his lectures. He was able to put it understandable language musical concepts. He explained both the simple and profound. Both he and Gould were intellectuals. What you say is accurate, yet I am surprised that years later when I listen to his lectures that Bernstein did not talk down to his listeners, especially children.

[@JohannaCTjia]

Wonderful man.

[@PointyTailofSatan]

It's just fascinating the way Gould almost seems to be conducting his hands, the way a conductor would lead an orchestra. The way his eyes jump from hand to hand as the melodic lines move back and forth.

[@MichaelCWBell]

Nothing he could have said by way of introduction (though worthy as it is) might have placed a fly on the following performance of the fugue. Astounding writing and Gould is equal to it. Very few are.

[@gianlucamarcialis3595]

What a pity that Glenn Gould did not record many Bach's pieces with this instrument.

[@williamedmuntyote183]

but he did record all his most known works at least on grand pianos i listen to them every day

[@gianlucamarcialis3595]

@@williamedmuntyote183 Yes It is true, I was only regretting that Gould did not use often the harpsi-piano of this video.

[@williamedmuntyote183]

@@gianlucamarcialis3595 i see i hadnt noticed he's using a diffetent inatrument (i think i had watched up to only the intro and didnt realize this was a harpsi-piano(

[@PointyTailofSatan]

It's an experimental "harpsipiano" made by Steinway, and given to Gould to try out. I think it sounds amazing. Don't know what happened to it though.

[@fludeball]

It’s probably just a regular piano with thumbtacks in the hammers, like all other harpsipianos.

[@PointyTailofSatan]

@@fludeball If I remember correctly, they had small metal bars floating between the hammer and the strings. Steinway wouldn't bother with anything so crude as the thumbtack method.

[@fludeball]

Really? The Gould books I read left this out. Did they think there was a market for this? They could’ve sold technician-installed conversion kits.

[@pianosbloxworld4460]

@@PointyTailofSatan Just put thumbtacks jeez if it dosen’t change the sound that’s fine. Oh by the way in a documentary about Gould when I heard this recording it used thumbtacks.

[@michelsimon9467]

A fascinating performance!

[@mariacasemyr]

The Fugue starts at 05:12

[@moniasia77]

❤

[@anahitalboyajyan3703]

ДВА ГИГАНТА!!!!!!!👍👏🎼🎹🎶

[@PointyTailofSatan]

Gould isn't actually playing. It's "the chair". It controls Gould's hands, and Gould just watches.

[@ephemeraforever4580]

Been wondering about this.

[@PointyTailofSatan]

It was the Gould's playing of the Contrapunctus IV in his first concert in Moscow in 1957 that electrified the audience. And no simple audience, but an audience of classical music students and instructors from the world renowned music department of Moscow University. The hall was only half full, as no one knew Gould, and because Bach's music was rarely played, as the atheist Communist authorities considered Bach a "church musician". When the intermission arrived, everyone, students and instructors alike, were racing to phones and to nearby dormitories, declaring Gould a musical Orpheus, and for their contacts to drop everything and race to the hall! By the time the concert was over, the hall was standing room only.

[@Wanamaker1946]

He is God-like. Handsome, yet not aware or haughty. Humble always. Possessed to be sure. He is beyond sex.

[@davidbrown1566]

David Bell . Seems like someone is crushing just a little bit;-).

[@galeritaelenora]

Yes! He transcends human qualities. His only flaw was being mortal.

[@pianosbloxworld4460]

@@galeritaelenora What do we need….. A philosopher’s stone?

[@pianosbloxworld4460]

@@davidbrown1566 yes sir

[@thefunkyphantom1322]

This is sooo Gould. I'll be Bach.

[@nuriakbudak3667]

Je ne comprends pas ce que tu dis completement MAİS Je comprends ta musique et ton ame completement ...

[@julianmanjarres1998]

1:14 how is that a dominant eleventh That's a dominant chord played over a tonic pedal

[@ClausMarleau]

Does anyone know what piece Gould is playing at 4:22?

[@someonelol3404]

No lol, this is the contrapunctus IV

[@xdanielyj2557]

Someone lol is correct

[@someonelol3404]

@@xdanielyj2557 dj_riter is maybe a troll, like those who always say "Darude Sanstorm" for any musical question.

[@pianosbloxworld4460]

@phrasel14 notes

[@PointyTailofSatan]

A part of the fugue from the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor BWV 565

[@otterchen]

so often i think about what would happen when Bach and Gould would have met. would there be hate or deep brotherhood among them ?

[@izzzanon]

5:13

[@jiyujizai]

🙄💚🌱🌸

[@LachlanTyrrell2003]

wtf the piano is pitch bending

[@pianosbloxworld4460]

It gets pitchy which is ANNOYING

[@generalgonzales8139]

A

[@MapleSyrupPoet]

Bach = "architect of sound" interesting 🤔

[@phil480.....]

Oui et j'avais déjà lu cette même remarque dans un livre.

[@MapleSyrupPoet]

@@phil480..... oui ...merci beaucoup

[@antoinemariemillet6221]

I dont speak engliche.......

[@mewsdo]

Gould had a brain. So how could he take the Harpsipiano seriously? A piano with tacks embedded in the hammerheads....

[@Exileonbackroad]

I love Gould but his insistence on pronouncing Bach as 'Bock' is really irritating in that way that North Americans generally have of refusing to pronounce non-Anglo names properly.

[@pianosbloxworld4460]

So how are we supposed to pronounce it anyway? I’m a Canadian like Gould. I prounce it “Bock”. Rhymes with “rock”.

[@wazul7676]

​@@pianosbloxworld4460 In IPA it would be transcribed as [bax], I'm sure you can find examples of the proper German pronunciation on KZbin or Wiktionary. Translated to English the German word "Bach" means brook or stream; "Bock" on the other hand (rhyming with rock, even in German) refers to a male sheep or goat (Schafs-/Ziegenbock), so please don't pronounce it like that!

[@bayreuth79]

What pretentious nonsense. Gould places himself above all Bach scholarship and judges from that exalted position. He likes to shock because he doesn’t really have anything worth saying.

[@garrysmodsketches]

Glorified "Bach scholarship" can go suck a turd

[@bayreuth79]

@@garrysmodsketches Profound

[@garrysmodsketches]

@@bayreuth79 go read another vapid article written by a "Bach scholar" instead of listening to a true talent like Mr. Gould

[@bayreuth79]

@@garrysmodsketches You fail to distinguish between Gould’s talent as a performer from his capacities as a musicologist. Gould was a world class pianist- but some of his interpretations are laughable. The tempi of Brahms’ first piano concerto, for instance, are the mechanical way in which he played Mozart. It’s just bad. And his awful recording of Beethoven’s Appasionata. Gould’s greatest recordings were of Bach’s Goldberg Variations (both of them).

[@garrysmodsketches]

@@bayreuth79 "musicologist" oh my god. Imagine believing that musicologists have some kind of authority. You are just an empty head.

[@dougcameron6609]

He has a lot of interesting things to say but his affected smug self satisfied manner makes it impossible to listen

[@okidoke4822]

Listen with your ears not your eyes

[@SERBKOR]

JUST GO TO HELL

[@dougcameron6609]

@@okidoke4822 yeah it’s in the voice too. Guy was a genius. For sure. But what a chump

[@simondavis8300]

In Listening to the substance regardless of style of delivery it seems to me that Gould is far too "absorbed" in what he does to be self conciously pretentious.

[@dougcameron6609]

@@simondavis8300 possibly so. However, whether he is conscious of it or not, he is extremely smug and self satisfied. Unlistenable