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L'ala del turbine intelligente: scritti sulla musica
Se c’è una leggenda musicale che è nata nei nostri anni, è quella di Glenn Gould. Questo pianista apparve fin dall’inizio nel segno di una novità radicale, che sconcertò molti e incontrò anche opposizione, finché i più si arresero all’ammirazione. Chiunque abbia ascoltato qualche incisione di Gould ha capito che qui si pretendeva una perfezione quanto mai azzardata dal suono dello strumento. Una perfezione che investe la natura dello strumento stesso, come se dietro tutta la letteratura pianistica si lasciasse intravedere la nervatura dell’idea musicale, come se un costante color «grigio ferro», un colore dietro il colore, compenetrasse il suono. Così, in quel suono, si percepisce una concezione idiosincratica, altamente complessa ed esigente, della musica. Leggendo questi scritti, che formano una vera storia della musica secondo Glenn Gould, si potrà constatare da quale rigoroso esercizio della mente e delle dita (se ricordiamo che «ascesi» significa in origine «esercizio») sia nata quella realtà che si intuisce all’ascolto. Oltre che un pianista, Gould è stato un modo inedito di pensare la musica. Ciò che Gould dice di Bach o di Schoenberg, di Richard Strauss o di Beethoven, di Wagner o di Musorgskij, di Mozart o di Boulez, è sempre di un’affilatezza e di un’acutezza che obbligano a rimettere in questione ogni volta le nostre inclinazioni, tanto che Leonard Bernstein ha definito questi scritti «una lunga serie di deliziosi e provocanti shock». Pieno di paradossi nello scrivere come nel suonare, Gould rivela in queste pagine, oltre la musica, se stesso: non solo nella memorabile autointervista che apre il volume, ma nei numerosi a parte extra-musicali, spesso caustici e irridenti, e ogni volta connessi con quell’assolutismo etico che trovava, per lui, nella musica il suo luogo di elezione. Ascoltandolo, nelle note come nelle parole, non si può non capire come sia nata la sua leggenda. Soprattutto se ricordiamo ciò che una volta Gould stesso disse a un intervistatore: «Sa, la verità è talvolta quasi leggenda». Il volume raccoglie scritti composti tra il 1956 e il 1978.
416 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1983
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About the author
Glenn Gould
54 books38 followersGlenn Herbert Gould was a Canadian pianist who became one of the best-known and most celebrated classical pianists of the 20th century. He was particularly renowned as an interpreter of the keyboard music of Johann Sebastian Bach. His playing was distinguished by remarkable technical proficiency and capacity to articulate the polyphonic texture of Bach's music.
After his adolescence, Gould rejected most of the standard Romantic piano literature including Liszt, Schumann, and Chopin. Although his recordings were dominated by Bach, Gould's repertoire was diverse, including works by Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, Brahms, pre-Baroque composers such as Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, and such 20th-century composers as Paul Hindemith, Arnold Schoenberg and Richard Strauss. Gould was well known for various eccentricities, from his unorthodox musical interpretations and mannerisms at the keyboard to aspects of his lifestyle and personal behaviour. He stopped giving concerts at the age of 31 to concentrate on studio recording and other projects. Gould was the first pianist to record any of Liszt's piano transcriptions of Beethoven's symphonies (beginning with the Fifth Symphony, in 1967).
Gould was also known as a writer, composer, conductor, and broadcaster. He was a prolific contributor to musical journals, in which he discussed music theory and outlined his musical philosophy. His career as a composer was less distinguished. His output was minimal and many projects were left unfinished. There is evidence that, had he lived beyond 50, he intended to abandon the piano and devote the remainder of his career to conducting and other projects. As a broadcaster, Gould was prolific. His output ranged from television and radio broadcasts of studio performances to musique concrète radio documentaries about life in the Canadian wilderness.
After his adolescence, Gould rejected most of the standard Romantic piano literature including Liszt, Schumann, and Chopin. Although his recordings were dominated by Bach, Gould's repertoire was diverse, including works by Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, Brahms, pre-Baroque composers such as Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, and such 20th-century composers as Paul Hindemith, Arnold Schoenberg and Richard Strauss. Gould was well known for various eccentricities, from his unorthodox musical interpretations and mannerisms at the keyboard to aspects of his lifestyle and personal behaviour. He stopped giving concerts at the age of 31 to concentrate on studio recording and other projects. Gould was the first pianist to record any of Liszt's piano transcriptions of Beethoven's symphonies (beginning with the Fifth Symphony, in 1967).
Gould was also known as a writer, composer, conductor, and broadcaster. He was a prolific contributor to musical journals, in which he discussed music theory and outlined his musical philosophy. His career as a composer was less distinguished. His output was minimal and many projects were left unfinished. There is evidence that, had he lived beyond 50, he intended to abandon the piano and devote the remainder of his career to conducting and other projects. As a broadcaster, Gould was prolific. His output ranged from television and radio broadcasts of studio performances to musique concrète radio documentaries about life in the Canadian wilderness.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
February 20, 2019
His writing is an intriguing mix of cautious flamboyance with a fluidity that coincides awkwardly with his nitpicky compulsiveness. Like Wittgenstein, he probingly uses multiple voices to aim at a general systematic clarification of the rules of music and his many, many opinions.
Here's an example of a typical sentence from Gould, to show you how his mind works:
"Viewed from a slightly different perspective, however, the conformity of the architecture frequently serves to emphasize imaginative key relationships....Again, from this perspective, the sequential non sequiturs of the 'development' which appears to rush with unseemly haste towards the recapitulation (the development sections in each of the sonatines are treated with Mozartine dispatch; the central episode from the first movement of the second of these works is but nine bars long), and the de facto dominant=tonic transfers of the recapitulation contribute to the plot in direct relation to the expositions ambiguity."
The recap contributes to the plot in relation to the expositions ambiguity? Whaa? Can't he just say the expo felt ambiguous to him emotionally but that the recap contrasted that? Why does he always insist on making everything so dreadfully elaborate? He was talking about Strauss here. Gould is always on the lookout for clarity, but tragically he's always confusing the reader, leading them this way and that way without a sense of his current destination, always lingering about on possible previous and future destinations, and wading through these sentences is a bit like swimming through air. It's hard to find a sense of balance or gravity. His word choices are fraught with idiosyncratic decisions, like here:
"But in Enoch Strauss only wishes to extemporize and has no desire to disguise thereby a more intense structure." The word thereby was an odd choice. So many elusive and odd choices in his writing and I feel like he was essentially very whimsical in how he went about deciding what topics to include. He probably didn't think of himself as whimsical, but that's how it comes across, deep yet whimsical.
But I would recommend this for those who want to know more about the workings of Goulds mind, or are simply looking for wacky and entertaining essays that go from music composers, the soviet union, art, all the way to detours into sore throat lozenges, of all things.
("Let me suggest to you that the strongest motivation for the invention of a lozenge would be a sore throat. Of course, having patented the lozenge, one would then be free to speculate that the invention represented the future and the sore throat the past, but I doubt that one would be inclines to think in those terms while the irritation was present. Needless to say, in the case of my tracheitis at Slazburg, medications of that sort was---")
The interviewer then asks Gould if he stopped performing on stage because of a sore throat. And Gould's response is to ask if that's objectionable or not. The interviewer then tells Gould that he clearly never "savored the joys of a one-to-one relationship with a listener" and that it's narcissistic. And, of course, the nutcase interviewing Glenn Gould is- you guessed it- Glenn Gould.
You think you're on a spaceship one moment, then Gould shows you he actually anticipated a camel ride in the desert and there was never a spaceship at all but a special effects expert and arranger in the background doing a strange jig while weaving this illusion Gould doesn't consider an illusion but a quest. Then there's all the internal squabbles about subjective stuff to consider.
In his heart, Gould is a juggler, and cannot, for the life of him, manage a single sentence without juggling another sentence in it, being elaborate at all costs.
Here's an example of a typical sentence from Gould, to show you how his mind works:
"Viewed from a slightly different perspective, however, the conformity of the architecture frequently serves to emphasize imaginative key relationships....Again, from this perspective, the sequential non sequiturs of the 'development' which appears to rush with unseemly haste towards the recapitulation (the development sections in each of the sonatines are treated with Mozartine dispatch; the central episode from the first movement of the second of these works is but nine bars long), and the de facto dominant=tonic transfers of the recapitulation contribute to the plot in direct relation to the expositions ambiguity."
The recap contributes to the plot in relation to the expositions ambiguity? Whaa? Can't he just say the expo felt ambiguous to him emotionally but that the recap contrasted that? Why does he always insist on making everything so dreadfully elaborate? He was talking about Strauss here. Gould is always on the lookout for clarity, but tragically he's always confusing the reader, leading them this way and that way without a sense of his current destination, always lingering about on possible previous and future destinations, and wading through these sentences is a bit like swimming through air. It's hard to find a sense of balance or gravity. His word choices are fraught with idiosyncratic decisions, like here:
"But in Enoch Strauss only wishes to extemporize and has no desire to disguise thereby a more intense structure." The word thereby was an odd choice. So many elusive and odd choices in his writing and I feel like he was essentially very whimsical in how he went about deciding what topics to include. He probably didn't think of himself as whimsical, but that's how it comes across, deep yet whimsical.
But I would recommend this for those who want to know more about the workings of Goulds mind, or are simply looking for wacky and entertaining essays that go from music composers, the soviet union, art, all the way to detours into sore throat lozenges, of all things.
("Let me suggest to you that the strongest motivation for the invention of a lozenge would be a sore throat. Of course, having patented the lozenge, one would then be free to speculate that the invention represented the future and the sore throat the past, but I doubt that one would be inclines to think in those terms while the irritation was present. Needless to say, in the case of my tracheitis at Slazburg, medications of that sort was---")
The interviewer then asks Gould if he stopped performing on stage because of a sore throat. And Gould's response is to ask if that's objectionable or not. The interviewer then tells Gould that he clearly never "savored the joys of a one-to-one relationship with a listener" and that it's narcissistic. And, of course, the nutcase interviewing Glenn Gould is- you guessed it- Glenn Gould.
You think you're on a spaceship one moment, then Gould shows you he actually anticipated a camel ride in the desert and there was never a spaceship at all but a special effects expert and arranger in the background doing a strange jig while weaving this illusion Gould doesn't consider an illusion but a quest. Then there's all the internal squabbles about subjective stuff to consider.
In his heart, Gould is a juggler, and cannot, for the life of him, manage a single sentence without juggling another sentence in it, being elaborate at all costs.
August 11, 2017
Per me Mozart non è morto troppo presto, ma troppo tardi. Questa frase di Glenn Gould, letta su un articolo in occasione di un anniversario sulla sua morte, mi fece venir voglia di saperne di più su quello che già definivo un presuntuoso stronzetto. Come diavolo si permetteva questo tizio, di criticare Mozart, mica laqualunque? Pronta a difendere il mio idolo, compro questo libro e, come spesso capita con i grandi odi, mi innamoro perdutamente. Scopro un genio. O perlomeno un grande artista, un interprete fuori scala, un critico iconoclasta e amante del paradosso ma sempre onestissimo nell'integrità delle sue scelte. E poi un uomo che amava più di tutto stare da solo, ma tutt'altro che misantropo. Un virtuoso che aveva il mondo musicale ai suoi piedi, e che si è ritirato giovanissimo senza ripensamenti. Uno sperimentatore amante delle nuove tecnologie, ma non per questo freddo e distante, anzi. E' facile essere passionali con Chopin, ma Glenn Gould ha suonato Bach come nessuno prima e dopo di lui. Sono ancora convinta che su Mozart abbia detto una cazzata, ma ora lo penso con l'indulgenza divertita che avrei se fossi innamorata di un milanista, per dire.
August 9, 2008
great book about a brilliant weirdo
Read
January 11, 2024Among so many other captivating thoughts, Gould, in the final interview, describes his favorite Strauss piece as “asexual.” What is his problem???? Freak.
April 1, 2017
finito terminato ascoltato e da rileggere e riascoltare a capitoli sparsi L'ala del turbine intelligente, scritti sulla musica - Glenn Gould, Toronto, 1932-1982
In ordine di apparizione i miei pensieri capitolo dopo capitolo:
mmhhh sarà paccosissimo, raccolta di scritti di uno spocchioso asociale su temi di musica classica, con predilezione per il barocco antico. Ma è da un po' che lo voglio affrontare: pronti via, si parte con la lettura
ah ah un'autointervista! ma parla serio o si sta a divertire? e non capisco di chi si prende gioco, di sè, dei suoi contemporanei...di me?
altro che ombroso e noioso musicista, questo è una rock star del pianoforte, e quanto mai pungente, intelligente, erudito. Incredibile
ora mi ci impegno e imparo un po di musica. Spotify per ascoltare i brani citati e dizionario di musica per i termini che non conosco. Ci metterò una vita
dai che qualcosa ci capisco, o intuisco, o interpreto, che ne so. Mi ci sto divertendo
ah ah l'orario ferroviario di Santa Fè in musica non me l'aspettavo proprio
che dire poi della fuga di Gould? So you want to write a fugue?
insomma, una idea della storia della musica me la sono fatta, da Scarlatti ad Alban Berg, partendo da una lettura difficile, e divertendomi molto. Continuerò sul tema andando a ritroso adesso: cercherò qualcosa di più semplice, da leggere e da ascoltare.
Bello bello, sono contenta.
Buone letture e buon ascolto a tutti!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 9, 2008
What an unusual man and character. And yet his recordings have left us so much richer.
April 23, 2011
This would have been better for me if I had at least SOME knowledge of music theory. It's still fun though, when I can understand it. Glenn made me feel bad for liking the emperor concerto though
Read
May 12, 2011Very cool and the best pianist.
October 24, 2011
Absolutely amazing!
August 11, 2025
He is absolutely right that we use chronological categories as a crutch to do all of our aesthetic evaluations in music. Bach and R. Strauss are his principal case studies in the absurdity of using temporal progression as our main criteria for excellence. This is the main reason why music history and even theory classes have a pernicious side effect.
October 29, 2025
sono ignorante
May 1, 2022
An important collection of essays and writings that allow for continued glimpsing back into the thoughts and ideas of a fascinating mind. Glenn Gould showed so much excitement in his work and life's practice. It is always a joy to refer back to his essay in particular regarding his fascination with the idea of "north" and his journeys through Northerly Canada.
January 29, 2023
Gould, Glenn (editor Tim Page) - The Glenn Gould Reader
Culled from an untold amount of essays, interviews, liner notes, this collection ranges from insightful, to controversial, to funny.
Many of the musical explorations in the first section were beyond me. Pages of staves and notes support explanations, but those are best for sight-readers.
Gould’s essays on Schoenberg are passionate and persuasive, even though I still have limited appreciation and understanding of this composer.
His position towards Beethoven is far more dismissive, which I gather is genuine and not merely provocative posturing.
Recollections of Stokowski and Rubinstein make for highly entertaining reading.
Other essays are completely off the track. Praising the combo of Petula Clark and Tony Hatch while pooh-poohing the flash-in-the-pan group, The Beatles. Thing is, for me, Pet evokes Swinging London better than any other artist.
The stray interviews with himself prove laugh out loud funny.
Gould also crafted radio plays of which I was unaware. Owing to his articles on “The Idea Of North” and “The Latecomers” I now intend to track these down and give a listen.
Altogether an engaging book and certainly not just for Gould fans or Classical enthusiasts. Gould’s predictions of recording and editing techniques are downright uncanny in their accuracy.
Culled from an untold amount of essays, interviews, liner notes, this collection ranges from insightful, to controversial, to funny.
Many of the musical explorations in the first section were beyond me. Pages of staves and notes support explanations, but those are best for sight-readers.
Gould’s essays on Schoenberg are passionate and persuasive, even though I still have limited appreciation and understanding of this composer.
His position towards Beethoven is far more dismissive, which I gather is genuine and not merely provocative posturing.
Recollections of Stokowski and Rubinstein make for highly entertaining reading.
Other essays are completely off the track. Praising the combo of Petula Clark and Tony Hatch while pooh-poohing the flash-in-the-pan group, The Beatles. Thing is, for me, Pet evokes Swinging London better than any other artist.
The stray interviews with himself prove laugh out loud funny.
Gould also crafted radio plays of which I was unaware. Owing to his articles on “The Idea Of North” and “The Latecomers” I now intend to track these down and give a listen.
Altogether an engaging book and certainly not just for Gould fans or Classical enthusiasts. Gould’s predictions of recording and editing techniques are downright uncanny in their accuracy.
February 17, 2008
Glenn Gould was not only one of the most celebrated pianists of our time and a participant in the radio fidelity revolution, but he also was an interviewer, composer, and writer who occasionally employed a pseudonym. if you liked "32 short films about Glenn Gould", you will love this book. if you read nothing else, peruse his interviewing series on Stokowski.
July 21, 2008
"History, thank God, should not and does not work that way. The process of historical selection is notoriously insensitive to who got where first, but deeply involved with who did what with most sensitivity."
Read
May 17, 2011è una musica, in breve, che non conosce né inizio né fine, una musica senza un vero punto culminante e senza una vera risoluzione: una musica che è come gli amanti di baudelaire, "mollement balancés sur l'aile / du tourbillon intelligent".
glenn gould sulle goldberg
glenn gould sulle goldberg
November 10, 2024
The brilliance and breadth of criticism in this book of essays on an interesting variety of musical topics is breathtaking. Whether it is comments on a particular composer or issues like the audience for classical music performances, this is a continually enlightening and entertaining book.
October 15, 2012
this was great - why are people still writing about gould - is there no other great musicians to write about?????????
December 10, 2013
Fascinating, if a little hard to crack in places.
June 18, 2022
d-bar...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 4, 2022
This is a must. I feel that contained within these pages, is the secret to Glenn Gould...if only I could understand half of what he is saying.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews