Glenn Gould

Biography

Glenn Herbert Gould (; né Gold; 25 September 1932 – 4 October 1982) was a Canadian pianist and broadcaster. Regarded as one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century, he was renowned as an interpreter of the keyboard works of Johann Sebastian Bach. His playing was distinguished by remarkable technical proficiency and a capacity to articulate the contrapuntal texture of Bach's music.

Gould rejected most of the Romantic piano literature—Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, and others—in favour of Bach and Beethoven mainly, along with some late-Romantic and modernist composers. Gould also recorded pre-Baroque composers such as Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, William Byrd, and Orlando Gibbons; Classical composers such as Haydn, Mozart, and Brahms; and 20th-century composers including Paul Hindemith, Arnold Schoenberg, Alexander Scriabin, and Richard Strauss. He championed Gibbons, whom he called his favorite composer.

Gould was also a writer and broadcaster, and dabbled in composition and conducting. He produced television programmes about classical music, in which he spoke, performed, and interacted with interviewers in a scripted manner. He made three musique concrète radio documentaries, the Solitude Trilogy, about isolated areas of Canada. He was a prolific contributor to music journals, in which he discussed music theory. Gould was known for his eccentricities, ranging from his unorthodox musical interpretations and mannerisms at the keyboard to aspects of his lifestyle and behaviour. He disliked public performance, and stopped giving concerts at age 31 to concentrate on studio recording and media. His recording of the Prelude and Fugue in C major (BWV 870) from The Well Tempered Clavier, Book 2 is on the Voyager Golden Record, a sample of the sights and sounds of Earth sent into space with the Voyager spacecraft. He is the subject of Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould (1993) and Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould (2009).

Biography excerpt from Wikipedia contributors, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Formatting and reference markers have been removed; the introduction may be shortened. View contributors and article history.

Source revision used for this excerpt