"Glenn Gould playing at the Columbia Recording Studio in New York in March 1063."

Who knew recording studios were so well outfitted in the 11th Century.

Glenn Gould's humming is from his heart and embedded in his music as thoroughly as Bob Wills' talking is in his music. I can't imagine either without their voices. Anyone who thinks either's music is impure and ruined by their voices simply has no feeling for real music.

Does the book say whether Gould was left-handed? His left hand playing is certainly very bold and sure as he strides the lower register counterpoints. A good example is the 3rd movement of Bach's Concerto for Piano in Fm (BWV 1056.) I wonder if Gould recorded it playing the CD 318.

A somewhat recent release from Gould's label was a kind of Gould Karoke version of the original Goldbergs. A software filter excluded Gould's humming along; another program entirely transformed Gould's piano performance into a MIDI file that could be recreated on something like a Yamaha Disklavier, which was then recorded and released on CD.

I suspect, however, that the real OCD of Gould was manifest in his approach to recording -- for every eight minutes of recording, or so the legend goes, Gould spent fifty-two minutes of each hour listening. In that sense, the instrument could have been this or that. Show me the freight bills transporting that piano from Toronto to the 30th Street studios in NYC, and I might relent. The truth is: Piano tuners are easy to transport, pianos a little tougher.

Gould's obsessiveness was itself the heart of his musicmaking. Check out his radio work at the CBC in the Solitude Trilogy; check out the reviews of his Mozart concertos with Bernstein where Gould conspicuously sat reading the newspaper between the soloist bits. Should we believe that that piano onstage with the NY Phil was the perfect piano cited in the book? I'm not sure.

It's Ernst Krenek, not Ernest Krenek.

Back in the days when I was a famous concert pianist, we all knew Glenn Gould real well, we liked him, and we called him good old Glen, but we never guessed he was THAT old.

There are only a few experiences in one's life that one can call a "peak experience." For me, that includes my first hearing of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony conducted by Arturo Toscanini. Another is my first hearing of Gould's version of the Bach Goldberg Variations (Columbia Records). It was a true revelation. Sadly, his 1980's redo of the Goldberg was to me, a step backwards. That may be partly because one treasure's ones peak experiences, and having it questioned by Gould himself with a later version was a disappointment. But when it comes to Bach, Gould set a unique standard. His Beethoven by contrast, seems too quirky. Still my admiration for Gould is unbounded.

flexor digitalis profundus synaesthetics

Didn't you mean to write, "The nut was a genius"?

"If you can't be good, be colorful."

I think this is the piano Gould played on the recording of Bach's two and three part inventions. The playing is sublime, but the piano itself is idiosyncratic - it hiccups in places and has a reedy quality. That plus the humming can be distracting, but somehow it suits the pristine perfection of the music itself, making it more immediate and accessible.

We know he did not like a Moog. But Moogs back then were not a keyboardists keyboard. In terms of tone and timbre now though you can make an electronically enhanced piano or better yet, a Synclavier do pretty much whatever you want it to.

You must never have played piano or any other instrument seriously to suggest that an artificial piano sound could ever be the same as playing a real instrument. There's a reason they still get orchestras to record music instead of synthesizing it. Today's synthesizers are incredible, but they're not the real thing and anyone with an ear can tell!

About Glenn Gould is a magnificent film, and Colm Feore is wonderful as Gould. The film is a series of short films based on the Goldberg variations, and they range from straight biographical vignettes to abstract bits set to the variation they're representing.

If you want to understand a little bit about Gould, see the film. Even if you don't much care for the man, it's a great experience.

doesn't matter, he wasn't after a true 'piano' sound. He was after a sound he heard in his head.

Gould's or any other artist's music however, another pianist who was a genius, albeit in another genre was Errol Garner.

You can hear his humming as he played.

As an avid listener, these things never bothered me as, I have always been able to tune out and/or into that which I wanted to hear.

As just a common old fan of classical, symphony and jazz, I enjoy piano most.

concerning the symbiosis of classical and jazz music:

For those of you who do not understand this symbiosis, listening to Bernstein's "BURLESQUE TROMBONE", esplecially Elegy for Mippy ll and its danses will surprise you.

You do the math.