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From: sincepc
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  • "Crazy" is a medieval concept. To call someone crazy shows someone's own insecurity regarding conformity, the need to 'fit in'.

    There is only one logical distinction: those who are dangerous to others and those who are not. The ones that are dangerous, are the ones we put to prevent harm, that's just practical.

    Glenn Gould is obviously not dangerous to anyone.

  • For some reason, whenever I think about Gould's philosophy on art, I always imagine this Contrapunctus in the background as I'm reading it: "The justification of art is the internal combustion it ignites in the hearts of men and not its shallow, externalized, public manifestations. The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but is, rather, the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity." I think this piece nearly defines that quote for me

  • FANTASTYCZNE !!!

  • He seems like such a creepy dude.

  • he is so not crazy, i realize. you have to be like that to play Bach

  • He sings like my Chinese piano teacher.

  • now THAT is living folks.....he eats his music complety

  • magic...

  • I love how Mr. Gould changes the articulation slightly in the second half to contrast the first!

  • JS Bach, Glenn Gould, nothing better. Thanks.

  • Wow esta pieza me vuelve loco, cuando la oigo me dan ganas de llorar tambien como la chica de abajo...it makes me cry since i was very young, this is a masterpiece of Bach and Gould was a genius...i'm so glad this is on line, thanks a lot

  • i dont like how he plays it. sounds mechanical in its rhytm

  • @modplugrad it's simple: listen again.

  • @modplugrad Bach isn't supposed to be played with too much rubato. It's almost metronomical and any rubato a performer uses is at the brink of heresy. Not that great performers don't do it (check out Gould's Sarabande from the 1st partita), but it is frowned upon by some Bach purists

  • @werq34ac Obviously there are limits to good taste, but on the whole I frown upon some Bach purists!

  • @modplugrad Yes indeed it does And at the same time "right" and "human/expressive". THAT'S the genius of Glenn Gould.

  • Me conmueve hasta la lagrimas!!!!!

  • I love his little chair ... he needs a little plastic beaker with some juice in ...

  • The art of fugue is one of the most important achievement in music history, symbolizing the classic of polyphony. 

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  • Very refreshing look after seeing dozens of musicians hating their instruments and music they were forced to play by their ambitious parents.

  • He looks a little like a mad scientist, but the music is incredible.

  • I LOVE him. Watch the whole thing. He is a crazy, mad Musician. Glad I found this, because I thought he was a boring guy. NOT!

  • Superb performance. Superb.

  • Are you fucking retarded? No sheet music? Who the fuck cares you little twerp? That's not even impressive, that's just EXPECTED out of concert pianists. Fuck you. Seriously.

  • HIs arm spasms at the beginning, and the times when he seems like he drops dead made my day. :D

  • I think youtube.com had a hiccup....it's telling me that there are two people who disliked this. I shall have to inform them of this error. I know, no living soul, in their right mind, could not LOVE this.

  • R-GENIUS Is-Someone Who 'Teaches' The-WORLD How to-'Do'-It, As-Well!!! >(*U^)<

  • great playing, but the awkward body movements ruined everything for me.

  • Auuuhhhhmazing.

  • Gould was an interesting guy. Very interesting book out about him and then the movie as well. Dedicated to perfecting the playing of Bach for years and most of his recordings are still considered the definitive versions even 20+ years later

  • To be honest I love Gould but don't really dig this, it seems pretentious. Just play it!

  • this is a genius ¡¡great!!

  • グルードの演奏はすばらしいです。

  • what is wrong with that jacket? Glenn!

  • he makes the piano "sings" with him! awsome!

  • génial !!!

  • Two of the smartest men that has existed

  • AWESOME!! It is something to watch a performer play his beloved instrument, even if something as difficult as Bach... which he knows by heart!

    Thank you to my dear friend Joe for sending me this at just the right time!

    I needed this breath of peace and wonder for my worn out senses!

  • @RainhadoCanto4

    I'm delighted to learn that you enjoyed it as I did.

    No composer in history has equalled J. S. Bach, and I have never heard anyone who performed his keyboard compositions with the perception of Glenn Gould.

  • Man, I got here from reading GEB. and hearing this makes no sense to me. Makes me feel bad. Maybe i'm too corrupted from listening to trance.

  • @progenitor00 lol. That's how I discovered Bach and Glenn Gould too!

  • @progenitor00

    No, that's normal. It's hard to get into this kind of composition. I would suggest the following videos if you want to get into it:

    /watch?v=pVadl4ocX0M

    /watch?v=xY_GMnQvj6E

    Seeing the voices really helps you learn to hear them.

  • @progenitor00 It's like listening to two or more people speak at once yet their sentences make sense combined and separate. I would suggest listening to his 2 part inventions, they are a bit easier to understand.

  • From 0:16 to 0:31, he's playing the two voices with one hand. Get the sheet music and try it....

  • genialisimo!

  • "Some Tekkers Are Good

    Some Tekkers Are Bayyad

    But Some Tekkers...

    UNBELIEVABLE TEKKERS"

  • Maestro

  • Sitting so low in that chair whilst playing, he looks like Igor, Dr. Frankenstein's assistant, playing some Bach while waiting for The Monster to come alive. he broke every rule of how one was "supposed" to play piano, posture-wise, but made unsurpassed music. And only lived 50 years. Too short a time.

  • There may be a better interpreter of Bach than Glenn Gould, but certainly there's not a cooler one.

  • incredible ¡¡¡¡ is afantastics piece ¡¡¡ is all the good things

  • Breathtaking. Stark genius. Enigmatic. Moving. Sexy. Brilliant. Unparalleled. Powerful. Precious.

  • HE;S SINGING!!!

  • ese wn esta fallao pro es SECO

  • bad posture. great musician

  • theres no cushion on that chair. does that not hurt his bum?

  • extraordinary . . .

  • iambkiam: yeah, I agree. Usually, you can't say what is right and what is wrong what comes to opinions in art/music, but this really makes an exception. There is art of code, there is art of music, and you can usually judge them "by ear", but not fugues perhaps. I used to study music and what comes to these fugues and other Bach there's nothing to compare - yet...

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  • Timeless

  • This might be my single favorite video of any length. Very probable...

  • It always seems like I hear something new whenever I listen to Art of the Fugue

  • THIS GUY IS MADNESS!

    A fugue is 4 voices and he only has two hands! either he is GOro or he got mad skillz..

  • Wow wtf he just played that?!!

    Geez, only people who know music ca see how amazing this is.. Just wow.

  • How can he play the first measures with his right hand only ? That's impossible oO

  • @deude8pool It's Glenn Gould. Nothing is impossible for him

  • @deude8pool Since he did it, it's not :D

  • @deude8pool

    it is possible... imslp DOT org/wiki/The_Art_of_Fugue,_BWV­_1080_(Bach,_Johann_Sebastian)

  • @deude8pool I don't understand how he can play this one hand....and without pedal, there's no illusion of sustaining note....

  • @deude8pool That is why Glenn will always be a greater artist than I could ever hope to be. He put technique aside (because he mastered it) as a boy and just focused on the music. i only wish he could have known the happiness and joy he has brought to my life over the decades.....

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  • @deude8pool obviously not

  • @deude8pool It's not impossible....what is impossible is playing it with one hand in such a way that it sounds like two hands : D

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  • @deude8pool whats cool is that this is the easiest part from all that he can do :-)

  • @deude8pool no, that's very possible, its not even hard

  • @deude8pool No it's not you kind of have to in order to manage the other entries but before I did it I thought the same thing :0)

  • @deude8pool Clearly not impossible ...

  • he has bad posture

  • @44jesusfreak4

    you should about read why his posture is bad...

  • @44jesusfreak4 what about it?

  • you can hear him humming along while he plays.  i like that. :)

  • @Orbital431 Humming? I have some cd's where you can hear him singing and not humming.. Really XD

  • lol I just wrote a small fugue (not really but it sounds like it) and have listened to it all night while working on it and at the end I was like "damn, guess I can wrote a damn good fugue even if it is a small one" and then I turned on this vid. Now it just seems some pointless drivel. Ugly psychotic chaos. This music is so absofuckinglutely genius. There are no words.

  • We need more musicians like him!

  • His hands are like these foreboding spiders of art.

  • pure ecstasy

  • Each distinct voice is so clear...

  • He makes professionals who are in their primes look like first year conservatory students...

  • 4:46,dead...

  • This video is aesthetically pleasing on so many levels.

  • He was a men who lived beneath his art....

  • Glenn Gould,love him or hate him deserves his place as one of the definitive interpreters and performers of Bach.

  • He doesn't just play the music, her performs it. When he suddenly ducks down towards the very end... so passionate. Beautiful.

  • what dreams will it bring my wife... who is a sleep right now...

  • Romantic Bach????

  • His performance is amazing (Bach is amazing!), but he is "disturbing" - Such a troubled soul ... It reminds me a little of Beethoven himself.

  • I don't like this piece when it's played fast. But controlled and majestic yet simple suits me just fine. :)

  • To be honest this recording made me a little tired of the standard late-Gould stuff - I knew before it loaded that it would be painfully slow and that, at least somewhere, it would break into random and sharp staccato. The staccato thing he does really disturbs me, it's just weird.

  • soory but you are generalizing

  • Wonderful, indeed. But I still prefer The Art of Fugue performed by a string quartet, not because piano can't do it properly, but because with a string quartet one has the possibility to hear distinctly the single voices without going apart from the whole...different sounds, but they're still affine. A pianist should be a magician of the timber to do the same.

  • Fortunately Gould is

  • @IAMDACOOOL Yes, he is, indeed.

  • a genius meets another one. the composer meets the interpreter. 2oo years after his death. Would bach believe it, somebody one day would have so much passion for his music. I'm impressed.

  • @fabricedevevre greatly said. i'm impressed too.

  • If only one artefact was to remain from humanity, I'd be happy if it was this

  • A brilliant man & a wonderful musician-his playing of this piece had me mesmerised-but also very troubled.

  • No sheet music - the whole thing exists in his head. Amazing.

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  • @utube9000 actually, none plays bach with sheet in from of him.... not at least formally, at concerts, oficial recordings etc...

  • @SuperMaked91 quite so

  • @utube9000 The whole thing is in his heart. He remembers it because he cares.

  • @utube9000 Not really

  • @utube9000 in his HEART

  • @utube9000 I hope this is not the chief amongst many qualities you noticed here.

  • This is the eternal unfolding of the universe.

  • That is correct, my friend.

  • i like the singing

  • I was so emotionally touch by his performance! I can so see the real J.S Bach playing this song from this performance, the humming and pure emotions that have put into this art of fugue gives a whole-nother dynamic to this song. LOVE IT!

    (Although it's so emotional, I have to admit, I can't controll my self from laughing at 3:53)

  • @kenenth84 LOL I clicked your 3:53 just to see and I DIDN'T expect that. I spit soda all over my keyboard. Man, I guess I should've taken you more seriously, hahaah

  • Haha :-)

    He is too deep into the world of bach. ^^; I doubt he remember what he did on this performance. :)

  • NO! DO NOT make fun of Glenn GOuld! This man has feelings and emotions! Unlike you! You're just a robot with no feeling!

    Beep beep! Boop Boop!

    Is that something you can understand robot?

  • @yoboss1049 Oh get over yourself, I love Gould, I just didn't expect that head jerk there. Man, take a pill.

  • Why don't you go hang out with R2D2 , Mr.Robot?

    Beep Beep! Boop!!!

    lol

    jk

    But seriously GG gets a bad rap by arrogant talentless blowhards because he had the courage to not care about what others thought about him. He embodies pure, honest expression. It makes me puke when I see people making fun of him, saying that he was autistic etc. simply because he was more concerned with the music than with appearances. And he could destroy most anyone in a conversation.

  • @yoboss1049 So where does the robot thing come in? Are you saying my videos lack expression? Or just a general statement that poking fun at him means I lack the proper emotions to understand his style of performance?

  • It's so vertical! I don't hear continuity of line, or shape, or direction. Lots of downbeats, lots of false accents. With all the dissonances, suspensions, and frankly vocal melodic writing (to say nothing of the fact that it is written in 2/2 instead of 4/4 to imitate Renaissance music), I want to hear the piano imitating a chorus. I know I'm supposed to worship Gould -- or at least iambkiam says I am -- but I honestly don't like this.

  • @artiste1212 You don't have to woship Gould but if you dont like this you suck the hairy ballsacks of large, sweaty, rotund men. If you want to hear it imitate a chorus, play it like that yourself. Gould plays it the Gould way buddy. you enjoy penis dick, apples

  • @artiste1212 also I forgot to mention you are full of shit, trying to sound smart. You cant fool people who know music (me) by using vaguely complicated-sounding musical words. You only sound like you know what you are talking about to musical dummies, like whoever voted you r comment up (before I got to it). tough titties. you can line your vertical shape up in the direction of yo mommas big booty, and dissonance her vocal suspension with your 2/2 sized pants chorus.

  • Jeez, not everything has to be fluid perfection. It sounds to me like he's being sharp on purpose.

    Listen to it again, but try to see if there's a picture he's painting with the tonality of it. No need to get overly academic with it... it's just counterpoint.

  • I don't know what you are talking about!

  • there's something loose in that piano. if you listen to 2:13, for example, you can hear a "ringing" as if a string had hit a small bell. occurs twice more over the next ten seconds and a few more times later on when the notes are forceful

  • To answer some questions here:

    Yes, he is singing. This was something Gould always did, and it drove recording engineers NUTS.

    It's commonly believed from people watching him without knowing who Gould was to believe he was crazy. Indeed he was quirky, but not insane. I think it was Bernstein who said, "That nut's a genius," and it's pretty fitting. He's... insanely brilliant.

  • My father always told me I should render Contrapunctus..

  • sophosvii: dont comment on bach or gould because it is obvious you dont understand the deep complexities of either one. Bach is sacred.

  • lol your not even worth the time..

  • The Glen Gould's performance makes you feel that unique and outstanding work by Bach.

  • lol, he missed the first note!!!

  • idiot! you are making fun of a towering genius

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  • Silence... The master is playing...

  • Gould was the consummate artist. Anyone who can't see that from this outstanding performance is basically musically illiterate, and has no ability to distinguish between that which is great in art and that which is mediocre. Time will reveal:- who was right and who was wrong....

    BK

  • iambkiam: People only appreciate those who are told to be the 'masters' Don't ask for people to recognize real mastery by they own.

  • How do I music snob?

  • @iambkiam

    that is something quite arrogant to say :-) I'd say it's all a matter of personal preference :-) I like Gould's performance just as I like others..

  • @iambkiam BK is burger king ?

  • @iambkiam I entirely agree!

  • @iambkiam

    well he's been dead for 28 years so I guess time has already revealed and although old Gould recordings still sell they probably don't sell any better than those of many other old, dead pianists - i.e not very well.

  • Amazing! Bravo Maestro Gould...!

    What a mastery...thank you for that.

  • i can't heard the start D

  • Ambivalence...endless hope for the purification of light, but forever forlorn for the despair of darkness...a soul torn

  • It is my view that Gould's career and abilities peaked several years prior to this recording and that by this stage he was confused himself as to what he was trying to do. The interpretation isn't consistent with any of his other Bach. Completely unremarkable and average.

  • Really? Out of all the interpretation I've heard, this one is my favorite.

  • If you write the following sentence in youtube, you will find the best performance of this work:

    JSBach - The Art of Fugue - Contrapunctus 1 - Musica Antiqua Köln

    It is played by Musica Antigua Köln, conducted by Reinhard Goebel. As oposed to Gould, Goebel is an expert in Bach's music. Goebel is an excellent musicologist of the baroque centuries

  • You can't compare an orchestra and a pianist even if it is the same piece.

    Gould is not known for being so historically accurate (correct me if I am wrong), he is known for his interesting, eccentric perspective on the music. I did listen to Goebel's and his is very good, my favorite for an orchestra. Gould's is my favorite for the piano (I also like Aimard's but his does not compare to Gould's)

  • It's good that most people do not care about things like that.

  • i don't think bach would have cared what people play it on. He would probably enjoy it quite alot

  • You can call it shulamuskationborg for all I care, it's amazing and beautiful in every way. (dani1978el)

  • Gould not brought, but at every singel listening BRINGS new insight into this great composition. When one realizes this, all the critisism, no matter how justified, just seems irrelevant.

  • How come on every single Glenn Gould video someone ALWAYS has to say he is doing it wrong? it is fine if you don't like him but if you don't like him you don't have to listen to him, I can't believe some people have the nerve to insult one of the greatest pianists who ever lived.

  • Ah! Qu'il la joue bien!

    Quelqu'un sait-il s'il est possible d'acquérir la partition gratuite avec les doigtés?

  • Glenn Gould and Bach, inseparatable!