Glenn Gould talks about So You Want to Write a Fugue

Glenn Gould watches, conducts, and discusses the CBC recording of his composition 'So You Want to Write a Fugue' (and fugue writing in general). With Bruno Monsaingeon.

The full video of So You Want to Write a Fugue can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1ain4qftoM Note that there are many subtle musical references in this piece -- for example, after the "just ignore the rules and try" line, the bass and tenor blatantly do just that by singing in parallel fifths, and after the line "John Sebastian must have been a very personable guy" (and before the "never be clever for the sake of being clever" verse) the string quartet cleverly plays a brief quodlibet of JS Bach melodies.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• glenn
• gould
• fugue
• music
• theory
• classical
• composition

[organman52]

This man was completely out of his mind.

[Libellebr]

His eyes are so bright.

[BeBopDeluxe85]

@gybemm Please show me something that points to his general sadness of not being as good as Bach.

[BeBopDeluxe85]

@gybemm ... I have seen it, go buy the CBC Broadcasts. You guys are totally deluded. You think Gould was generally saddened that he was "not as a great as a composer as Bach" . Once again this is your own personal assumption , Gould never expresses his sadness about ( not being as good as Bach) , actually quite the opposite, he Loves Music for music. He was an interpreter, and without argument one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century.

[cybermental]

@BeBopDeluxe85 speculation is the best we have ;)

[octopuscollective]

he got caught doing music in public.

[gybemm]

I love this piece..They put it at the end of a documentary i mentioned in the previous entry I put a few min ago.If you have netflix video streaming watch ''Genius Within, the inner life of Glenn Gould....The best documentary I' ve seen about him and one of the best documentaries I've seen about anyone, If already praised him, after watching this documentary I was much more impressed...so watch or buy it, it is quite fantastic.

[gybemm]

Oh my God , Bebop...despite the bad language I must agree with PorroFirst, i think it is a little simplistic to think he was feeling the pain of not being near Bach...My theory and I could be wrong, reading a lot about Gould and looking at a fantastic award winning documentary: Glenn Gould ''Genius Within'' is that he evolved and he was probably looking back and thinking he would have composed it a little different now...

[DritteWalpurgisnach]

Gould brings it to next level at 1:53

[agniky]

@kebeaman reminds me of the arguments in the holy grail of monty python:D

[kebeaman]

He was out of his mind and therefore a genius.

[BeBopDeluxe85]

@PorroFirst Based on previous experiences with your stupidity, I'd say you are wrong.