Glenn Gould quotes

Glenn Gould was a Canadian pianist, renowned for his unique interpretations of classical music, especially the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. His unconventional playing style and innovative recording techniques set him apart from his contemporaries. He remains one of the most influential and enigmatic figures in the world of classical music. Here are 12 of his quotes:

I tend to follow a very nocturnal sort of existence mainly because I don't much care for sunlight. Bright colors of any kind depress me, in fact. And my moods are more or less inversely related to the clarity of the sky, on any given day.... my private motto has always been that behind every silver lining there is a cloud. (Glenn Gould)
The mental imagery involved with pianistic tactilia is not related to the striking of individual keys but rather to the rites of passage between notes. View quote
Glenn Gould
The prerequisite of contrapuntal art, more conspicuous in the work of Bach than in that of any other composer, is an ability to conceive a priori of melodic identities which when transposed, inverted, made retrograde, or transformed rhythmically will yet exhibit, in conjunction with the original subject matter, some entirely new but completely harmonious profile. View quote
Glenn Gould
I think that if I were required to spend the rest of my life on a desert island, and to listen to or play the music of any one composer during all that time, that composer would almost certainly be Bach. View quote
Glenn Gould
The trouble begins when we start to be so impressed by the strategies of our systematized thought that we forget that it does relate to an obverse, that it is hewn from negation, that it is but very small security against the void of negation which surrounds it. View quote
Glenn Gould
Never be clever for the sake of being clever For the sake of showing off. View quote
Glenn Gould
I believe that 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 adrenalin but is, rather, the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity. View quote
Glenn Gould
The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but rather the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity. View quote
Glenn Gould
One does not play the piano with one's fingers: one plays the piano with one's mind. View quote
Glenn Gould
I think that if I were required to spend the rest of my life on a desert island, and to listen to or play the music of any one composer during all that time, that composer would almost certainly be Bach. I really can't think of any other music which is so all-encompassing, which moves me so deeply and so consistently, and which, to use a rather imprecise word, is valuable beyond all of its skill and brilliance for something more meaningful than that -- its humanity. View quote
Glenn Gould
And I think that this is something that we must all do in this day and age: I think if one is going to pursue performance at a time when the greatest performances of the past and of the present have been made permanent in the record catalogues where anyone can hear [them], one must indeed recompose it or find another way to make a living. I don't think there is an excuse for a performance that simply duplicates what's been done before. (Glenn Gould)
Glenn brought an extraordinary awareness and imagination – he had a very plastic mind - and he was capable of growing, of changing too. Bach offers a very rich field for differentiation of approaches because he was so unspecific about what he did, in terms of performance. But every time one plays a piece, it's an opportunity not so much to go where the composer didn't, but to come closer to what one conceives of as being the experience of the composer or the intention of the composer. View quote
Glenn Gould