Glenn Gould: Bach, Goldberg Variations, 26-30

I first heard of Glenn Gould after seeing a movie entitled Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould – a series of vignettes highlighting certain moments and aspects of his brillian career (and eccentric lifestyle).

I don’t know a ton of Gould’s work, but I’m most familiar with his Goldberg Variations album. It’s strange, but whenever I hear this I’m immediately reminded of college, and of the house where I lived with four other friends.

And oh! How could I forget? I have an old Flash experiment that I made a long, long time ago, also entitled Gould. It was all done by hand, with me matching each bar to the corresponding note played by the left and right hands. It was slow, meticulous work… but I derived a great deal of pleasure out of making that thing (and even skipped a day of work to finish it at home).