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<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">Hiya Michael,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">During the Christmas season, my wife forces
me to watch "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" dozens of times. Your comment about
"The Genius Within" reminded me of the Grinch -- but without the last act, in
which, by a miracle, the Grinch's heart expands several sizes, and he learns the
true spirit of Christmas.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">I don't exactly object to your negative
comments. But even before "The Genius Within" was broadcast last week, some
recent f_minor posts pointed out an important aspect of the passage of time -- a
great deal of time -- and what it's done to the world's familiarity with
and appreciation of Glenn Gould.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">Glenn Gould no longer shocked us by dying,
at age 50, yesterday or last year. He died in 1982. A whole generation has been
born, studied, and learned to love keyboard music -- </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"><STRONG><EM>"Now there arose up a new king
over Egypt, which knew not Joseph." [Exodus 1:8]</EM></STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">We here on f_minor have spent decades
accepting, without challenge, Glenn Gould's monopoly certainly of J.S. Bach.
Others have no difficulty generalizing both his unchallenged mastery of keyboard
technique regardless of composer. Others continue to be astonished by Glenn
Gould's research and scholarship into past styles -- his guesses about the
composer's interpretative wishes in the age before barrel organs, piano
rolls and finally Edison recording.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">But a lot of time has passed, and the
f_minor community no longer "owns" classical keyboard music. We now live in
a world of young heretics and blasphemers for whom Glenn Gould is just one
of many talented keyboard artists. And many of his modern rivals do
something wonderful which Glenn Gould refused, for most of his musical life, to
do: They tour and play the piano for audiences, thus offering a thrill Glenn
Gould, rightly or wrongly, denied the world.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">Not a note of Glenn Gould's recorded music
has changed or in any way degraded.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">But the audience has changed -- naturally
and yet radically. A pianist magically touches the human heart. That's why we're
all here, because of Glenn Gould's magic on our hearts.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">But since 1982, there have risen up new
magicians, and audiences with new hearts.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">I would not disagree with any of Michael's
criticisms of "Genius Within." I praised it to the skies for the unexpected
pleasure so much of it gave me -- the interviews with the Foss family, the
ability to put faces and voices to dozens of women and men we've always known
played huge roles in Glenn Gould's life. But "Genius Within" by no means has any
claim as the finest piece of film or television that have chronicled Glenn
Gould.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>Rather, it's new, and has lots of new stuff in it. And thus it's of great
value for young music lovers <STRONG><EM>"which knew not Joseph."
</EM></STRONG>And f_minor -- at least the older among us -- have to fasten our
seatbelts and prepare for the shock of a new world that either doesn't know who
Glenn Gould was, or for whom Glenn Gould is just one pianist competing with a
dozen younger pianists for the new world's ears and hearts.</DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>Michael: Don't be such a Grinch. It was a lovely and valuable piece of
documentary television, and did only good things for our guy. I got an e-mail
the next day from a woman who isn't any kind of classical music expert, and she
was fascinated at her first introduction to his music, his achievements, and his
personality. Now she wants to buy his music and learn lots more about him.</DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>As the teens say: It's all good.</DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>Bob<BR></FONT><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=mmacelletti@sbcglobal.net
href="mailto:mmacelletti@sbcglobal.net">michael macelletti</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=f_minor@glenngould.org
href="mailto:f_minor@glenngould.org">f_minor@glenngould.org</A> ; <A
title=gmadoodat@hotmail.com href="mailto:gmadoodat@hotmail.com">gail
paynter</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Monday, January 03, 2011 8:30
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [f_minor] non-genius
without</DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">
<DIV>last night ( really this morning, on vhs ) i finally got to view " genius
within ". or the first part of it. my one word impression has to
be nauseating. the only relief i got from the disgusting non-stop, pandering
dialogue came when the satelite broke up the sound or picture. i could not
stand watching, or worse, listening to it for more than forty minutes. if
you're interested in gg on film, turn to ' on and off the record ', the
complete gg edition on vhs, or even the alchemist. ( from which much of this
was stolen. along with the russian journey on vhs , which is just as bad
for the same reason ) . but, by all means, stay clear of this film
unless you have a high tolerance for posthumous malarkey. </DIV>
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