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<div>Hello Mary,<br>
<br>
Thank you for the Night Train links. A truly brilliant film in
every respect. But I can't really see the connection with the IoN.
The latter is a contrapuntal voice exercise, with actual
interviews being used (no matter where they were conducted; the
idea of something actually taking place at a certain place is in
this kind of work secondary in my opinion). The former has a
direct, but very effective use of meter and pulse, in the latter
something much more complicated is attempted. You can argue
whether Gould was successful in his attempt -- I haven't decided
yet -- but it is a completely different genre than the "Night
Train". Also it is problematic to compare film and radio. Auden is
one of the great poets of the 20th century, Gould is a documentary
maker with an idea to combine the form with musical thinking. And
of course he worked in a tradition, following the ideas proposed
by others. <br>
<br>
I have to disagree with you as far as this appraisal of Gould's
spoken activities. You might just be right about the Serling
connection. I can't tell since we in Sweden didn't grew up with
"The Twilight Zone". Still there is marked difference between that
albeit effective, but rather stereotypic voice quality of Serling
and Gould's very personal character of voice. Even more
importantly, Gould had humour which you cannot accuse Serling of
having. Gould's nervous stutter, and at the same time charming and
warm might be words to use when describing it. He did use over
long sentences, he did make mistakes and he did obscure simple
statements with very convoluted expressions and he did use a
script. But that is part of the package, that is what makes it so
personal.<br>
<br>
One instance where Gould's voice does have a specific impact on me
is part of the radio essay "In Search for Petual Clark". The
transition from the babbling radio presenter and the actual
presentation of the song is to me magical. And that has very
little do with Serling.<br>
<br>
We have discussed the pros and cons of "32 Short films..." before.
It is a very problematic film. As far as performing Gould, Feor is
very impressive. Apart from one aspect: the voice. Without that
specific part of the GG persona something is very much missing.<br>
<br>
Regards,<br>
Jorgen<br>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Sep 21, 2012 at 8:11 PM,
maryellen jensen <span dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:maryellenjensen28@hotmail.com" target="_blank">maryellenjensen28@hotmail.com</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br>
<font style="font-size:12pt" size="3">"And none will hear
the postman's knock</font><font style="font-size:12pt"
size="3"><br>
</font><font style="font-size:12pt" size="3"> Without a
quickening of the heart</font><font
style="font-size:12pt" size="3"><br>
</font><font style="font-size:12pt" size="3"> For who can
bear to feel himself forgotten?"</font><font
style="font-size:12pt" size="3"><br>
</font><font style="font-size:12pt" size="3"><br>
</font><font style="font-size:12pt" size="3"> - W.H. Auden</font><font
style="font-size:12pt" size="3"> (1936)<br>
</font><font style="font-size:12pt" size="3"><br>
</font><font style="font-size:12pt" size="3"> Another,
older, better <b><u>train</u> </b>of thought <br>
<br>
When Glenn Gould was 4 years old living at "The
Beaches" district of Toronto Canada, there happened to
be a great English poet Wystan Hugh Auden and a great
English composer, conductor, pianist Benjamin Britten
who, working with/for John Grierson </font><font
style="font-size:12pt" size="3">(later to head Canada's
NFB) created one of the most breathtaking, original
documentaries ever: "Night Mail" - 1936 - <b>starring a
train</b> (see "Night Mail" Wikipedia): "According to
F. Hardy's biography of Grierson, "Auden wrote the verse
on a trial and error basis. It had to be cut to fit the
visuals, edited by R. Q. McNaughton, working with
Cavalcanti and Wright. Many lines were discarded, ending
as crumpled fragments in the wastepaper basket. Some of
Auden's verbal images -- the rounded Scottish hills
'heaped like slaughtered horses' -- were too strong for
the film but what was retained made Night Mail as much a
film about loneliness and companionship as about the
collection and delivery of letters. It was that
difference that made it a work of art." </font><br>
<font style="font-size:12pt" size="3"><br>
For those who have never seen "Night Mail" before now,
you're in for the ride of your life: "the gradient's
against her but she's on time": <br>
<br>
- this is the finale of the film featuring
Auden/Britten:<br>
<br>
</font><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gmq6mFAEqNQ"
target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gmq6mFAEqNQ</a><font
style="font-size:12pt" size="3"><br>
<br>
- this is the entire film (all 22 magical minutes of
it):<br>
</font><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkLoDg7e_ns&feature=related"
target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkLoDg7e_ns&feature=related</a><font
style="font-size:12pt" size="3"><br>
<br>
<br>
Trains. Distance. The Post. Connections.<br>
<br>
Nuncle Pat and Bob, I'm not at all thrilled with Idea
of North as a work of anything. Gould's tiresome
alliteration and tone of voice annoy me to the point of
distraction. Forget Bill Burroughs (who I have met and
have heard 'reading' live) - Gould saw far too many
episodes of <u>Roger Serling</u>'s "The Twilight Zone"
and for some unfortunate reason or other decided to
adopt Serling's "tone of voice" throughout all of his
(Gould's) documentaries be they film or radio. I laugh
because it's so utterly dreadful; all that's missing is
Serling's cigarette and accompanying curls of smoke. I
love Rod Serling for his slightly mad gravitas
presenting the weird of life but GG was a rank amateur
and noone dared tell him to cut it out. Who was it that
said "but then he would play and it would be alright" or
words to that effect?? (from Bazzana's book) Well
whoever it was was a real friend of GG's although GG
wouldn't have even known it.<br>
<br>
So now crucify me,<br>
<br>
Mary</font> <br>
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