Glenn Gould: Selected Letters

Desmond Maley is a librarian at the J.W. Tate Library, Laurentian
University.

The fanfare surrounding the 10th anniversary (in 1992) of Glenn
Gould’s death was yet another indication that Canada’s greatest
musician has also become a cultural phenomenon. Among the many
publications to appear was this first collection of Gould’s
correspondence. The editors have selected 184 of 2030 letters—most
from the Glenn Gould collection at the National Library of
Canada—written during the period 1955–82.

Both editors contribute an introduction. While Roberts provides a
personal assessment of Gould based on a friendship that lasted more than
25 years, Guertin traces themes in the correspondence and shows that the
pace of letter writing mirrors Gould’s creative activity; the period
1964–76 represented a high-water mark in this regard.

Gould corresponded with fans, with eminent musicians such as Leonard
Bernstein and Leopold Stokowski, and with friends and colleagues in the
recording and broadcast industries. All the letters sparkle with his
lively wit and intelligence. There are nuggets of insight on favorite
composers such as Bach, Beethoven, Schoenberg, and Strauss, as well as
on performance interpretation, pianos, recorded music, repertoire, and
the necessity of solitude for creativity. The editors provide helpful
footnotes that explain various references in the correspondence (though
a biographical footnote for American jazz pianist Bill Evans is
inaccurate).

It should be stressed that Gould was not writing with publication in
mind. Many of the letters are of a business nature, pertaining to the
recordings and television and radio documentaries that engaged him after
his retirement from the concert stage in 1964. Personal revelations are
kept to a minimum.

The editors do not explain why they did not include any letters written
prior to 1955. In fact, apart from one undated letter apparently written
in 1955, there is no correspondence before late 1956, by which point
Gould’s international concert career was already well under way. Thus,
the early years of Gould’s intellectual formation remain something of
a mystery. Nevertheless, we can be grateful for a collection that
illuminates many aspects of Gould’s life and art.