Courting the blissful mind.
Although most of us do not think of Mozart or Beethoven as eccentric, in their time certainly they were. Picasso and Duchamp, Scriabin and Schoenberg, all danced to a very different drummer. Still others like La Mont Young or Frank Zappa had no drummer, they just danced.
A fellow who fits snuggly between these groups is the Canadian Pianist, sound artist, TV personality and general brilliant human being, Glenn Gould.
Gould was in his younger years one of the world’s most acclaimed classical pianists. His numerous accolades are too long to mention in this article. His recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, when only 24 years of age, is still considered the finest one ever made. Although he toured the world playing with the finest musicians and orchestras of his time, by the the age of 31 Gould was finished with his concert career. As he put it, “I am not a circus animal to be watched and judged by those who know little of what I am trying to do.” That is when things got interesting.
Glenn Gould was born on September 25, 1932 in Toronto. He came from middle class stock, was introduced to the piano at an early age and like most prodigies loved the countless mysteries of music. His mother was his first teacher, and was, as he put it, ‘quite demanding’.

As a baby, he reportedly hummed instead of crying and wiggled his fingers as if playing chords, leading his doctor to predict that he would “be either a physician or a pianist”. He learned to read music before he could read words. By the age of 3 it was observed that he had perfect pitch. By the age of 10 he was enrolled in the Toronto Conservatory of Music.
Some time in his early teens he took a fall on a boat ramp at the family’s summer house on Lake Simcoe. This injury caused pain and discomfort while playing the piano. From that time and for the rest of his life he only used a chair which was adjustable and crafted by his father. This chair was lower than the standard piano bench, and gave him the advantage of pulling on the keys, which a typical bench seat does not do as well.
His career took off from the beginning. At the age of 24 he recorded Bach’s Goldberg Variations, (as I said, still considered by most experts as the finest recording of the Variations ever made). In 1957 he was the first western pianist to play in Russia since the second World War.
Although he was by any and all accounts one of the great pianists of his time, he was plagued by strange eccentricities that often got more notice than his playing. He might play with his right hand and seem to conduct the orchestra with his left. He often sang and groaned during his performance. He insisted that the hall be very warm while he played, his piano had to be at an exact height, often times making the stage crew provide wooden blocks under each leg. He sat exactly 14 inches from the floor in his adjustable chair.

With all these conditions it is a wonder he played concerts at all. And at 31 years of age, he stopped. He finished his concert career for good in Los Angeles, where satisfied with his playing he left the stage.
He did not stop playing music. To the contrary, his striving for perfection was given an arm up as he mastered recording techniques and played and produced many brilliant performances. Because he would not fly, he built a studio in Toronto and recorded there, while sending the masters to be finished in New York.
Gould became so proficient at recording that he created radio and TV shows which he himself edited. His genius extended far beyond the piano and simple recording. One of his major pieces was done for the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company). This was the iconic TV show Idea of the North. Not only was the sound recording far ahead of its time, 1969-1970, but so was the concept.

In it he explored the idea of isolation as it pertained primarily to those people living at or beyond the arctic circle. He posited that those who found greater isolation actually had closer ties with those around him, than those in the South. Also verifying his thought that “Isolation is the Laboratory of Genius”, Gould continued to do groundbreaking sound production and established himself as a minor TV personality as well.
Unfortunately, a month after his 50th birthday he passed away, leaving a great gap in classical music, sound recording and in the genius that was Glenn Gould.
Here is Glenn playing Goldberg Variations…enjoy!