Quarter Life Crisis

The world according to Sven-S. Porst

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Glenn Gould

613 words

Being a big fan of Glenn Gould, I was delighted to hear that a TV series of twelve one hour segments on him and his music is being broadcast starting this weekend. What was a bit scary about this is that my fan-hood is so well known that I had three different friends pointing the start of the series out to me. Thas was excellent, though, as I don’t study TV schedules religously and I would have missed it otherwise - being broadcast in the middle of the night. So I set up the video recorder to record it (and hope that I’ll remember to do so in the following weeks as well), went out to have a bunch of decent and fantastically cheap cocktails at at our department’s cafeteria with friends and watched the first installment ‘Prelude’ this morning.

And, apart from the fact that it was dubbed (a bit annoyingly in places), it was great. A little bit of background information and a lot of music with Glenn Gould playing. With regard to his playing the piano I am definitely biased and I generally think it’s excellent. He plays with a clarity that I have only very rarely heard elsewhere and which lets me understand and appreciate the music a lot more as I can actually both enjoy the music and get a grasp of the music’s structure which otherwise I wouldn’t.

Seeing him play instead of just hearing is quite amazing. It really suggests that making the music isn’t just about pushing the right keys in the right way at the right time but that the whole playing should be a single smooth flow. Ah right, this sounds like silly esoteric stuff to me – so don’t take it literally but rather guess what I am trying to say. Watching him play is quite good as well as it also lets you see the structure of what he is doing and gives you an impression of that ‘flow’. Even the whole humming and handwaving business looks very natural if not obligatory.

On a slightly less positive note, I tried to figure out whether I can actually sell the Glenn Gould T-shirt (also known as the black shirt with the white blobs on it among my friends). Glenn Gould T-Shirt After having figured out who made the photo (which I had just ‘found’ on the internet) that I based the shirt on, I tried to find out more details. While I wouldn’t even want to make any profit out of this but just thought other enthusiasts might like the shirt as well, and while I’m not even sure to which extend I’d have to ask, I thought that a little ass-covering exercise certainly won’t hurt. And the answers I got were discourageing. As both the photographed and the photographer are dead you should’ve hoped that there’d be no problem. But of course copyright stuff can be inherited these days. And be taken up preferably by large companies or organisations. And frankly, I don’t even want to talk to those as there’ll most likely be a lot of red tape and lawyers around. Which I don’t want to waste my time with.

I do find this upsetting, though. It really seems like I’m caught in one of those FUD scenarios. I consider what I’m doing to be perfectly innocent. But because there are still too many lawyers alive, I’ll have to fear that someone might consider what I’m doing to be illegal somewhere on earth. And it’s not even the money thing I’m concerned about here. I’d happily pay a Euro or so for using the image, but there’s just no way to do that.

April 30, 2005, 16:17

Comments

Comment by patrick: User icon

Hey!

Can I buy that glenn gould shirt??

July 11, 2005, 11:19

Comment by Yann Rodrigue: User icon

Seriously can I buy this shirt ?? I really think it’s nice. Or could you at least send me the file of the image you came up with to do the shirt. I’d make myself one at home (probably a cheap iron-on but still…). it’s getting hard to find a nice shirt that fits me, I’m kind of a big deal, plus I’m picky. The right size of a shirt for me is 24” wide 32” long (33” would be a perfect one though) wich is normaly something around XXL, but it’s super rare. anyway any answer would be greatly appreciated, oh and by the way, were December 23rd at 8pm so…. Merry Christmas!

December 24, 2007, 2:37

Comment by Glennlovers: User icon

I like him! I don’t like you

February 28, 2009, 21:09

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