[HN Gopher] Verne Edquist - Glenn Gould's Piano Man
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       Verne Edquist - Glenn Gould's Piano Man
        
       Author : bookofjoe
       Score  : 48 points
       Date   : 2020-09-08 16:40 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.glenngould.ca)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.glenngould.ca)
        
       | thirteenfingers wrote:
       | Man what an extraordinary guy. I love reading about people like
       | Mr. Edquist who kind of live in the shadow of great artists like
       | GG and make their art possible, especially when dealing with such
       | artists requires a bit of head-butting.
       | 
       | Highly recommend the author's book "A Romance On Three Legs",
       | which she mentions in the article.
        
       | GnarfGnarf wrote:
       | Glenn Gould's execrable habit of cacophonic humming dooms his
       | recordings.
        
         | wackget wrote:
         | Don't ever listen to Keith Jarrett or your head will explode.
        
           | lb1lf wrote:
           | Incidentally, I was listening to the Koln concert as I read
           | this. I laughed out loud.
        
           | jedimastert wrote:
           | Or a huge number of jazz musicians in general. In the jazz
           | courses I took in college is was part of the training.
        
             | spekcular wrote:
             | Really? What professional pianist besides Jarrett has
             | audible vocalizations on their recordings?
        
               | tectec wrote:
               | I have an Oscar Peterson CD with audible vocalizations
        
         | mynameishere wrote:
         | You exaggerate but it sure is irritating. It goes to show how
         | someone's fame will generate all manner of excuses for behavior
         | that would get slapped out of a beginner--or novice--or any
         | other professional.
         | 
         | And--just guessing--I doubt many composers would appreciate the
         | new, improvised parts.
        
         | googlryas wrote:
         | Disliking something well liked doesn't make you interesting.
        
         | frakt0x90 wrote:
         | I disagree. It's like a painter putting their name/face in a
         | painting. I always smile when I hear his humming come through
         | and I rather enjoy his own vocal counterpoint.
        
       | Gladdon wrote:
       | Speaking of Gould, I happen to have a previously unpublished
       | recording of him playing his own composition "Suite for Twelfth
       | Night". This might seem like an odd way of sharing it, but I've
       | been putting it off for a long time because I thought it would be
       | properly published at some point. I now realize it's never going
       | to happen unless I do it myself, so here it goes:
       | https://gofile.io/d/f5ORYZ
       | 
       | If anyone wants to mirror it, that would be nice.
        
       | tzs wrote:
       | There was an interesting article in Scientific American 25 years
       | ago about a shortage in expert piano technicians for supporting
       | concert pianists. Very few people were apprenticing, and the only
       | US bachelor's degree program in piano technology had just shut
       | down.
       | 
       | I wonder if the situation has improved since then?
       | 
       | Here's a reprint of that article:
       | http://www.its.caltech.edu/~boyk/essay.htm
        
         | TheOtherHobbes wrote:
         | The UK still runs a couple of courses, one 3 years full time.
         | But it's an increasingly rare profession.
         | 
         | Beginner/amateur-level acoustic pianos have largely been
         | replaced by electronic instruments. In fact it's almost
         | impossible to give them away. Some homes still have them, but
         | there are far fewer than there were twenty years ago.
         | 
         | I know the concert tuners who work in Leeds, and there's enough
         | professional work for roughly one and a half people.
         | 
         | Even in London the total number of tuners serving the Royal
         | College, Royal Academy, the concert halls and opera houses,
         | recording studios, and the other music colleges is under double
         | figures.
        
           | bityard wrote:
           | > Beginner/amateur-level acoustic pianos have largely been
           | replaced by electronic instruments. In fact it's almost
           | impossible to give them away.
           | 
           | One of my hobbies is watching the free section on Craigslist.
           | Perfectly good (sometimes quite beautiful) pianos are one of
           | the things that show up with surprising regularity. Always
           | with the caveat, "Must take it away yourself."
        
       | jacquesm wrote:
       | "Years later, Verne often took to quoting his tuning teacher, J.
       | D. Ansell, whose favorite aphorism was "The only place where
       | success comes before work is in the dictionary.""
       | 
       | That's a lovely line.
       | 
       | There is a similar person living in Toronto who tunes pianos for
       | Lowrey, his name is Mark Zillman. Incredibly good at what he
       | does. This must be one of the few professions where not being
       | able to see well or at all is an advantage.
       | 
       | Edit: here is an article about him:
       | 
       | https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/mark-zillmann-o...
        
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       (page generated 2020-09-08 23:00 UTC)