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Glenn Gould and the New Listener

Article in Performance Research · September 2010

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Glenn Gould (1932–82) was an extraordinarily condition, available to a performer and perhaps
gifted classical keyboardist who achieved through him to an audience; for Gould, the solitary
worldwide fame for his performances of music listening to recordings of music could make it
accessible. But to the individual performer or
by J. S. Bach and other composers, yet his work
listener, ecstasy is achieved when one stands
on listening deserves as much attention as outside of oneself, experiencing a uniquely coherent
his playing. Gould’s writing about listening vision – which at the ecstatic moment must seem
amounts to a manifesto calling for the arrival of the only possible vision – of the music at hand.
a ‘new listener’ and his own listening habits are (Dutton 1983: 195)
experiments in the art of listening. Gould’s work
on listening upsets a number of conventional Gould’s new listener uses technology in
categories related to music, among them: the solitude in order to create the ‘coherent vision’.
sacred and profane; presence and absence; That vision might be unexpected and the
production and consumption; active and passive; technology might be a vacuum cleaner:
original and copy; attention and distraction;
I was learning (the Fugue in C Major, K.394,
intention and accident. He desired to provoke in
by Mozart) when I was an early teenager, and
his listeners a sense of renewed possibility and his suddenly (one day) a vacuum cleaner was started
unusual listening habits aided him in creating his up beside the piano, and I couldn't hear myself
unique recordings. His work encourages listeners play – I was having a feud with the housekeeper at
to do what he has done: expand our range of this particular time, and it was done on purpose. I
choices, take responsibility for how we experience couldn't quite hear myself. But I began to feel what
music, and listen in such a way that we transcend I was doing – the tactile presence of that fugue as
represented by finger positions, and as represented
ourselves and commune with the beyond.
also by the kind of sound you might get if you
What marks Gould’s work on listening is his stood in the shower and shook your head with
apparently paradoxical desire for communion water coming out of both ears. And it was the most
in solitude. Solitude stands in contrast to mere luminously exciting thing you can imagine – the
isolation. Isolation is a state of separateness while most glorious sound. It took off – all of the things
solitude is a state of intimacy with oneself and the Mozart couldn't quite manage to do I was doing for
universe. For Gould, technology can help us attain him. And I suddenly realized that the particular
an ecstatic communion with the beyond while in a screen through which I was viewing this, and which
I had erected between myself and Mozart and his
state of solitude. As Denis Dutton writes:
fugue, was exactly what I needed – exactly why, as
I later understood, a certain mechanical process
Gouldian ecstasy, as Geoffrey Payzant describes could indeed come between myself and the work of
it, is a merging of ‘self with the innerness of the art that I was involved with.
music’. Strictly speaking, ecstasy is a solitary Glenn Gould, cited in Payzant 1978: 35–6)

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 Gould’s experience with the vacuum cleaner various shots together to produce the illusion

Mauer
convinced him that any means available were of continuous action. In classical music, many
acceptable for enhancing his experience of critics and performers regarded such practices
listening. Gould turned what was an apparent as contrary to the ideal; Gould cites André Watts,
distraction, the vacuum cleaner, into an asset. He Stephen Bishop, and Daniel Barenboim (Gould
1 There appear, at first, to
developed this practice into a habit; for instance, 1984: 357–8). The ideal recording, they argued,
be many similarities
between Gould’s uses of he would listen to the television and the radio at should be rendered in one complete take so as
environmental sounds the same time. He explained that these listening to make it as close to the ‘live’ experience as
and those of John Cage.
Both men saw huge habits were part of his ‘contrapuntal’ disposition possible. Gould, however, believed that with
potential in new (Gould and Davis 1983: 276). Gould was able to the increasing sophistication of the studio, it
technologies, believed in
democratizing the arts by
imagine the sounds around him as part of an became possible to produce audio documents
breaking down emerging composition. In his interview with that were superior to live events. For instance,
distinctions between
audience and artist, and
Curtis Davis, Gould discussed the possibility of he suggested recording a piece of music for the
both explored the being involved with many sounds at the same piano using microphones in different locations,
musical qualities of time: such as inside the piano lid and also across the
‘non-musical’ sound.
However, there are room, much as a film director would include
significant differences. I think our whole notion of what music is has forever
close-ups and long shots. The record producer,
Gould sought a total merged with all the sounds that are around us –
vision, working tirelessly everything that the environment makes available like the film editor, would then have ‘multiple
on editing his raw perspectives’ to choose from in creating the
materials, and in – and in that sense I think that the contrapuntalists,
manipulating sounds he especially the Renaissance contrapuntalists, and finished product (Gould and Davis 1983: 292).
wanted them to sound Bach as he represented them historically in a sense, Listeners could create similar effects at home,
concrete (as he did with
his piano, making it
were the first practical men. As composers, they using technology to create their own coherent
sound more like a were the first people who recognized that it was vision.
harpsichord). He possible and feasible and realistic to expect the
remained in many ways a Gould aimed to shift the control of music away
human mind and the human ear to be aware of many
conventional virtuoso,
simultaneous relationships, to follow their diverse
from specialists and towards listeners. But he
but one who pushed the
limits of interpretation courses and to be involved in all of them. believed that this shift could only happen if
and abandoned the live (Gould and Davis 1983: 280) listeners became generalists themselves. He
arena (unlike Cage).
argued that music had been a generalist’s field:
2 In each Gould applied such counterpoint to supposedly ‘in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
grammatological shift,
new media allows one to
‘non-musical’ sounds; he made recordings of nobody performed music who was not a
see what was hidden in conversations and of environmental sounds composer as well as a performer; and people who
plain view during the listened to music were all, to a greater or lesser
previous era. For
and turned them into multi-tracked ‘fugues’,
instance, alphabetic as in his radio programme, ‘The Idea of North’. degree, composers and performers’ (Payzant
writing allowed Aristotle Counterpoint, he wrote, occurs when ‘something 1978: 25) – until post-renaissance music created
to perceive the structures
of rhetoric and poetry new is introduced while something that was new demands and led to specialization.2
and to explain them in a going on is still going on but isn’t’ (Gould and One way to avoid such specialisation would
new form. Film shifted
our view of the novel. Davis 1983: 291). In other words, life presents us have been to join those North American
Similarly, recorded music with counterpoint every day, but listeners need musicians, such as the Lomaxes and the Seegers,
shifts our view of the
classical score and of the training to hear sounds from multiple sources as who turned to folk music; a type of music
processes of part of a composition.1 that anyone, in theory, could learn to play. Yet
interpretation,
performance, listening, Gould was happy to embrace studio techniques, Gould’s uncompromising allegiance to the most
and so on. Gould grasped such as splicing, in order to produce a sacred challenging classical repertory – particularly
these implications and
pursued them as far as he experience for the listener. Most controversial Baroque contrapuntal music and the works of
was able in his writing, among Gould’s means was his practice of making twentieth-century masters like Schoenberg
his performances, and in
his radio and television a ‘montage’ of multiple takes to produce a more and Webern – made overcoming specialization
programmes. ideal recording, much as a filmmaker edits more difficult. Certainly Gould was able to

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 overcome specialization: he mastered the arts of and tone, and usually stays in one seat and thus
Glenn Gould and the New Listener

composing, performing, recording, and writing maintains the same perspective throughout the
music criticism. But if he had set himself as performance. Visual spectacle competes with the
an example, there were precious few who could music for the listener’s attention. 2800 other
follow. Gould had set the bar very high, yet he audience members also compete for the listener’s
believed that technology could help shift the attention, and if communion does occur, it
locus of power in classical music away from is likely to be the communion of the mass,
the composer, the performer, and the recording identifying with the performer and not the music:
engineer. With technology giving the listener a ‘a mystical communication between concert
boost, the supposed difficulty of any given work performer and public audience’ (Gould 1984: 340).
should be no obstacle at all to its appropriation Gould hoped to change the listener’s
and use in any context that the listener desired. relationship to music by attacking the prevailing
It might appear that technology leads not conditions of listening, primarily by questioning
only to greater specialization but also to less the relationship between listeners and the
intimacy. With the advent of audio recording concert hall as the prime listening context. Gould
and radio, we lost the requirement for physical disliked the relationship between audience
presence and simultaneity that had previously and performer in the concert hall. As Payzant
been necessary to experience music. The acoustic points out, virtuoso performers appear ‘god-
world of the spoken word, song and ritual like’ (Payzant 1978: 25) and audiences come to
is, as Walter Ong observed, one of presence, them with worshipful attention. By abandoning
requiring proximity for communication to the concert stage at the age of 31, in favour of a
occur; it is ‘evanescent’, ‘dynamic’, and ‘close career in the studio (Gould made this move in
to the human lifeworld’ (Ong 1988: 32, 42). Ong 1964, before the Beatles did the same), Gould
wrote, ‘For an oral culture learning or knowing hoped to break the grip of old ideas.
means achieving close, empathetic, communal In his essay ‘Glenn Gould Interviews Glenn
identification with the known’ (Ong 1988: 45). Gould about Glenn Gould’, Gould plays devil’s
Gould, in contrast, believed that proximity was advocate to his own arguments for abandoning
not a requirement for intimacy. The acoustic the concert stage:
world was now accessible through technological
means. Communion could take place with the gg: It's obvious that you've never savored the joys of
music itself and need not involve the presence a one-to-one relationship with a listener.
of other people. Indeed, Gould saw the crowded GG: I always thought that, managerially speaking,
concert hall as not only an impediment to a 2800-to-l relationship was the concert-hall ideal.
… I'll have to plump for a zero-to-one relationship as
communion with the music, but as being between audience and artist, and that's where the
disempowering for the listener. moral objection comes in.
To illustrate this disempowerment, and to show gg: I'm afraid I don't quite grasp that point, Mr.
how listeners might empower themselves, Gould Gould. Do you want to run it through again?
contrasts the old listener with the new. He asks us GG: I simply feel that the artist should be granted,
to imagine the old listener attending the concert both for his sake and for that of his public – and let
hall and witnessing a battle that is ‘heartless me get on record right now the fact I'm not at all
and ruthless and senseless’ (Gould cited in happy with words like ‘public’ and ‘artist’; I'm not
Monsaingeon 2005) – he compares the concert happy with the hierarchical implications of that
kind of terminology – that he should be granted
hall to the bullfighting ring– in which audience
anonymity. He should be permitted to operate in
members focus on whether the performer will secret, as it were, unconcerned with – or better
succeed or fail. Furthermore, the listener does still, unaware of – the presumed demands of the
not control the sound, cannot adjust the volume marketplace – which demands, given sufficient

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 indifference on the part of a sufficient number The listener at home, like the technician in the

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of artists, will simply disappear. And given their studio, can use studio techniques to achieve
disappearance, the artist will then abandon his
desired effects. Gould encourages listeners to use
false sense of ‘public’ responsibility, and his ‘public’
will relinquish its role of servile dependency. ‘a kit consisting of many different performances
of a recorded work, and with his home editing set
gg: And never the 'twain shall meet, I dare say!
he could splice together pieces of tape from these
GG: No, they'll make contact, but on an altogether
to make a composite interpretation to his liking’
more meaningful level than that which relates any
stage to its apron. (Gould 1983: 29) (Gould cited in Payzant 1978: 26). Through the
use of such kits, Gould argues, the listener could
When Gould stated that he preferred a ‘zero- take a more active role; in Payzant’s summary:
to-one relationship as between audience and ‘The New Listener, as artist, would merge with
artist’, he meant that for the listener, the artist the performer and composer more and more as
should disappear. The communion he sought technology provided the means’ (Payzant 1978:
was between listener and sound, not listener and 26). But Gould was ahead of his time. He died in
performer, listener and composer, or listener and 1982, before the widespread use of digital audio
other audience members. Nevertheless, classical technologies; magnetic tape was far too unwieldy
performers and audiences often still imagine the a medium for most people to use easily for the
concert hall as the site where the most authentic purpose that Gould proposed. Now, however – in
experience of such music occurs. 2010 – consumers have many digital audio tools
Gould contrasted the image of the ‘old’ available to enable them to manipulate recorded
listener with his image of the ‘new’ one, who sounds, from sampling keyboards to composing
listens in a state of solitude with a stereo and a programs such as Sibelius, to the recording and
recording. The new listener seeks communion mixing programs such as GarageBand and Pro
with the music and adjusts the knobs on the Tools. Had Gould lived, he would be encouraged
machine until the sound is ideal. Performers who by the proliferation of these tools, as well as by
foreground virtuosic technique draw attention online communities of kit concept listeners who
away from the music, so the new listener remix and re-edit their favourite recordings. In
chooses a recording by a performer who lets the his essay, ‘The Prospects of Recording’, originally
music speak for itself. Ideally, the performer published in 1966, Gould wrote:
disappears and all that remains is the listener
and the music. Furthermore, should the listener Dial twiddling is in its limited way an interpretative
be displeased by a part of the recording, they act. Forty years ago the listener had the option of
can splice in a part of another, creating an ideal flicking a switch inscribed ‘on’ and ‘off’ and, with an
up-to-date machine, perhaps modulating the volume
version more suited to the listener. As Gould put
just a bit. Today, the variety of controls made
it, ‘I would see no harm in having a performance
available to him requires analytical judgment. And
of the Beethoven Symphony with a Klemperer these controls are but primitive, regulatory devices
first movement, a Karajan second movement, compared to those participational possibilities
a Toscanini third movement, and a George which the listener will enjoy once current
Szell finale’ (Gould cited in Otswald 1997: 224). laboratory techniques have been appropriated by
Technology suggests possibilities to the listener home playback devices. (Gould 1984: 347)
that otherwise may be overlooked. For instance,
we can adjust the volume, the tone, and so on; we Gould wanted audiences to treat recordings as
begin to listen differently, more critically, with primary texts rather than as copies of live events;
our ears open to new possibilities. like Derrida, Gould had questioned the idea
Gould’s new listener has access to the ‘kit that a text is a copy of an ‘original’ experience.
concept’ to produce the ecstatic experience. For both, “phonocentrism” (Derrida 1977:

104
 12–3) – Derrida’s term for the idea that the most this disc is its total acceptance of the recording
Glenn Gould and the New Listener

authentic experience comes straight from some ethic – the belief in an end so incontrovertibly
‘original’ source, supposedly unmediated – keeps convincing that any means … is justified’ (Gould
people from accepting the radical implications 1984: 432).
of recording technologies. Yehudi Menuhin’s If Walter Carlos, who had never performed
comments to Gould typify this: ‘there is onstage, could create an ‘authentic’ realisation
something in the concert hall which is complete,’ of Bach’s music using only modern devices,
and ‘I think the experience of the concert hall is so could the listener at home. Gould’s view
something which is essential, which has always of how listeners can empower themselves
got to remain as the standard against which with the use of technology resembles Walter
everything else is judged’ (Menuhin cited in Benjamin’s argument, in ‘The Work of Art in
Monsaingeon 2005). Phonocentrics assumes that the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’, that
any ‘copy’ of an experience such as a recording, mechanical reproduction offers unprecedented
removed from its ‘original’ context, degrades opportunities for freedom and action. The
the work and the experience of encountering it. prevailing art apparatus, in which an audience
Derrida attacked these assumptions by arguing converges upon the artwork in the museum or
that there can be no ‘originals’ of anything, upon the performing artist in the concert hall,
only samples and edits from within a system of was, in Benjamin’s view, a system of domination
iterable signs. In other words, any performance, and mystification: ‘for the first time in world
whether ‘live’ or recorded, is already made up of history, mechanical reproduction emancipates
quotations and depends upon other texts for its the work of art from its parasitical dependence
meaning. on ritual’ (Benjamin 1968: 224). In contrast,
The history of recording technology neatly Benjamin praised the potential of film – like
illustrates Derrida’s notions. In its early history, audio recording an example of mechanical
recording was a novelty. Sound quality was so reproduction – to empower audiences: ‘everybody
poor that no one expected it to sound like a live who witnesses its accomplishments is somewhat
performance in a concert hall, but eventually of an expert’ (Benjamin 1968: 231).
it sounded good enough to be compared – Gould and Benjamin hoped that technology
unfavourably – to the live experience. Later, the could provide more people with the tools to
relationship of recorded music to live music, and engage in creativity. In Benjamin’s view, anyone
of original to copy, reversed itself. Audiences could make a collage from reproductions of
came to expect the perfected sound of the famous art works, thereby repurposing these
recording during the concert experience and works. Gould expressed similar ideas about how
evaluated the live event against the recording; the listener could use music:
the recording became the ‘original’ text and
the live event the copy. As Evan Eisenberg At the center of the technological debate, then, is a
new kind of listener – a listener more participant
argues: ‘in the great majority of cases, there is
in the musical experience … He is also, of course, a
no original musical event that a record records threat, a potential usurper of power, an uninvited
or reproduces. Instead, each playing of a given guest at the banquet of the arts, one whose presence
record is an instance of something timeless’ threatens the familiar hierarchical setting of the
(Eisenberg 1985: 41). Gould’s insistence on the musical establishment. (Gould 1984: 347)
primacy of the recording is perhaps most clearly
visible in his embrace of Walter Carlos’ entirely Gould’s view of audio recording as the primary
synthesized Bach album, Switched on Bach. document is a tacit recognition of classical
Gould referred to the album as the ‘record of the music’s dependence on an earlier system
decade’ (Gould 1984: 429): ‘the real revelation of of recording: the written score. It was print

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 technology that allowed composers to reproduce properly, Gould argued, produces an experience

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the scores and instrumental parts for modern of ecstasy and leads to spiritual good. This
orchestras. One could say that orchestral scores, experience of ecstasy was, for Gould, an
in particular, are themselves ‘original copies’ experience of passionate transcendence, a
in that they are not transcriptions of preceding communion with the beyond. Photographs of
musical events, but necessary preconditions Gould listening to his recordings in the studio
for such events. Furthermore, they allow for show him dancing in ecstasy, enraptured by
endless reproduction and circulation. Yet the sound, communing in solitude even though
Western classical music, perhaps more than others were watching him. Gould reveals to us
any other music, is predicated upon creating that his ecstasy can be ours.
what Walter Benjamin referred to as ‘aura’; the
sense of awe one feels during an ‘authentic’ references
experience and which is, he argues, drained in Auslander, Philip (1999) Liveness: Performance in a
the process of reproduction (Benjamin 1984: Mediatized Culture, London: Routledge.
221–2). For Benjamin, this loss of aura presented Benjamin, Walter (1968) ‘The Work of Art in the Age
revolutionary opportunities, allowing anyone to of Mechanical Reproduction’, in Illuminations, ed.
claim and use such reproductions for their own Hannah Arendt, New York: Schocken Books, pp. 217–51.
3 In Philip Auslander’s purposes.3 Derrida, Jacques (1977) Of Grammatology, trans.
Liveness, he uses the Despite the continuing realization of Gould’s
term ‘mediatized’ to refer
Gayatri Spivak, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University
to the ways in which ‘a prophesy about the sophistication and ubiquity Press.
particular media object is of technology, his peculiarly Protestant
a product of the mass
Dutton, Denis (1983) ‘Ecstasy of Glenn Gould II’, in
media or of media understanding of how the listener ought to John McGreevy (ed.) Glenn Gould by Himself and His
technology’ (Auslander relate to music is still far from the norm. For Friends, New York: William Morrow & Co, pp. 191–8.
1999: 5). Auslander
borrows the term from Gould, the moral use of sound stood in contrast Eisenberg, Evan (1985) The Recording Angel: Music,
Fredric Jameson, who to a merely aesthetic use of sound (Gould Records and Culture from Aristotle to Zappa, New
defines it as ‘the process
whereby the traditional 1983: 32–3). Technology grants us tremendous Haven: Yale University Press.
fine arts … come to powers; it expands the size of audiences and Gould, Glenn (1983) ‘Glenn Gould Interviews Glenn
consciousness of
themselves as various increases our ability to manipulate texts. It Gould about Glenn Gould’, in John McGreevy (ed.)
media within a mediatic is incumbent upon us, Gould believed, to use Glenn Gould by Himself and His Friends, New York:
system’ (cited in William Morrow & Co, pp. 25–43.
Auslander 1999: 5). In
these powers for spiritual good. In his lifestyle,
general, the audience for writings, and public pronouncements, he strove Gould, Glenn (1984) The Glenn Gould Reader, ed. Tim
popular music accepts to
a greater extent than do
for a kind of moral clarity that he referred to Page, New York: Vintage.
classical audiences that as a state of ‘spiritual perfection’ (Gould 1983: Gould, Glenn and Davis, Curtis (1983) ‘The Well-
its objects of 32–3). For Gould, this entailed denying the baser Tempered Listener’, in John McGreevy (ed.) Glenn
consumption are
mediatized. Gould instincts of our animal natures, the lusts and Gould by Himself and His Friends, New York: William
pushed classical aggressions that lead us to harm, and achieving Morrow & Co, pp. 275–94.
audiences to catch up by
embracing the transcendence in a state of solitude: ‘The purpose Monsaingeon, Bruno (2005) Glenn Gould: Hereafter.
possibilities of a of art is the gradual, lifelong construction of a Documentary film.
mediatized culture. Not
only did Gould write state of serenity and wonder’ (Dutton 1983: 198). Ong, Walter (1988) Orality and Literacy, New York:
cogently about popular For Gould, the availability of technology did not Routledge.
music – especially about
the talents of pop singer automatically translate into spiritual impact; his Otswald, Peter (1997) Glenn Gould: The Ecstasy
Petula Clark – but he also recordings and texts function to some degree as and Tragedy of Genius, New York: W.W. Norton and
explored the implications
of recording technology encouragement to listeners to share his journey. Company, Inc.
for classical music, Gould’s work teaches us that listening can Payzant, Geoffrey (1978) Glenn Gould: Music and
playfully skewering
sacred cows wherever he be as much an act of creation as composing, Mind, Toronto: Van Nostrand Reinhold Ltd.
found them. performing, or recording. Learning to listen

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