Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner You've probably read it before, but I just love this quote

"The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but rather the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity."

-- Glenn Gould, pianist

sorry I always hated the verbose quote and its bombastic originator.. Love his goldbergs though

personally I disagree because I don't think art's purpose is a lifelong construction of serenity, rather the pompous author should say that's the purpose of art for HIM, but to me personally art has a far different purpose that has very little to do with serenity though maybe some with the state of wonder bit.

Do you see music as something ephemeral and short-lasting, only for the momentary excitement of a performance, or rather as a continual, life-long process of education and achievement?


Or both?

I see music as a momentary ejection of adrenaline that courses through my body, pumps through my veins and gives me a better mood for the rest of the day to do some real work. J/K No seriously, I would have to say I see it as both. It's just that for me personally, I don't relate much to being a pianist or a musician, i.e. PLAYING MUSIC, because I'm a lousy beginner at that part. So when I think of music and art I think about creating music as composer although I believe a pianist is also a creator, summoning his tones from the palette before him (keyboard), it's just that I am saying I don't identify as much with being a pianist as I do composer and so my view is naturally slightly different. Perhaps different than Gould's, for example the momentary ejection of adrenaline bit has more to do with playing piano than composing and thus I'm assuming that's what he's talking about because a composer's art and battle resides in his struggle for sculpting his piece out from his innards rather than anything that happens in the 'moment' like playing a piano. Of course you can liken that to a composer listening to his work but I consider that almost like the epilogue, the reward for the true battle and creation process which is in the making of the piece. So, with that in mind, I don't have time at the moment to go into a long polemic about what I believe art is, but I'm just saying that to me it's not solely the adrenalin part although that is a small part of it, but something far more profound and I am just of the opinion that Gould's words, as florid as they may be, fail to express that profundity. I know it is a famous quote and many, maybe most love it, but I'll go ahead and be sole critic on this one if I must.

I don't know, after writing all that, I've re-examined the quote in my head from another standpoint, and I suppose if you use that word serenity in the sense that for me personally the great reward is the serenity that accompanies having released the demons inside and put them onto paper, into the world for example, and knowing that having brought them into expression you can now be in peace about that certain feeling. However, I just don't know if I can say at this point that this serenity is the OBJECTIVE of art rather than merely a CONSEQUENCE or RESULT.

I guess since this quote now caused me some discussion and compelled me to think a bit which I rarely do , I must go ahead and retract my earlier statement and say that the quote is DECENT until further notice.

VERDICT: QUOTE STATUS PENDING.

It's a good quote, and I especially appreciate the place from which he said it, though I disagree that the "state of wonder" is something that can be "constructed", gradually or otherwise. For me, it is something that happens in the moment of music-making, whenever "I" am lost to the moment itself. And it is a Gift, when it happens, if it happens. It can come only when you are given over, surrendered, to the love that enables it to be in the first place.

Richter's 1946 recording of the Liszt Wilde Jagde was an instantaneous surge of adrenalin, impulsiveness, anger, and raw passion. It was completely devoid of serenity, romanticism, or any lyricism whatsoever. It made my heart rate jump and suspended all time around me ... I LOVED IT and sat in wonder.

Other times I enjoy the music when it is ".. not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but rather the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity." Gould's recordings of Strauss, Sibelius, and Scriabin fulfill that criteria perfectly =)

I hate the quote. To me, it's one man trying to tell everyone what art is in some tangible form that should be impressed upon the masses. I think anyone who makes such a grand statement should be shot. That being said, the purpose of art is to the individual to decide.

i don't really feel that way about art (what Gould said). to me, music is not just wonder and serenity.

About the comments that have been made:

I don't think Gould's comment is bombastic at all. It's not meant to be forced down people's throats; it's a personal truth that he arrived at on his own, and is a fascinating glimpse of Gould the musician.

pianistcomposer,

I too have had moments during playing the piano where all worries and miscellaneous thoughts go away, to achieve a euphoric state of hyper-awareness. Unfortunately, it is too short-lived and never sustained.
But what if it's possible to enter that "zone" every single time you sat at the piano? It is like a meditative discipline, that allows the conversion of a fragmentary awareness into a prolonged state of awareness.

Maybe that's what Gould is getting at, when he talks about _constructing_ a state of wonder and serenity. It's a lifelong discipline.

Zen of Gould! Fascinating stuff.

--c5

Hi,

"Life is a river, we flow along it''s banks."

Sounds good. Just doesn't mean anything.

Tomasino

I suppose he's right in that serenity can contemplate angst but not the other way around - Wordsworth's "emotion recollected in tranquillity". Many musicians, however, obviously find angst and adrenaline good generators of musical expression. The result of such expression can always be viewed from a position of serenity later on. In other words the adrenaline part is generative but not contemplative.

In a sense this is a truism. It is probably another way of expressing the Wagner versus Milhaud argument. I am by nature a contemplative, therefore I tend to strongly agree with Gould's statement in the global sense. However, as one whose primary mode of creation is improvisation, I frequently choose to abandon serenity during playing, and in that purely elective sense I have to disagree with it.

So for me I think it is true or untrue depending on whether its meaning is global or local.

Since writing that I have been for a lunchtime walk and I think I can better illustrate what the quote means to me. On Sunday, a life event began to affect me and I felt a need to improvise about it. I set up the recording gear and produced an hour of adrenaline driven improvisation. Afterwards I was like a limp rag, drained both physically and emotionally.

On Monday night, I optimised the recording onto a CD and listened to the whole thing from beginning to end in the process. I was pleased with it, very pleased indeed, but I was then sitting in the Gould contemplative chair instead of the Jarrett adrenaline chair.

There is no way that the generative experience can ever be relived in the adrenaline sense and, as time goes on and I hear it again and again, it will become progressively abstracted into the sort of thing Gould is talking about.

That is as close as I can get, I think, to explaining how I view that quotation.

thank god for derulux and signa, I feel sane again

Try defining love next!

"The purpose of love is not the release of a momentary ejection of [explicit-deleted] but rather the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of orgasmic serenity."

-- Derulux, loveist :p

Ha! yeah, there's always been something that seemed sexual about that quote. It's definately the "momentary ejection" part.

Worth repeating. (I think that's as close as anyone can get.)

Gould's quote reflects his musical attitudes. A purely musical expression of the same idea might be, "...i'm not seduced by the momentary attraction - or distraction - of a particular idea.." (he was talking about the canonic process)

Or as Eric Cantona said: 'Seagulls follow the trawler because they think fish will be thrown into the sea.'

It is interesting that for all his obvious admiration for Gould, Bazzana puts the view in his biography that Gould's writings and statements about art have something verbose and half-baked about them - even something adolescent in the way that prejudices and affectations appear as reasoned opinion. Much as I like a lot of Goulds playing, at least into the late 60s, I think Bazzana is spot on here.

Excellent post Andrew.

I always suspect anything that Gould is quoted as saying. His missives frequently come across to me as delivered for effect, even to impress, rather than being an expression of emotional truth.

Adrian

actually, he said: "seagulls follow zee trawler because zay sink fish will be trown into zee sea."

and later, in a nike commercial: "all zee loozerz go home."

i agree with bazzana too. a lot of what gould said could be tongue in cheek or adolescent rambling.