{"id":9431,"date":"2026-02-27T16:13:36","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T16:13:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/?p=9431"},"modified":"2026-03-22T05:18:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T05:18:12","slug":"fans-of-gould","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/?p=9431","title":{"rendered":"fans of gould"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cHave you listened to The Idea of North<\/em> all the way through?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI tried,\u201d the second one said. \u201cI kept waiting for the music to start.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat is<\/em> the music.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s people talking on top of each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s counterpoint,\u201d the first said. \u201cVoices instead of notes. Same principle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second fan shook his head. \u201cBach has structure. This sounds like a crowded kitchen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cExactly. And somehow he organizes it. You start to hear patterns. One voice rises, another drops out. It\u2019s composed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cComposed chaos,\u201d the second said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if that qualifies as music or just clever editing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s the difference?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe intention, maybe. Music feels shaped. This feels\u2026 accidental.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt isn\u2019t accidental,\u201d the first said. \u201cGould was obsessive. He placed those voices the way he would place a fugue subject.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second fan leaned back. \u201cBut there\u2019s no melody.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no instrumental<\/em> melody. The voices are<\/em> the melody.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a stretch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIs it? Think of it this way. If you didn\u2019t understand English, you\u2019d hear it as pure sound. Rhythm, texture, tone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second fan paused. \u201cSo you\u2019re saying meaning gets in the way?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m saying meaning is one layer. Sound is another.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStill,\u201d the second said, \u201cwhen I listen to Gould play Bach, I feel something immediate. With The Idea of North<\/em>, I feel like I\u2019m doing homework.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat might be the point,\u201d the first said. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t trying to comfort you. He was trying to redefine what listening is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOr he was bored of the piano and decided to mess with people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first fan smiled. \u201cHe was always messing with people. Even when he played Bach.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo is it music?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it is,\u201d the first said. \u201cJust not the kind you hum afterward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second fan considered this. \u201cMaybe it\u2019s closer to radio than music.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOr maybe radio is closer to music than we thought.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second fan laughed. \u201cThat sounds like something Gould would say.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt probably is,\u201d the first replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They sat in silence for a moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll give him this,\u201d the second said finally. \u201cIt makes you listen differently.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s all he ever wanted,\u201d the first said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cHave you listened to The Idea of North all the way through?\u201d \u201cI tried,\u201d the second one said. \u201cI kept waiting for the music to start.\u201d \u201cThat is the music.\u201d […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"Layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[119],"tags":[],"class_list":["entry","author-rockbob","post-9431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9431\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}