Glen Gould Plays Bach

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This short film is a documentation of pianist Glen Gould. Gould (1932-1982) was a Canadian pianist who "disdained the early-Romantic and impressionistic works at the core of the standard piano repertoire" and " upset many pianistic conventions" by his interpretation of compositions performed by Bach, Beethoven, and other classical artists. (see http://www.glenngould.com/).

First and foremost, my appreciation of classical music was inspirational in choosing this short film. Radio and television are excellent mediums for classical music, so, often, when I need solace, or am studying for a class, or settling into my feather-soft bed I listen to classical compositions. However, to actually watch a composer practicing his talent is much more entertaining and makes me quiver with excitement. Glen Gould played the piano with such acceleration that his fingers seemed to be less of bone. Yet, he was candid and as graceful as the setting of the sun.

I must admit, however, the viability of my source for this film produced, within me, skepticism because, seemingly, the original source for this cinematic documentation is unknown. Thanks to vagifabilovor, who posted the documentation onto Youtube, sharing it was made possible. Nonetheless, there are several instances in this film when the camera becomes focused on objects of nature. It can be argued the film-director includes these objects because playing piano is natural to Glen Gould. Personally, I thought this association was successful -not original - but, successful. I further considered this film regarding its context and the source from which I obtained it. Possibly, anyone could have tampered with the original documentation of this film by simple use of a movie-maker (not certain if this is correct use of the terminology, but I have a movie-maker on my Toshiba laptop). Such tampering is referred to as plagarism and, as all college students know, plagarism is unacceptable. As a rule, if an original piece has been modified or utilized by another, its creator must acknowledge the original source. Subscribers to Youtube are at liberty to, basically, publish anything they desire. Though entertaining, this seems industrially unethical to the practice of creating short films. If feature film is the objective and, as some would argue, short film is the means to accomplishment it, would it be safe to assume that websites - notably, Youtube -are the drawing boards? Is this a safe practice for serious film-makers?