Gould’s Creaking Chair, Schoenberg’s Metric Clarity
Main Article Content
Abstract
The audible creaking of Glenn Gould’s loose-jointed piano chair has historically been the subject of apologetic liner notes and recording studio memoirs. These chair creaks are here recognized as “sounded movements” of Gould’s body. This paper triangulates the score of Schoenberg’s Sechs kleine Klavierstücke, op. 19, no. 1, published analyses of its unique rhythmic unfolding, and new micro-temporal measurements of Gould’s September 1965 recording of the work. Quantifying Sanden’s concept of “corporeal liveness,” spectrographic tools are used to generate a proper census of all the sounds captured by the microphone in order to map their rhythmic interaction. A notable “creak gap” in Gould’s recording is linked to published observations regarding the work’s process of emerging metric clarity, and one of Gould’s vocal elaborations is recognized for its augmentation of Schoenberg’s pitch material. Overlaying analytical literature with microtiming data reveals a correlation between the composition’s trajectory of metric clarification and the decrease in Gould’s physical motion. The findings are used to question the pervasive and disturbing suppression of non-notated sounds that accompany the recording of notated music. Recognizing sounds that are normally marginalized, this study fuses theoretical observations about Schoenberg’s composition with the audio artifacts of Gould’s corporeality.
Article Details
Copyright © 2019 by the Society for Music Theory. All rights reserved.
[1] Copyrights for individual items published in Music Theory Online (MTO) are held by their authors. Items appearing in MTO may be saved and stored in electronic or paper form, and may be shared among individuals for purposes of scholarly research or discussion, but may not be republished in any form, electronic or print, without prior, written permission from the author(s), and advance notification of the editors of MTO.
[2] Any redistributed form of items published in MTO must include the following information in a form appropriate to the medium in which the items are to appear:
This item appeared in Music Theory Online in [VOLUME #, ISSUE #] on [DAY/MONTH/YEAR]. It was authored by [FULL NAME, EMAIL ADDRESS], with whose written permission it is reprinted here.
[3] Libraries may archive issues of MTO in electronic or paper form for public access so long as each issue is stored in its entirety, and no access fee is charged. Exceptions to these requirements must be approved in writing by the editors of MTO, who will act in accordance with the decisions of the Society for Music Theory.
This document and all portions thereof are protected by U.S. and international copyright laws. Material contained herein may be copied and/or distributed for research purposes only.