Ritiro dalle scene, fuga per quartetto vocale, radio contrappuntistica: fugue ed escape in Glenn Gould

Abstract

The pianist Glenn Gould quit the concert stage at the peak of his career (1964). At the same time he composed So you want to write a fugue?, for four-part chorus of mixed voices with strings (or piano) accompaniment, a sort of ironic hyperbole that makes fun of ‘classical’ western music. Then Gould
invented ‘contrapuntal radio’ in which independent voices are intertwined without any thematic elaboration. In 1967 the ‘docudrama’ The Idea of North opened The Solitude Trilogy. Gould, hidden behind radio editing, transfigured his personal escape in radio art. Using the writings of Gould, some of which have never been translated into Italian, the discussion of So you want to write a fugue? and The Idea of North, I would like to clarify how the escape from the world of Gould has been refined through the fugue and counterpoint.