Klarinet Archive - Posting 000207.txt from 1998/11

From: "Don Yungkurth" <clarinet@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Dan Leeson remarks on Feidman
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1998 16:11:03 -0500

Dan Leeson, in his remarks about Giora Feidman mentions the following story
about Menuhin:

> . . . . . . At 17 he was asked how he could play
>such a difficult work so effortlessly. And he took the question
>seriously and analyzed how he was doing what he was doing. When he
>got done with the analysis, he couldn't play at all and he had to
>take several years off to regain his skills.

This reminds me of a story about the great Canadian pianist, Glenn Gould.
This is all paraphrased, as I can't locate my source.

Gould apparently did no teaching. When asked questions about technique, he
was unwilling to discuss fingerings etc.

He used to refer to these matters as "centipedal issues". The centipede
managed his legs very well until asked in what order he moved them. Once
he tried to think about it, he could no longer do it effortlessly.

Gould learned music by memorizing the scores and then simply sat down at
the piano and played them. Technique was not an issue. On occasion, when
he had problems playing a certain passage, he would turn on a radio with
loud pop music and perhaps run the vacuum cleaner as well, so that he could
not hear his own playing. Then he would more or less let the fingers
figure out for themselves how to play the passage. He didn't want to think
about it lest it become a "centipedal issue"!

Don Yungkurth (clarinet@-----.net)

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