Glenn Gould

Born in Toronto in 1932, Gould won acclaim with his first recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations in 1956. It inadvertently became his signature piece, and the first few bars of Bach’s gently winding Aria are carved onto the Canadian pianist’s grave. Although closely associated with Bach, Gould played and recorded music by a wide range of composers, including Schoenberg, Beethoven, Mozart, and English virginalists of which his favorite composer, Gibbons, was part. His extensive discography arose in part because the pianist retired from the stage at 31, preferring the control of the studio up until his death in 1982. This disdain for playing in public—combined with the peculiar rituals he undertook before playing the piano—led Gould to be cast as an eccentric. He preferred to play seated on his own low chair (now housed in the Library and Archives Canada) and wore gloves in all weathers to protect his hands. He also constructed alter egos such as Nigel Twitt-Thornwaite and Theodore Slutz, whose musical criticism amused and bemused the establishment in equal measure. But perhaps Gould’s most distinctive quirk was that he regularly hummed and sang as he played, a trait that both distracted listeners and endeared him to them.