Extended Reading

Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould quotes

  • [first lines]

    Glenn Gould: [voiceover] My mother tells me that by five years old I had decided definitively to become a concert pianist. I think she had decided some time earlier. The story goes that while I was in the womb she played the piano continuously to give me a head start, and evidently it paid off. My mother was my first teacher, and I've never doubted her methods. After all, she introduced me to Bach.

  • [last lines]

    Glenn Gould: [voiceover] In the fall of 1977, the US government sent two ships, Voyagers 1 and 2, into space, where they are eventually destined to reach the edge of our galaxy. In the hope that someone, somewhere, would intercept these craft, a variety of messages were placed on board, that would be capable of communicating the existence of an intelligent creature, living on a planet called Earth. Among these was included a short prelude by Johann Sebastian Bach, as performed by Glenn Gould. Voyagers 1 and 2 left our solar system, respectively, in 1987 and 1989.