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Later Career: Compositions


By the mid-60s Gould had become one of the most talked-about and written-about living pianists. "His provocative musical ideas, backed by complete integrity of purpose and thorough academic understanding of the technical workings of a piece, make him either a musical Devil's Advocate or enfant terrible, depending upon your point of view."7

Gould's mature period saw two major compositions: the String Quartet, Op. 1 (there was no "opus 2") and the lighthearted So You Want to Write a Fugue?. The latter piece was written for The Anatomy of the Fugue for the CBC-TV Festival program, broadcast on March 4, 1963. It is a piece of considerable "learnedness".

His creativity also found an outlet in cadenza writing: his Cadenzas to the Concerto No. 1 in C Major for Piano and Orchestra, by Beethoven, Op. 15, was almost an original composition. He also made piano transcriptions for works by Wagner, Ravel, Richard Strauss and other composers.


 

 

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