Last year an important creative project was undertaken when Sound Architect Ernest Cholakis was given permission by the Roy Thomson Hall to sample and analyze Gould's original piano. Cholakis was commissioned by The National Ballet of Canada to transcribe and then recreate on a Yamaha Disklavier the 1981 Glenn Gould performance of the Aria from Bach's Goldberg Variations for their performance of "Inspired by Gould".

Cholakis' project was unique in that it was the first time technology would be applied to recreate a legendary recording live. To undertake this Cholakis applied his over 20 years of experience working with music and computer technology (with an Apple PowerPC) to do the necessary analysis.Cholakis developed the proprietary software to analyze and then create a midi file for the Yamaha C7 disklavier, made available by Yamaha Canada, which was able to approximate the timing, the attack velocity and duration of Gould 's original performance in the 1981 Sony Recording. 

A midi file/Yamaha C7 disklavier recreation of Glen Gould's feel of the aria from Bach's Goldberg Variations (based upon the 1981 performance) - Listen to midi file recreation (MP3, 738K, the first 16 bars)
A Comparison of the Piano Resonance of Glenn Gould's Piano used in the 1981 Recording of J. S. Bach's Goldberg Variations and a Yamaha Disklavier C7 (special thanks the Stan Zalinski at Yamaha Canada for lending me this piano). Permisssion to record Glenn Gould's Piano was given by Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall (special thanks to Denese Mitchell). B&K 4003 with a Millenniam HV-3B Pre-Amp was used to record the piano (special thanks to Laurence Stevenson at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation).

The Resonance comparison (spectrum) is in Amplitude (decibel) vs. Equal Temperament Pitch instead of the much more common frequency. This gives an indication of just how complex real world instruments are (which all of our ears easily recognizes). Note the difference in the low frequencies between a 9 and a 7.6-foot Yamaha.

This is a comparison of the overall sound resonance (audio spectrum) of two Yamaha pianos in the range of A0-C8. The vertical axis is the energy in decibel and the horizontal axis is the frequency in midi notes (Middle C is C4=60). The C9 (top graph) was owned by Glenn Gould and used to record Bach's Goldberg Variations (1981).

© 1999-2005 Numerical Sound Notice of Rights All Rights Reserved. No Part of this image may be reproduced in any form without prior written permission. For Information on getting permission for reprints, excerpts or further details, contact Ernest Cholakis at Numerical Sound, ernest@numericalsound.com, 414-444-6644, (FAX 416-444-7045).

The National Ballet of Canada's "A Disembodied Voice" features a score by John Oswald for the recorded voice of Glenn Gould, robot piano, ghost pianist, and orchestra. The piece premiered in the programme entitled "Inspired by Gould" which ran from November 20th to the 27th 1999 at the Hummingbird Centre in Toronto.

The half hour composition is in 10 sections, each of which takes a different angle on Gould's musical preoccupations. Several technological innovations were utilized by a team under the direction of Oswald which researched and created materials during most of 1999.
A major bit of sonic archeology was the dissecting of Glenn Gould's 1981 recording of the Aria of the Goldberg Variations. First the piano was filtered out of the recording as much as possible, leaving Gould's inadvertent vocalizations as a more prominent element. Christopher Butterfield in Victoria made a phonetic and music notation transcription of this vocal line. Where there was difficulty ascertaining a sound the team studied a video tape of the Gould recording session to see what Glenn's mouth was doing.

Eventually Christopher's brother, opera tenor Benjamin Butterfield, was recorded reproducing a version of Christopher's transcription, with his own revisions. Christopher was also recorded, and several takes of his version were layered in combination with Benjamin's solo version to produce a chorus of Glenns near the end of the Aria. To this Oswald added a klangfarbenmelodien-like arrangement (this is a technique where a melody line is passed from instrument to instrument, changing its timbral colour over time) for live orchestra, which gradually added clues as to the source.

For the performances the monophonic voice of Gould "walked" via routing through several hidden speakers from behind a canopied area on stage to the orchestra pit where it was joined by the chorus.

Meanwhile in Toronto, Ernest Cholakis, who is best-known for designing the groove templates found in various sequencers, worked on making a very precise MIDI transcription of Gould's piano performance of the Aria. This transcription was designed to be played back on a Yamaha Disklavier very similar to the piano Gould played for the original recording. The result was a reproduction of the piece, minus Gould's voice, which is much more realistic than any hi fi system could ever recreate using the original recording. Audiences remarked about the ghostly presence of performances of this, in a sense, live acoustic piano recreation.

These two Aria derivations were the bookends of a composition which featured abstractions and plunderphonic derivations of Gould's own music and some of his favorite pieces, including works by Richard Wagner and Petula Clark. Bach and Mozart clash in one section, and the Disklavier was a featured soloist throughout.