new at Ubuweb--Glenn Gould--Prospects of Recording crucial for me in the print version---


"Broadcast on CBC radio in 1965, this unique recording is positioned between Glenn Gould's last live concert performance in 1964 and his seminal publication 'Prospects of Recording' for High Fidelity magazine in 1966. In a proto-tapestry of sound, music and voice, which came to fruition in his experimental radio documentary Idea of North (1967), Gould counterpoints the opinions of those celebrating the imminent ubiquity of recordings with those lamenting the loss of the live concert. As the host of the show, Gould explicates on how recordings are made from different geographical regions, while arguing for the superiority of the recorded performance. Marshall McLuhan is one of the many interviewees, providing his usual insightful and at times 'far-out' theories. The transcripts of the broadcast were later published by McLuhan in his Explorations column and were to provide the foundation for the High Fidelity text. However, with this broadcast one can ingest the ideas while listening to some classic examples of recordings that bolster Gould's argument."