Thank God for that little area beneath the current newspaper that holds the previous days editions!

I was shopping with my wife this past Sunday and I was stopped in my tracks by the front page news caption ” The Secret Life of Glenn Gould”. I just had to have a copy of this article about my favorite Canadian Pianist of all time.

As to the title of the article, many autobiographies tried to tackle this topic, but it was mostly pure speculation. Mr. Gould was such a private person that most fans knew nothing about him besides his being the most refreshing interpreter of Bach’s pieces. “He was the James Dean of classical music,” said Tim Page, Pulitzer Prize-winning music critic of the Washington Post and a friend of Gould’s. “He made Bach swing.” Some consider him perhaps the greatest piano virtuoso of the 20th century!

For most of his life, there were rumors he was either asexual or gay. Now with this revelation in hand, the idea can be put to rest once and for all.

In 1967, Glenn Gould carried on an affair for five years with a married women named Cornelia Foss. She, 25, and her husband, 34, Lukas Foss, were great friends and admirers of his work. Glenn and the Foss’ first met in LA one night in 1957, and later on Lukas found work as a conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in 1963. Both Glenn and the Foss’ couldn’t have been happier.

With Gould calling them all the time, Lucas became suspicious of them. In 1966 Cornelia says that Glenn asked for her hand in marriage. Then in 1967, she put her kids in the family station wagon and moved from Buffalo to Toronto to be closer to him.

Everything was going fine until she noticed some unsettling behaviour with him two weeks after she left Lucas. She must have been saying to herself what have I got myself, and more importantly, my children into?

After many years with Mr. Gould she returned to Lucas in 1972. Gould never really got over her some close friends would say.

After the tragic passing of Mr. Gould on Oct. 4, 1982, friends found notes in his St. Claire Apt. stating …

“I am deeply in love with a certain beautiful girl. I asked her to marry me, but she turned me down but I still love her more than anything in the world and every minute I can spend with her is pure heaven … “

I can only imagine the facial expression on the one who came across the earth shattering confession!

Glenn Gould R.I.P.

Keep on Jammin’