Glenn Gould Art Quotations

The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but rather the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity.

The purpose of art is the lifelong construction of a state of wonder.

The justification of art is the internal combustion it ignites in the hearts of men, and not its shallow, externalized, public manifestations.

The final, unfinished fugue from The Art of Fugue is the greatest piece of music ever composed.

The prerequisite of contrapuntal art, more conspicuous in the work of Bach than in that of any other composer, is an ability to conceive a priori of melodic identities which when transposed, inverted, made retrograde, or transformed rhythmically will yet exhibit, in conjunction with the original subject matter, some entirely new but completely harmonious profile.