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Katie Hafner

A Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould's Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano Hardcover – June 10, 2008

by Katie Hafner (Author)

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A grand tale of obsession about the brilliant Glenn Gould and the unique, temperamental instrument he came to love beyond all others, by a top New York Times writer.
Glenn Gould was one of the most complex, brilliant artists of the twentieth century, a musician famous for bizarre habits: he wore a hat and gloves even on the warmest summer day; refused to shake hands for fear of germs or damaged fingers; hummed and conducted himself while he played; and traveled the world with a battered old chair, refusing to perform while sitting on anything else.
But perhaps Gould’s greatest obsession of all was with a Steinway concert grand known as CD318. To explain that relationship, which Gould himself described as “a romance on three legs,” Katie Hafner introduces us to the important figures in Gould’s life, including Verne Edquist, his longtime, long-suffering, blind tuner. She offers a fascinating history of the art of tuning, and takes us inside Steinway during the war years, when CD318 was built. And she dissects Gould’s life with the piano, from his first encounter with it to the endless coddling and tweaking that Edquist performed over the years. Hafner includes Gould’s stormy, sometimes outrageous, correspondence with Steinway, and describes his despair when CD318 was fatally dropped from a loading dock.
The book will appeal to fans of books like The Piano Shop on the Left Bank, as well as to those looking fora rich story of obsession like The Orchid Thief.

Print length

272 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Bloomsbury USA
Publication date

June 10, 2008
Dimensions

6.16 x 0.99 x 8.12 inches
ISBN-10

1596915242
ISBN-13

978-1596915244
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This evocative, detailed account of the compulsive search for a sensitive, highly responsive concert piano by Canadian musical wunderkind Glenn Gould combines the parallel histories of one of the most controversial and brilliant pianists of the last century and the incredible keyboard instrument on which he played for some of his most important recordings. Hafner, a New York Times correspondent, presents a fascinating biography of Gould, who was known for his quirks, including his wearing of winter gear on summer days, his donning of fingerless gloves while playing, his manic fear of germs and hand shaking. The book will greatly appeal to those intrigued by the history of the influential German-bred Steinway piano company, but it is the close interaction of Gould and Charles Verne Edquist, the nearly blind piano tuner, with a Steinway CD 318 concert piano, that lift the book above the usual biography. This book will aid the reader to fully appreciate Gould's creative work in interpreting the early sonatas of Mozart and his majestic rendition of the Goldberg Variations. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"More books will be written about the famously eccentric pianist Glenn Gould. Perhaps none will be as intriguing as Hafner’s....Hafner gives us a book as rich and engrossing as the finest novel." –Booklist

"Hafner, in writing an entire book on such a narrow subject, reveals herself as an extraordinary storyteller...A book for Gould fans, piano lovers, and those who enjoy an unusual tale well told. Highly recommended." –Library Journal

“The musical version of Seabiscuit....Lucidly grasp[s] the essential: the complex interaction among an artist, a craftsman and the precious tool they both revered. Written with authority and enthusiasm, a treat for armchair musicologists, Gould fanatics and even those who never heard a note he played.” —Kirkus Reviews

"This book is about the oldest human intoxicant, the quest for perfection. Katie Hafner describes in fascinating detail the entire human apparatus—teachers, tuners, piano builders, sound engineers, impresarios—that made possible Glenn Gould's singular art. With the narrative force of fiction she explores the uncertain territory where unbridled artistic imagination meets the limits of an instrument, and shows us the emotional costs.” —Thad Carhart, author of The Piano Shop on the Left Bank

“This evocative, detailed account of the compulsive search for a sensitive, highly responsive concert piano by Canadian musical wunderkind Glenn Gould combines the parallel histories of one of the most controversial and brilliant pianists of the last century and the incredible keyboard instrument on which he played for some of his most important recordings. Hafner, a New York Times correspondent, presents a fascinating biography of Gould, who was known for his quirks, including his wearing of winter gear on summer days, his donning of fingerless gloves while playing, his manic fear of germs and hand shaking. The book will greatly appeal to those intrigued by the history of the influential German-bred Steinway piano company, but it is the close interaction of Gould and Charles Verne Edquist, the nearly blind piano tuner, with a Steinway CD 318 concert piano, that lift the book above the usual biography. This book will aid the reader to fully appreciate Gould's creative work in interpreting the early sonatas of Mozart and his majestic rendition of the Goldberg Variations.”—Publishers Weekly

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bloomsbury USA; 1st edition (June 10, 2008)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1596915242
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1596915244
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.16 x 0.99 x 8.12 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #418,684 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #950 in Music History & Criticism (Books)
- #1,721 in Piano & Keyboards
- #2,235 in Composer & Musician Biographies

Customer Reviews:
167 ratings

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Katie Hafner

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Katie Hafner was born in Rochester, New York, and has lived in more cities, towns and hamlets than she cares to count. She started writing about technology in 1983, the year the Apple Lisa was introduced. For nearly a decade, she wrote about technology for the The New York Times's Circuits section. She currently writes on healthcare topics for the paper's Science section.

She has also written for Newsweek, BusinessWeek, Esquire, Wired, The New Republic, the Huffington Post and O Magazine. Her sixth book, Mother Daughter Me, a memoir, was published by Random House in July 2013. Her first novel, The Boys, is due out from Spiegel & Grau in July 2022.

Hafner is host and co-executive producer of the podcasts Lost Women of Science and Our Mothers Ourselves. (Photo credit: Christopher Michel)

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5

167 global ratings

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Well Played

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 11, 2022

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You can pair musicians with their instruments: Miles Davis, trumpet; Yo-Yo Ma, cello; Hilary Hahn, violin; Manu Katche, drums, among others. And any one of those artists probably consider their instruments extensions of their own selves.

But pianist Glenn Gould took his musical attachment to another realm, calling his relationship to his favorite piano “a romance on three legs,” which author Katie Hafner uses as the title and a musical line in her well-researched and lyrical work. Gould was talented enough to pull the best out of whatever piano he played, but the Steinway CD 318 likewise brought out the best in him creating a muse-like, symbiotic connection. That relationship lasted more than a decade, through numerous public performances and studio recordings.

I loved reading about all the technical expertise that goes into building and maintaining a concert grand – the amount of work and detail required to build these massive yet intricate mechanisms that produce both explosive and delicate sounds. Pianos, like pianists, can be tempermental, with Hafner paralleling Gould’s ofttimes persnickety, quicky and demanding personality to that of his favored keyboard. Hafner mines Gould’s extensive archives for telling details such as how he tasked his tuners to maintain CD 318’s light-touch action to channel his flying-fingered technique.

This is a biography of a pianist as well as a piano, and Hafner tells their story in equal measure. When CD 318 finally “dies” in 1981, Gould follows one year later, but the rich and resonant music they created lives forever, a legacy of their mutual affection.

2 people found this helpful

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Peg C.

Disappointing

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 11, 2022

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A Romance on Three Legs is one of my favorite books. I rarely reread a book but I take this one out of the library several times a year. I thought it would be nice to own a copy. I was disappointed when the book arrived. The jacket of the book has an odd look to it, sort of like fingerprints that cannot be cleaned off. It does not look new. The pages are starting to yellow. I have many books much older than this one that are in fine condition. The library edition is also another copy that still looks great.
I did hope for a copy that looked better cared for.

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David Carlin

A different angle on Gould

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 3, 2008

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I've read at least 5 books on Glenn Gould. I still believe the best biography on Gould came from Otto Friedrich called A life in Variations. I've also read Ostwald's The Ecstacy and Tragedy of Genius, Bazzana's account entitled Wondrous Strange, Andrew Kazdin's Glenn Gould at Work, "Creative Lying", and Rhona Bergman's "The Idea of Gould".

"Romance on Three Legs", takes a different angle in that if focuses primarily on the Piano. I skipped pieces of earlier chapters that had stories in part from the other books and areas that were overused in my opinion since Friedrich published his book. I was more focused on how Gould came to find and treasure CD-318 (Steinway). This is the piano that carried most of his recording career. Hafner does a good job regarding the damage episode that occurred to this Piano and Gould's obsession to get it back to it's former glory which never quite happened. I was most interested in this part of the book as well. Gould sued Steinway years before, due to a worker who allegedly gave him too hard of a handshake. Because of this, Steinway probably gave him lesser than usual service on his behalf. This is also covered.

On the subject of Gould, Hafner does no more than the other authors in my opinion. She covers the same stories, anecdotes. She does cover a bit more on Gould's relationship with a married man's wife, Cornelia Foss. This book is still noteworthy. I'd also recommend "A Life in Variations" and Andrew Kazdin's Book, Glenn Gould at work. Kazdin is brutally honest about the working relationship he had with Gould and also covers an area regarding the damage of CD-318. Hafner does give us much more detail and more account from Verne Edquist, Gould's primary piano tuner and function tweaker. This alone gives the book a bit more credibility in my opinion.

7 people found this helpful

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Paul Y. Gelman

SUPERB !

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 21, 2010

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I must admit that I am one of Glenn Gould's admirers and have tried during the last years to purchase many of his disks.Listening to him playing is like getting a fresh shower each time.Gould was eccentric,odd,bizzare,strange-you name it.But he was a genius.One day,while being in a shop, I met a couple who were looking for a recording of Brahms' Piano Converto Number One.They asked for my advice. I suggested that they buy the 1962 historical -and for many the controversial -recording Gould has made with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under the conductor Leonard Bernstein.They refused telling me that this pianist "always hums and sings while playing"!
What a typical thing to say about Gould! Gould was indeed strange and used to wear a hat and coat and sometimes gloves in the warm summers because he was afraid to catch a cold or had a phobia of germs.He was also extremely anxious about hurting his fingers and ,as Katie Hafner demonstrates in this gem of a book, he did not hesitate to sue someone who accidentally tapped his shoulder,causing him to stop playing for a while.
The true story here is not just about Gould but concerns a menage-a-trois:Gould,his almost blind piano tuner and a grand piano known as CD318.In this remarkable and fantastic rich story Katie Hafner lets us know a lot not only about the three afore-mentioned, but also about the way piano tuning has evolved from the eighteenth century onwards.What did Steinway and Sons produce during WW2 came to me as a surprise.
This is a story about a genius,his obsessions, his eccentricities,his love affair,and the way he wanted to achieve perfection.Gould ended up tragically and his legacy is here to stay forever.So is Hafner's book!

5 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

D. Eastwood

A MUST FOR GOULD/ GRAND PIANO / STEINWAY FANS AND NEW COMERS ALIKE

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 20, 2017

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This is a wonderful book - Hafner got a clever idea to write a book about one piano and she's pulled it off. That said of course it is really lovely insight into one of the worlds true genuis's too which makes it all the more fascinating! A must for Gould fans or anyone who is new to this genius and wants to learn more. Very touching parts about Glenn's piano tuner - who is an absolutely lovely man, still alive. We are led through the lifetime of Glenn's favorite piano, learn about the construction of concert pianos and much about the company perhaps the most famous of all Steinway's and the history of the family who made them. Hafner concludes with the devastation Glenn felt when CD318 was lost to him (I won't say more and give the game away) and his search and final defection to Yamaha for the 1982 Goldberg Variations issued just before his passing. (A new book contradicts the premise - you pays your money and takes your pick on this one - far be it from me to make comment on this new theory) The last line of the book is a jaw dropper too - a very thorough fascinating well written book.

Chris from Okey

Absolutely absorbing...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 15, 2018

Verified Purchase

You know how it is; you hear the letterbox clatter, walk into the hall and find a package on the mat. You scoop it up, walk into the kitchen and put the kettle on. As your tea is standing, you open the package from Amazon, remove your latest book and have a quick flick through. The difference in this case is that the book has you in its grip and the tea is forgotten, a fresh cup having to be made half an hour later...
It's a while since I read a book in a single sitting but that is how it turned out with "A Romance on Three Legs". Anyone with more than a passing interest in music in general and Glenn Gould in particular should read this book. I thought that l was reasonably knowledgeable about Gould but this book took it to a whole new level. I could go on (my wife says l usually do) but l'll just urge you to buy this and see for yourself.

2 people found this helpful

Paul Haynes

A fascinating book, even if you're not into music or pianos

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 7, 2010

Verified Purchase

I bought this for my wife, who is a pianist and a fan of Glenn Gould, but dipped into it before giving it to her - and ended up reading it straight through!

It really needs someone who knows more about pianos and music than I do to review this properly, all I can tell you is that, even for a non-pianist/musician it was a fascinating read.

In outline, the book tells the story of Glenn Gould's search for the 'perfect piano'. But, being Glenn Gould (a man for whom the descrpition 'eccentric' only scratches the surface) this search is anything but straightforward. In fact you are left unsure if he ever did find his perfect piano - not because of the way the book is written, or how you read it, but because Gould himself seems to be in (at least) two minds.

As you may have gathered from the above, it's not really a story of pianos (although there is enough detail to keep most piano anoraks salivating), it's more an insight into the mind (and ears) of a musical genius who seems hell bent on proving the old cliché about the thin line between genius and madness.

I can't do this book justice in a review - buy it and read it! You won't be disappointed.

9 people found this helpful

J. Woodman

Essential reading for Gould groupies

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 13, 2012

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Actually it's for anyone who is interested in piano music. You'll learn a lot about the importance of the instrument to the pianist, and particularly how critical one piano and it's set-up was to the amazing music of the incomparable Glenn Gould.

One person found this helpful

j.gill

CD318 versus Glenn Gould

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 28, 2017

Verified Purchase

Great insight into psychology and sonics. Pity the poor piano tuners.

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