A Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould's Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano by Katie Hafner

A Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould's Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano Reviews

• 
  Sandy

  This is a very atypical biographical work. As the title suggests, the spotlight is on the favourite piano of Canadian pianist Glenn Gould (and not on Gould himself). The book outlines an impressive amount of research tracking the history of the Steinway CD-318 concert grand which Gould favoured for 20 years of his short life.
  
  The reader learns about the members of the Steinweg family, founders of the well-known piano-builders Steinway & Sons, who emigrated from Germany to New York City. Also described in great detail is the life of Verne Edquist, son of a Saskatchewan farmer, who became a very talented concert grand technician. The book includes details about some aspects of Glenn Gould's life (as well as some interesting and entertaining anecdotes) and weaves Gould and many people (and pianos) into a very complex tapestry. I often felt, however, that some threads had broken and were left dangling.
  
  The book discusses piano technique, composers, and the mechanics of the piano in detail but does not present a clear-cut chronology. I was, at times, very confused and resorted to taking notes. I have given it four stars because it is very well researched, but in my opinion this book would appeal only to a very specialized audience.
• 
  Sharon Barrow Wilfong

  This is a delightful book. Not only do we get a history of the piano, of Steinway, and tuners and their job. We get to learn about the tuners who kept Glenn Gould's pianos in shape.
  
  Glenn Gould, like all concert pianists, was absolutely persnickety as to what piano best suited his needs. He wanted a highly responsive, light-actioned keyboard with a harp and soundboard that would give him the rich, robust sound to deliver exactly what was going on in his head. Not just any piano would do. He finally found the love of his life in a Steinway, known as CD 318. He had it taken everywhere he performed and recorded.
  
  We learn of a nearly blind tuner, Vern Edquist, and how became Glenn Gould's personal tuner. His life is interesting in its own right. We learn of the technical challenges that keeping a piano perfectly tuned involve. I get my piano tuned a couple of times a year. Gould had his tuners on standby to keep his piano up in between songs or even during songs (while recording, not live performances) if he perceived that strings were going off.
  
  Frankly, I wish I had the means to do that because pianos go out of tune so easily. I was also gratified to know that it is not just me who has a hard time playing on certain pianos. Some pianos never sound right; others don't feel right. It is a delicate marriage between the aural and tactile experience. And every piano is different. We learn a little about other concert pianists, like Vladimir Horowitz and Arthur Rubenstein and the physical action and tone they demanded in a piano.
  
  We learn how Steinway started their business, moved to the USA and how they make their pianos. Also how they changed the way the make them and why artists today prefer to perform on Steinways made in the 1930s.
  
  Maybe not everyone cares about the construct of concert pianos or the artists who played them, but I loved this book!
• 
  Bill

  This is an immensely well-written and thoroughly reasearched book that weaves together many different stories. It is not just about Glenn Gould's piano or about the eccentric pianist, but about the piano tuners, the Steinway company, and other people in Gould's life. The author manages to tell all these stories and how they intersect. This is not just for Glenn Gould fans or classical music experts--even those with little knowledge about those topics will enjoy reading this book.
• 
  Charles Matthews

  Concert pianists are notoriously temperamental, but with good reason: so are their pianos. Why else would J.S. Bach specify a “well-tempered clavier”? The modern piano is a jury-rigged contraption consisting of a multitude of tiny moving parts and a lot of steel and wood that has to be twisted, warped and tortured into just the right shape and structure. And it needs constant tuning, twiddling and tweaking to maintain the sound the pianist wants. No wonder that Glenn Gould, who twisted, warped and tortured himself into a great pianist, had such a love-hate relationship with the instrument that he referred to as an “intriguing mixture of pedals, pins, and paradox.”
  
  It’s ironic that the pianoforte, as the instrument had been named because it could play both soft and loud, is now known as a piano: Virtuosi from Liszt to Lang Lang have mostly exploited the forte. But Gould wanted a piano that would sound, as he put it, “a little like an emasculated harpsichord.” He detested the Romantics, and once said his favorite composer was the 16th-century Englishman Orlando Gibbons. After a long search he found the cleanness of tone and quickness of action he wanted in a Steinway concert grand with the designation CD 318.
  
  Katie Hafner is eloquent about why Gould loved CD 318 so much – so eloquent that one wishes her book included a discography of the recordings he made on that instrument. (His two most famous recordings – the versions of Bach’s “Goldberg Variations” he recorded in 1955 and 1981 – were made on other pianos.) “A Romance on Three Legs” is partly a biography of Gould, partly a history of Steinway & Sons, and partly a story about how technique, tastes and technology propelled the evolution of the piano. It’s also a tribute to piano tuner Verne Edquist, whose exquisite sensitivity and technical inventiveness manipulated CD 318 into an instrument almost as eccentric as Gould.
  
  Gould insisted on using a battered old chair that had been sawed down so it was six inches shorter than a standard piano bench. He was a hypochondriac who insisted on keeping the room temperature at 80 degrees year-round, and once sued Steinway because an employee gave him an admiring pat on the back that he claimed had dislocated his shoulder, but his nose-to-the-keyboard posture must have caused many of the aches and pains of which he complained. He was a terrifying driver, who once quipped, “It’s true that I’ve driven through a number of red lights on occasion, but on the other hand I’ve stopped at a lot of green ones but never gotten credit for it.”
  
  Hafner’s signal achievement in the book is to turn CD 318 itself into just as much a personality as Gould. Never mind that she has also demonstrated that CD 318 is just wood, steel, ivory and felt. We come to feel about CD 318 almost the way Gould did: “‘He talked about his piano as if it were human,’ fellow pianist David Bar-Illan commented.” So when CD 318 is injured in a fall … uh, damaged by being dropped, we’re shocked, and we especially empathize with Edquist, who has to break the news to Gould.
  
  Hafner lives in the Bay Area, writes for the New York Times, and has published books about computer hackers and Internet pioneers, among other things. Some readers will complain that she touches too lightly on Gould’s faults: his undeniable gifts that were vitiated by self-indulgence; his interpretations that occasionally departed wildly from the composers’ intent; his decision to stop performing before audiences for the last 18 years of his life, and to concentrate on recording, in which mistakes can be edited out, making him appear to be technically flawless.
  
  But the book is less a critique of Gould than an examination of an essential relationship, the one between artist and medium, as magnified by one artist’s obsession. Hafner’s book belongs to that gee-whiz genre perfected by writers like John McPhee, Susan Orlean and Mary Roach: books that tell you everything about subjects – oranges, orchids, corpses, pianos – that you didn’t know you wanted to know anything about. And for readers familiar with Gould’s recordings, or those with a curiosity about how things like pianos get to be the way they are, “A Romance on Three Legs” is a source of delight and illumination.
  
• 
  Shankar

  Anything piano is in my territory and this was one of the best. Gould is a legend and his passion drove him to find the best instrument under the sun.
• 
  Barb Terpstra

  I first learned about this book from the Barnes and Noble week in review. As a child who grew up with a piano playing mother and a baby grand piano in her home, I was intrigued. As noted in the title, the book is based on piano player Glenn Gould and his search for the perfect piano.
  
  I enjoyed this book so much. I didn't know the history of the piano and the people who tuned and played them was so interesting.
  The Steinway piano began with a cabinet maker who built a piano in his home in Seesen Germany, built a successful piano company there, and then emigrated to the US. Eventually this cabinetmaker and his family created Steinway and Sons. They not only built quality pianos, but they marketed them in such a way that a girl was not considered accomplished unless she could play the piano.
  Blind people (primarily men and boys) were trained to tune pianos--you wanted a blind person to tune your piano as they were more attuned to the "voice" of the instrument. We follow the story of Verne Edquist from Saskatchawan, from a dirt poor family, whose mother could not support him. He had less than 10% of his vision, and local community members pooled their money so that he could be sent to a school for a blind, which eventually led to his becoming an accomplished piano tuner. He heard colors in sounds, and I loved how that came out in his story and in his experience in tuning pianos.
  Then we have Glenn Gould. When Glenn was three, his parents discovered that he had perfect pitch. He could read music before he could read words. When five, he played the piano in public for the first time. At age 14 he played for the first time with the Toronto Symphony. Due to his upbringing, and some obsessive compulsive type behaviors, he was a rather odd performer, but that did not detract from his fame or his ability.
  CD 318 is the piano that most met his needs, and that he did most of his recordings on. He really loved this piano as thought it was his friend.
  This book weaves all the above points into a highly readable account. One thing that I think is amazing is how you have these 2 characters that are a bit odd, Verne Edquist and Glenn Gould, and how they come together in a partnership that lets CD 318 "sing". I also find it interesting that so many artists, musical or otherwise, have these odd tics that are a part of them. Is their oddity what gives their art such beauty? Think of the artists you known that struggle with alcohol, drugs, phobias and yet have left the world with lasting treasures. Part of the Christian message is that brokenness leads to wholeness, and I always wonder about this part in the artist's journey. Here also, we have distinctly different lives, and yet,they hold hands for the unique time and space that allows this artist to shine. It is difficult for me to keep God out of that, although He does not seem to be given credit for the gifts He bestowed.
  I have been intrigued to learn more about Glenn Gould, downloading his recordings from itunes, and checking out some videos on YouTube. I encourage you to do the same.
• 
  John-Paul

  Though I probably have no ear for music and little to know musical talent (save some occasional screeching I do for my church choir) I am nevertheless fascinated by the lives of those who do, hence my attraction to this book. This is not a Glenn Gould biography, to be sure, but it does a good job of opening up a window to the man and his musical "madness" that so permeated his life. The author might have done a better job of weaving the individual vignettes into the entire framework of the book (rather, there's a "here's this chapter about this subject...now here's this chapter about this subject" feel to the work) but within each chapter, the stories were compelling. Obviously, any such book that purports to discuss the relationship between pianist and piano is going to have some technical details that the uninitiated will struggle with, and this was indeed the case with me when the author delved into the nitty gritty of CD 318. Similar to my suggestion for military historians that want to discuss battles without maps (a personal pet peeve), perhaps in a future edition a basic schematic of a grand piano could be included. As an instructional designer always focusing on how visuals affect learning, that would be a great improvement in my opinion. I thought the story at the end of the book (which I obviously won't spoil) was wonderful but at the end I realized that to appreciate the life of a truly great artist, one must experience their art rather than a book about their lives. I just finished a biography about Napoleon, a man who seems to have lived the lives of five men in his one lifetime and for whom a book is a great way to gain insight. But when Hafner started talking about Gould's life, I couldn't help but feel that it was rather small compared to his life's work...his music. So, as another reviewer has suggested (and as I suggest with any artist): read a book about them but then seek out their art in order to truly experience their life.
  
  Now I'm off to get my hands on his Goldberg Variations...
• 
  Henry Cooksley

  A perfectly executed book about the madness of those who are drawn to music as their highest art in life.
• 
  James Henderson

  A most unusual biographical study, this is a book about a musician and his music, but even more it is about his search for perfection. The author writes of a search for a piano that is more intense than anything I have experienced in my piano-playing life. While I have encountered several different pianos, from the old upright of my youth to the local public library grand and sturdy spinets at the University of Wisconsin School of Music, I have never obsessed the way Glenn Gould did.
  
  Katie Hafner makes the story interesting with details of the life of the piano, its caretaker and the marriage of artist and piano in the studio. The piano is a Steinway grand piano known as CD318. The caretaker, an almost completely blind piano tuner, reminded me of a piano tuner who maintained my own spinet for several years. The marriage meant that this piano became part of the history of music performances by one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century. While the marriage of piano and pianist was not fated to last forever, that part of the story is best left for the reader to discover for himself. It is a story that this music lover found exceptional. And it is a unique perspective on the life of an artist notorious for his personal eccentricities.
• 
  Anna

  What a pleasure it was to read this book! I was enraptured by the way the different stories were told by Katie Hafner, the way she created so much magic around the perception of the color of sound and the memory of sound "the way a wine expert can summon the aromas that are released in the lingering finish of a good wine", in the detailed description of tuning an instrument beyond sound and into the realm of color, through Glenn Gould's mental music playing, and in Verne Edquist's endless efforts through needling, lacquering and tuning to create the "soulful" vibrant-color sound sought by Gould, and so on and on.
  
  I highly recommend this book. To anyone - musician or not, familiar with Gould or not. It is an account of passion and never ending search for perfection. It is also a bouquet of heartfelt stories - about Glenn Gould, the best performer of Bach, about Verne Edquist, the tuner who maintained the extraordinary clarity of tone Gould imagined in a piano and about the piano itself, the one with the most translucent sound, the one they both loved.
• 
  Kevin Hartley

  Lots have been written about Glenn Gould. But this book focused on the pianos he played, and how it affected his performances. This book gives insight and background on Steinway pianos and piano tuners, as well as Mr. Gould.
  
  Found it informative and interesting the whole way through. A must read for any Gould fan or newbie pianist yearning to learn more about the instruments we've chosen to play.
• 
  Mona

  Thanks to the author Katie Hafner, the book was fascinating!
  
  The writing was excellent, flowed really well. Her research on everything that shaped Gould; his teachers, the technicians, Steinway company, the CD 318, the chair (the one and only), was brilliant.
  
  A great, great book. Highest recommendation!
• 
  Keith

  Very well done book on a remarkably singular idea: a biography of Steinway CD318, Glenn Gould's favourite piano. Meticulously researched, it lovingly encompasses the surrounding lives of Gould, his tuner Verne Edqvist, etc. Thoroughly enjoyable for the aficionado.
• 
  Gianluca Micchi

  I came up with a weird consideration about my reading habits: I tend to read good books in a very long time, and uninteresting ones very fast. I don't know exactly why: maybe I just find long books that require lots of concentration more interesting than short throwaway books. Whatever the reason, I read this one in just two days.
  
  Glenn Gould is a very interesting character and this book does a decent job in giving us facts and curiosities about his life: That is the only reason why it gets 2 stars and not just 1. The rest is not that great. The book has many of the typical flaws of biographies such as a very fragmented style, a story that seems very artificial (the importance given to the blind tuner seems exaggerated and probably due to the sense of awe that a skilled blind person should inspire), and a lack of insight on the subject about what made protagonist so great: we all know that Gould was a great pianist and that his sound was very crisp and clear, but we would like more than that. At times, it feels like reading a long Wikipedia page.
• 
  Parlabane

  I can’t imagine this book is for many people. You have to be interested in the inner workings of a piano or your interest in the book might be lost in early chapters about Steinway and about tuning. I pretty much loved everything.
  
  It really is told like a romance. The beginnings of Gould and his eternal search for a piano with impossibly light action. The beginnings of CD 318 as one of only a handful concert grands built during the war because the Steinway factory was requisitioned to build aircraft. How CD 318 had been right there in Toronto, near Gould for ten years before he discovered it and how in fact he recognised the piano as one he played on as child prodigy at a concert. There is also a third ‘person’ in this romance - the tuner and his tale is recounted too.
  
  
• 
  Cliff Tan

  My favorite book on Glenn Gould thus far! Wonderfully well researched and terrific writing. I thought I’d get bored with all the technicalities and “googleable” piano making jargon, but the writer knew how to balance that out with human conflict and drama.
  
  Honestly I think that it’s impossible to write an interesting book about a piano without a personality such as Gould being the subject of interest. What a fascinating perspective of the artist! I’m so glad that I bought the paperback off book depository (because I couldn’t find it online!). The cover page is also a work of art!
  
  Thank you Katie for all your hard work.
  
• 
  Melinda

  This really is an extraordinary book, maybe 4.5 or 5 stars for what it manages to accomplish. If you are a curious reader and can be interested in almost any subject an author writes well about, then you will be interested in Gould, his piano, and his long-suffering tuners. Yes, there is a wealth of details about how pianos are constructed, but Hafner has done her research and given us so much more than just one stream of knowledge -- and done so in a fascinating way. A good writer can make me interested in most any subject. With this book, it was a pleasure to learn more about Gould's "romance on three legs." Well done and highly recommended.
• 
  R Fontaine

  Glenn Gould's obsessive quest for the perfect piano.
  Gould,the genius of the Goldberg Variations, loses his lifelong companion,a Steinway CD318,when it is accidentally dropped from a loading dock and the obsession to replace begins. Gould is a weird character far beyond his quest for the perfect piano, but his brilliance is undeniable, and his story interesting and at times, riveting.
• 
  Kat

  Katie Hafner has a really lovely writing style, making A Romance on Three Legs a very easy book to devour. I really enjoyed reading this account of Glenn Gould's obsession with the Steinway CD 318 and gleaned some interesting facts about the history of piano tuning. Recommended for music fans.
• 
  Kathy Oldham

  This book alternated between a story of a pianist, a piano technition and a piano. A little disjointed, but to piano enthusiasts, this hardly matters.
• 
  Denis Lejeune

  Superb. Very sad to finish it. Greatly written, fascinating focuses. Only criticism is it's not a lot longer.