glen gould plays bach and hums
hunched over the keyboard he
plays bach and hums
you listen for the humming
you wait for the humming
you smile when you begin to hear
the drone bass to the partita
you love the humming because
glen gould loves bach so much
he has to hum and you can’t help
loving bach played so superbly
by someone who has to hum
because he loves bach so much
and you can’t help loving glen gould
they’ve now perfected a way to take
the hum out of glen gould recordings
but who’d want a glen gould recording
without glen gould’s humming?
2020 Jacqueline Jackson
This article appears in Little Love Stories 2020.
