Glenn Gould in six scenes: performance as self-care

Glenn Gould's legacy revolves around his retirement from performing in 1964. Studies of his musical approach often reflect on this event with a specific purpose: to uncover the rationale behind his decision and explain it within a broader technological or aesthetic framework. Drawing on the work of Virginia Held and Sara Ahmed, this article posits Glenn Gould's abandonment of the concert hall as an act of self-care, a mechanism that helped him cope with the increasingly intrusive and exploitative culture of musical celebrity in which he had been immersed since his youth. Thus, this article explores Gould's self-care in terms of six overlapping scenes, as he appears in the concert hall and recording studio, in interviews and written essays, and on camera as a photographic subject and as a television actor, culminating in a case study based on a segment of Bruno Monsaingeon's documentary , Glenn Gould: The Alchemist . Ultimately, this study suggests that Gould's artistic choices (and achievements) had much more to do with cultivating relationships that allowed him to nurture and develop himself than with individually seeking a grand musical philosophy.