Pilgrimage to solitude : landscapes of Glenn Gould

Pilgrimage to Solitude is a documentary film that explores the geographical places of significance from the life of the late Canadian pianist, composer, and writer, Glenn Gould. In Pilgrimage, the camera documents a number of the physical spaces that feature prominently in Gould's biography, while the soundtrack deploys a sonic technique pioneered by Gould himself in his influential series of sound documentaries: the formal treatment of layered voices which he called "contrapuntal radio." This MFA project paper contextualizes the film within the broader Gould discourse; examines the film's methods, style, and structure; theorizes the accessing of memory in an important photographic antecedent to this work; and explores aspects of the landscape tradition in the Canadian experimental documentary.