Tim Page helps verify Glenn Gould’s famous Bach score

The score for Glenn Gould’s iconic 1981 recording of Bach’s “Goldberg” Variations has resurfaced, and its authenticity has been verified by Tim Page, a professor at both the USC Thornton School of Music and the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. 

“I would call this the equivalent of a shooting script of a movie,” Page told The New York Times. “He keeps track of which takes he likes, and how long they are.”

Gould’s score for the ninth and 10th variations.

Page, who edited The Glenn Gould Reader, examined the heavily marked-up score earlier this year. It will be offered at auction on Dec. 5 at Bonhams in New York. A copy will be made available at the National Arts Center in Ottawa where, Page notes, “it will be available to scholars, and anyone who wants to see it.”