# Philip Glass, Symphony No. 10



## brg5658 (Mar 2, 2015)

Does anyone know if there is a timeline for when we can expect the release of Glass' Symphony No. 10 on CD? I did a search on this forum, but couldn't find anything on the topic. I have also been keeping my eye on new releases.

I know it premiered in August 2012 with Davies (as do many of the works of Glass), but a recording doesn't exist as far as I can find.

Many thanks, BRG


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## Skilmarilion (Apr 6, 2013)

I looked into this briefly since I recently listened through all the symphonies. 

It may be released in the next 2 or 3 years, if I were to guess. It's a shorter work (circa 30 mins) so it'd have to be put alongside at least another work on disc.

(Of course the 38 minute, 8th symphony was the only work on the disc when it was first released -- still £17 on amazon uk.  They realised that was ridiculous and released another album with the Harpsichord concerto I believe).


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## brg5658 (Mar 2, 2015)

Skilmarilion said:


> I looked into this briefly since I recently listened through all the symphonies.
> 
> It may be released in the next 2 or 3 years, if I were to guess. It's a shorter work (circa 30 mins) so it'd have to be put alongside at least another work on disc.
> 
> (Of course the 38 minute, 8th symphony was the only work on the disc when it was first released -- still £17 on amazon uk.  They realised that was ridiculous and released another album with the Harpsichord concerto I believe).


Many thanks for your reply. I guess I was becoming a bit impatient considering his Symphony No. 9 debuted in January 2012 and I had a copy on CD by May of 2012. Spoiled me a bit I guess to have it so quickly. 

There's no shortage of works they could release with it on a disc, so I never thought of that as a reason to delay the CD appearance.

Kind regards, BRG


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

How are Glass' symphonies in general? Are they accessible works to listen to? I have not listened to them.


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## brg5658 (Mar 2, 2015)

ArtMusic said:


> How are Glass' symphonies in general? Are they accessible works to listen to? I have not listened to them.


That's a bit of a loaded question, eh? 

I personally like much of the material that Philip Glass puts out. BUT, it's definitely not for the faint of heart though.

If you are a new listener I'd recommend either Symphony 3, 9, or 8 (in that order). The 4th movement of his 3rd symphony is probably my favorite among those pieces.

I adore his Choral Symphony #5, but it is quite "different" from what most would consider pleasant probably.

My first introduction to Glass was actually a very low price compilation CD (see below), which I'd recommend highly. It gets your feet wet, and introduces you to his more "normal" material, as well as some of his quirky operatic style present in Akhnaten (another wonderful work IMO).


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## Skilmarilion (Apr 6, 2013)

brg5658 said:


> If you are a new listener I'd recommend either Symphony 3, 9, or 8 (in that order). The 4th movement of his 3rd symphony is probably my favorite among those pieces.


Yep, I would agree on 3, 8 & 9. I really like the third movement of #3, with that soaring solo violin.

The later ones lean towards 'neo-romantic' Glass. I think the 8th is consistently good. I really enjoy the middle movement of the 9th, but the rest is built on very thin material imo and there's something about his orchestration that makes a lot of it sound enormously banal.

The 7th was very disappointing in that the third movement was just copy and paste from Powaqqatsi.

The 6th has a somewhat engaging third movement.

Apart from the first two sections, I found the 5th incredibly boring -- I don't know why he would even attempt to write a symphony of such a length.

The 2nd and 3rd are good in places, and probably are the best introduction to the 'Glassian' world.

The 1st and 4th, being based on the music of David Bowie, are not very interesting imo.

btw BRG, have you seen the 10th performed?


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## Skilmarilion (Apr 6, 2013)

ArtMusic said:


> How are Glass' symphonies in general? Are they accessible works to listen to? I have not listened to them.


In short, I'd say 'very accessible'. Glass' music, being what it is, doesn't demand a huge amount from the listener.

His style is most suited to opera / film I think, where his music can support something else.

Anyway, a highlight from the 8th:


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## brg5658 (Mar 2, 2015)

Skilmarilion said:


> btw BRG, have you seen the 10th performed?


Unfortunately, I have not. I'd like to...I tried to find it on streaming online to no avail.



Skilmarilion said:


> The 2nd and 3rd are good in places, and probably are the best introduction to the 'Glassian' world.


I would agree with this, and if you're again looking for a nice recording with both of those symphonies, the one below is quite nice, and nice on the pocketbook also.


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## brg5658 (Mar 2, 2015)

Skilmarilion said:


> His style is most suited to opera / film I think, where his music can support something else.


One of my favorite CDs of Glass' is actually the soundtrack to "The Hours" (2002) -- some very pleasant music and well suited to the movie. He won a BAFTA for that soundtrack, and was nominated for an Academy Award (but did not win).


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## Skilmarilion (Apr 6, 2013)

brg5658 said:


> I'd like to...I tried to find it on streaming online to no avail.


Cool. It should just be a matter of time they put out a recording.

Do you reckon he was very aware of the curse of the 9th? It felt like he wrote the 10th really quickly after the 9th. 

Welcome to the forum by the way.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

I would also recommend 2 of the discs posted earlier
The Violin Concerto and Symphonies 2 and 3
I recently purchased both secondhand for less than £4 in total


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## brg5658 (Mar 2, 2015)

Skilmarilion said:


> Cool. It should just be a matter of time they put out a recording.
> 
> Do you reckon he was very aware of the curse of the 9th? *It felt like he wrote the 10th really quickly after the 9th*.
> 
> Welcome to the forum by the way.


I keep up with reading on him quite a bit, and he actually finished the 10th before he would let Davies premiere the 9th! He was a bit paranoid, but he made it through just fine. 

And thanks for the welcome.


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## Skilmarilion (Apr 6, 2013)

brg5658 said:


> I keep up with reading on him quite a bit, and he actually finished the 10th before he would let Davies premiere the 9th!


Wow, nice one.

I realise now my 'break down' of his symphonies came across as quite negative, lol. While I enjoy some of the music in them, I did always think his music just isn't very suited to the symphonic form. Of course, his change in style over the years (the move away from the 'harcore' minimalism of his output in the 70's and early 80's) has enabled him to take on traditional forms more easily.

Some of his works that I really like:

The Photographer
Aguas da Amazonia
Glassworks
Harpsichord concerto
Violin concerto #1
String quartets #2 - #5 (It's a shame he hasn't written more in this form)
Metamorphosis #2
Symphony #3, #8 and #9
Satyagraha and Akhnaten (but in small doses -- admittedly I struggle to get through to the end of scenes, especially in the former)

For film music:

The Hours
Mishima
Thin Blue Line
Powaqqatsi


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

Why be concerned with Glass's Symphony No 10? Just listen to the previous 9 - the 10th will be exactly the same.


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## Skilmarilion (Apr 6, 2013)

delicious manager said:


> why be concerned with glass's symphony no 10? Just listen to the previous 9 - the 10th will be exactly the same.


lol. '


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## brg5658 (Mar 2, 2015)

Delicious Manager said:


> Why be concerned with Glass's Symphony No 10? Just listen to the previous 9 - the 10th will be exactly the same.


Wow, that's deep.


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## MDTDaniel (Jul 10, 2015)

Symphony 10 is now available and in stock

http://www.mdt.co.uk/blog/special-offers/philip-glass-symphony-10/


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## adtsang (Jul 2, 2013)

This is the first movement of the new symphony in its original Philip Glass Ensemble form: 




The BBC Proms performance of the full symphony has been available for quite a while as well: http://www.archive.org/serve/FrankZ...ankZappa2013-07-31RoyalAlbertHallLondonUK.mp3


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

brg5658 said:


> Wow, that's deep.


Deeper than any Glass symphony.


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## breakup (Jul 8, 2015)

I am listening to the 1st movement of symphony 3, and I was wondering why it sounds so dark. I will be looking for commentary on line, but I would like to hear members opinions. 

I am now listening to 2nd movement and it doesn't get much brighter, just faster.


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## breakup (Jul 8, 2015)

adtsang said:


> This is the first movement of the new symphony in its original Philip Glass Ensemble form:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


One would assume that being his 10th symphony Glass would have developed his musical abilities. I clicked on the link expecting to hear music, unfortunately I was disappointed.


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## Guest (Jul 14, 2015)

Hmmm. I heard music on both links.

I didn't particularly care for it, but the definition of music, far as I know does not include "has to be cared for by 'some guy'." I haven't looked up a definition of music in a long time, it's true, and perhaps they've used my real name, but I doubt it.


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## breakup (Jul 8, 2015)

some guy said:


> Hmmm. I heard music on both links.
> 
> I didn't particularly care for it, but the definition of music, far as I know does not include "has to be cared for by 'some guy'." I haven't looked up a definition of music in a long time, it's true, and perhaps they've used my real name, but I doubt it.


The Wiki article includes this phrase, "That one of the fine arts which is concerned with the combination of sounds with a view to beauty of form and the expression of thought or feeling". I would think that including "beauty" would eliminate those unpleasant composition that are masquerading as music.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definition_of_music

I would disagree with the articles inclusion of "noise music" as music.


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## Guest (Jul 14, 2015)

Well, if you're trolling, I guess what I'm doing now is my fish impersonation.

So, to take the bait: the terms "beauty" and "unpleasant" are both words that point to perceptions. That's why there's an aphorism that "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder," which misses the point as much as "a view to beauty of form" does. But even so, it indicates that enough people have noticed that different people find different things to be beautiful for there to be an aphorism about it.

Anyway, "unpleasant" would not translate into "not music" or even into "masquerading as music," either one, even if it were a description of the sounds and not a indicator of how a person is perceiving things.

And, speaking of which, I just listened to the Glass #3. I did not perceive any darkness in it at all. I've had a couple of experiences with people calling things "dark" though that might help. I played Ruders' _Gong_ at a listening party one evening. Everyone there agreed that it was "dark." But _Gong_ was inspired by the sun, is an attempt to capture some sense of the strength and energy of the sun in sound. The other experience was playing Bokanowski's _L'etoile Absinthe_ at a listening party on another evening. (I'm a cruel man, but fair.) Same response. Very similar otherwise, too, given the word _l'etoile_ right there in the title.

At the world premiere of _Chant d'ombre_--which is the companion piece to _L'etoile Absinthe_--I told Michèle about the listening party. Her response was "But _L'etoile_ is the bright piece. _Chant_ is the dark one!"

Somewhere, some time later, I was telling someone else this whole story (I'm a fair man, but cruel), and their response was "Oh, that's easy. The pieces you played were difficult, both because the people at your parties had never heard them before and because their idioms were unfamiliar. And that strangeness and struggle was translated into 'dark.' Easy!"


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## Guest (Jul 14, 2015)

breakup said:


> The Wiki article includes this phrase, "That one of the fine arts which is concerned with the combination of sounds with a view to beauty of form and the expression of thought or feeling". I would think that including "beauty" would eliminate those unpleasant composition that are masquerading as music.
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definition_of_music
> 
> I would disagree with the articles inclusion of "noise music" as music.


As the linked article says, defining music is controversial and difficult, resulting in various ones being formulated. That is a separate matter to personal tastes. I don't like baseball but I am prepared to accept that it is a sport.


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## breakup (Jul 8, 2015)

As with many things familiarity often brings appreciation but sometimes first impressions are accurate. My posts are an expression of my opinions of the works in question, and if you like the pieces, that's OK, just don't expect me to listen to them on purpose. For me, if I like it, it's music, if I don't like it, it's noise. My ears, my rules. 

I would add that not all activities under the label of "Sports" are still good examples of that particular activity, to often the promoters will allow action that is not strictly related to the sport, but which draws a crowd. Years ago a friend of mine said he went to Hershey Pa to watch a fight, and a Hockey game broke out. 

Some Guy, could you give me a good definition of "Troll", I'd like to put that on my resume.


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

breakup said:


> For me, if I like it, it's music, if I don't like it, it's noise.


So for you, there is no such thing as "bad music." In fact, the sentence "I don't like this music" is literally meaningless to you.

I mean...you're free to use words in your own special way different from how everyone else uses them, but good luck communicating with others that way.


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## sccmaestro (Jul 16, 2015)

ArtMusic said:


> How are Glass' symphonies in general? Are they accessible works to listen to? I have not listened to them.


They're...interesting? I've never been quite fond of Glass. There is some appeal in their simplicity but I think they're a bit too...dumbed down? I'm reminded of the Doctor Who soundtrack when listening to something like No. 8


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## adtsang (Jul 2, 2013)

Honestly, I'm not very partial to anything he's written after 1983 or so. I prefer Glass when he's minimal, not when he's rehashing old ideas or falling into the neo-Romantic side of things. If I want music from the romantic period, I'll listen to Schubert and Beethoven.


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