# The Ultimate Triumph of Philip Glass



## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

I'm listening to Philip Glass' Symphony No. 8, and last night I heard his Symphony No. 2, both conducted by Dennis Russell Davies. Like his early ensembles, Glass had entrusted a small group of "specialists" or in this case, Davies, to realize his vision. The 8th has the Bruckner Orchestra Linz, Austria, as the vehicle; an awesome unit, capable of the highest artistry.

This series of symphonies will no doubt be the definitive ones, and I can't wait until they are assembled into a boxed set...but I'm being premature, aren't I? since Glass is still very much alive. He's getting grizzled, though, so take advantage of the fact that he still is, in any way you can. Whatever that means.

The ideas are all here: his work with Ravi Shankar, when he was appointed to transcribe Shankar's ideas for a sitar concerto into Western notation, is evident in the complex rhythmic structures especially. This has consequences for a Western symphony as well. 
Indian rhythmic units can be very long by comparison to Western ideas, which tend to be restricted to measures of 4/4 and other short units. An Indian rhythm can be, say, 17 beats long, divided 9 + 8, or like a string of beads, into 3+3+3+4+2+2, which can provide very long thematic elements. Interesting and challenging listening is the result.

Glass still has his smaller "chamber" ensemble, and tours as a solo pianist, but his symphonic works represent his ultimate triumph as a composer, and his complete acceptance and assimilation into the traditional Western classical music establishment, and, IMHO, musical history.

What more do you need? Nine or ten symphonies are enough to seal the deal for many people. His extensive soundtrack work, as well, is making his music more recognizable to the general public. My wife is a good example: she came from Janis Joplin, Little Feat, Emmy Lou Harris, and Bonnie Raitt, but yesterday she arrived home from work, excited about the Glass Symphony No. 2 they were playing on the radio. Rush hour, Friday, and the music hit her at the right time, and she was receptive. It worked, and I'm sure this effect is occurring with other people, in other cities.

Philip Glass has arrived, as, I think, as one of the most important composer of our times...and I saw it happen.


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## quack (Oct 13, 2011)

To be honest, probably the best proof of his lasting influence and significance to modern classical music is being parodied on _South Park_.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

I feel bad that of Reich, Adams and Glass that I have heard Glass the least. I need to rectify that immediately.

I don't know enough about his music to make a judgment call.


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## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

albertfallickwang said:


> I feel bad that of Reich, Adams and Glass that I have heard Glass the least. I need to rectify that immediately.
> 
> I don't know enough about his music to make a judgment call.


Do you have five hours to kill?


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Glass' music is generally more accessible than many of his contemporaries. That probably explains why he has been approached to do film scores too.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

I'm interested in Glass but so far I haven't been able to get into anything other than Koyaanisqatsi. Maybe I've grown attached to that music because I've seen and enjoyed the film. Which works are similar ? (I guess somebody is going to reply: "all of them", so I hereby took the fun out of that).


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

quack said:


> To be honest, probably the best proof of his lasting influence and significance to modern classical music is being parodied on _South Park_.


He _has_ arrived, then.


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## Guest (Feb 7, 2015)

DeepR said:


> I'm interested in Glass but so far I haven't been able to get into anything other than Koyaanisqatsi. Maybe I've grown attached to that music because I've seen and enjoyed the film. Which works are similar ? (I guess somebody is going to reply: "all of them", so I hereby took the fun out of that).


Powaqqatsi.

Can't speak for the third one, as I've not got it.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

Glass is a composer I do like, but this is how I view him - his music is more accessible than most Classical. Its the kind of stuff you can listen to while driving in the car. Many of his pieces sound very similar. Those things being said I do think he actually found a very good sound, it is a unique and effective sound and I wouldn't want to be without it. I do think he is an important composer. 

I really like the music of both Glass and Reich.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

I just tried the first movement of his 8th symphony, and I had the same experience I've had with almost everything of his I have tried to listen to.

The basic musical material strikes me as completely banal, the orchestration sounds nearly puerile, and the 'sophisticated' rhythmic elements and procedure fail to engage, and are not enough to save or better the banal material and the uninteresting orchestrations.

Each time, apart from these two exceptions of _Einstein on the Beach_ (which is not simply music but text and theater and music) and _Koyanisqatsi,_ (also a film score I would not listen to other than while watching the film) and after only a few minutes, I am more than ready to turn it off.

The music by the other two 'minimalist' big boy composers of that same generation, John Adams and Steve Reich, each very different from the other and both very different from Glass, pose no such problems for me.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

tdc said:


> Glass is a composer I do like, but this is how I view him - his music is more accessible than most Classical. Its the kind of stuff you can listen to while driving in the car. Many of his pieces sound very similar. Those things being said I do think he actually found a very good sound, it is a unique and effective sound and I wouldn't want to be without it. I do think he is an important composer.


I think this sums up my feelings about Glass. I like the structure of those pieces I have listened to and the minimalist style I find I can follow easily.
He is on the list for Composer of the Month also, cos I nominated him! (Not very subtle plug for other thread)


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## Perotin (May 29, 2012)

Nietzche wrote this in his Twilight of the Idols: "One rarely falls into a single error. Falling into the first one, one always does too much. So one usually perpetrates another one — and now one does too little." I think this quote describes perfectly the music of 20th and 21th century. First too much atonality and complexity, then the opposite extreme, too much triviality and oversimplification.


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## Skilmarilion (Apr 6, 2013)

I do like the 8th and 9th quite a bit. Especially the second movement of the 9th. I heard _Aguas da Amazonia_ for the first time recently and enjoyed it a great deal.

Most of his work though probably suffers from not being very rewarding in terms of repeated (no pun intended) listening. The repetitive melodic lines and all the rest are fine, but there's often so little going on elsewhere in the music to make things interesting. It does frustrate me when he produces a beautiful passage, and then will repeat it ad nauseam without changing anything.

Old school Glass remains very cool.


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## echmain (Jan 18, 2013)

I also like Glassworks (from around the same time as Koyaanisqatsi I think).

Here's the entire thing:


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## Skilmarilion (Apr 6, 2013)

millionrainbows said:


> I'm listening to Philip Glass' Symphony No. 8, and last night I heard his Symphony No. 2, both conducted by Dennis Russell Davies...


I've been meaning to play through all the symphonies. Just heard the 2nd for the first time -- didn't find it that persuasive, and it came across as unusually banal for Glass. It sounds far too much like one of his film scores.

In the second movement, there's that falling interval in the ground bass (please correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not good with technical terms) that he seems to use everywhere.

It's there again in the 3rd movement of the 'classical' Symphony No. 3. Except I think this movement, with that lengthy exploration with the solo violin, is very good.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

tdc said:


> Glass is a composer I do like, but this is how I view him - his music is more accessible than most Classical. *Its the kind of stuff you can listen to while driving in the car. *Many of his pieces sound very similar. Those things being said I do think he actually found a very good sound, it is a unique and effective sound and I wouldn't want to be without it. I do think he is an important composer.
> 
> *I really like the music of both Glass and Reich.* (?-ed.)


Ouch! Since it used the element of my wife/car radio/driving story, this is by far the most effective invalidation I've seen so far; but the ending ruins it...perhaps "good car music" is not a straight-out invalidation, but it could have certainly been used by the Glass-bashers preceding it to a far more effective and toxic effect.

Ok, on with the parade! Show me what you've got!


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

Everything I've heard from Glass post-Einstein has left me cold. His orchestral works in particular seem to be trying to fuse a Romantic sense of drama, big emotional climaxes and all, with minimalist procedures, and that combination just doesn't work for me.

I like some of Einstein and some of his shorter earlier works, like Music in Similar Motion and Piece in the Shape of a Square, that are really committed to the minimalist procedures.


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## Antiquarian (Apr 29, 2014)

DeepR said:


> I'm interested in Glass but so far I haven't been able to get into anything other than Koyaanisqatsi. Maybe I've grown attached to that music because I've seen and enjoyed the film. Which works are similar ? (I guess somebody is going to reply: "all of them", so I hereby took the fun out of that).


If you enjoyed Powaqqatsi, then you might try Anima Mundi recorded back in 1991 (Elektra Nonesuch label) another soundtrack, but rather short.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

millionrainbows said:


> Ouch! Since it used the element of my wife/car radio/driving story, this is by far the most effective invalidation I've seen so far; but the ending ruins it...perhaps "good car music" is not a straight-out invalidation, but it could have certainly been used by the Glass-bashers preceding it to a far more effective and toxic effect.
> 
> Ok, on with the parade! Show me what you've got!


I see where you are coming from but sometimes the truth isn't black and white. The truth is I consider Glass music a little lighter fare than most classical, but I genuinely enjoy it. My post was based on a true story, I recently put Glass _Company_ String Quartet on a mix of music I listen to in the car (which is usually pop and rock - genres that I do enjoy) and it worked great.

On a somewhat related note Reich is a composer I also really enjoy. His _Desert Music _ has become one of my favorite contemporary Classical pieces. I listen to it all the time. I think it is an excellent example that contradicts Perotin's view that newer classical is either too simple or too complex, I find the work is an excellent balance of simple and complex elements.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

I want this album badly when it comes out:


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## Guest (Feb 10, 2015)

I find his early minimalist works unbearable to listen to. It wasn't until I heard some of his more recent concertos that I could tolerate hearing even a single movement all the way through. I admit I have not yet heard any of his symphonies. But I do find his Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra actually _enjoyable_. So I suppose in my estimation he did ultimately triumph over being completely unbearable.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Jerome said:


> I find his early minimalist works unbearable to listen to. It wasn't until I heard some of his more recent concertos that I could tolerate hearing even a single movement all the way through. I admit I have not yet heard any of his symphonies. But I do find his Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra actually _enjoyable_. So I suppose in my estimation he did ultimately triumph over being completely unbearable.


I might note that Glass was driving a taxi during his early period, so this may be a contributing factor in the unbearability. Now he has a nice house and a place to compose, and works with orchestras instead of hauling PA equipment around to different lofts and museums.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Glass is not unlistenable to me. I just don't have time yet to listen to his works and focus intently on what he is trying to achieve. someday soon.


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## Skilmarilion (Apr 6, 2013)

Jerome said:


> So I suppose in my estimation he did ultimately triumph over being completely unbearable.


Speaking of pieces by Glass that aren't "completely unbearable" ... :tiphat:


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## Loge (Oct 30, 2014)

Always thought the opening to Mishima kinda cool.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

All these movie soundtracks and symphonies, chamber works, and operas, and being practically a household name: what more could you expect a modern-day composer to embody, except the disdain in critical circles, which seems to be true for all composers who are under-appreciated in their own time.


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## Classicalophile (Mar 15, 2015)

For something very different, I would recommend Aguas da Amazonia. It features a variety of virtuosic percussion solos and is overall extremely entertaining to listen to. The one thing I find endlessly exasperating though are the 4 commercial brakes in it.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

His soundtrack to "The Hours" movie has been very solid and I really have enjoyed that one quite a bit.


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## TradeMark (Mar 12, 2015)

I don't really like Philip Glass that much. His music has a nice sound to it, but I get tired of it quickly.


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## Selby (Nov 17, 2012)

A agree with the OP.

I've recently spent a lot of time with the Etudes, which recently received their first full recording:









You can see the first 10 starting here:





12: 



13: 



16: 




The "very romantic" 20th:





_For me_ it is the piano works and the string quartets that Glass will be remembered and regarded for, but, those are the genres I am most interested in, so it may be moot point. I like the violin concerto as well.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Classicalophile said:


> For something very different, I would recommend Aguas da Amazonia. It features a variety of virtuosic percussion solos and is overall extremely entertaining to listen to. The one thing I find endlessly exasperating though are the 4 commercial brakes in it.


The "commercial brakes" part of the youtube experience, or something I haven't noticed in the music? I have the CD and I enjoy it very well.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

He's got that new label, Orange Mountain, and they're releasing a bunch of his old tape archives.

















Just the_* sheer number*_ of recordings available is testament to Glass' arrival as a permanent historically significant composer. Have you looked at Amazon lately? 40-something pages of Glass...


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Albert7 said:


> I want this album badly when it comes out:
> 
> View attachment 63519


Looks like the album has been released last week so I am hoping to pick up next week for sure. It looks to be fiercely awesome .


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