Philip Glass on Music Theory Print

1000 Airplanes on the Roof

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Synopsis#

The drama is set in New York City with a sole character, “M”, who recalls encounters with extraterrestrial life forms, including their message: It is better to forget, it is pointless to remember. No one will believe you. You will have spoken a heresy. You will be outcast. In the staged production, “M” performs in the midst of a three-dimensional, holographic set. In the classic sense of the word melodrama, the role is performed by an actor in a spoken monologue over music. In the world premiere, “M” was played by a male actor; in many of the US performances, the character was played alternately by female actor Jodi Long and male actor Patrick O’Connell.

Aguas da Amazonia

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Tracks#

The track listing dedicates each song to one of the rivers: # Tiquiê River # Japurá River # Purus River # Negro River # Madeira River # Tapajós River # Paru River # Xingu River # Amazon River (version of Etude No. 2 Vol. 1 for piano) A last title much in the same style but departing from this nomenclature is also part of the album: # Metamorphosis

Performance history#

Glass composed the music which the group performed under the artistic direction of, and with arrangements by, (also at the strings). This was the first time that Glass’s music was arranged by another composer. Paulo Sérgio dos Santos and Décio de Souza Ramos Filho played the percussion instruments and Artur Andrés Ribeiro the woodwinds. Regina Stela Amaral and Michael Riesman complemented Uakti’s performance of the work at the keyboard. Glass described the result as “a true melding of my music with their sensibilities.” In 2017, Charles Coleman released an orchestral arrangement of the work featuring the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra and Absolute Ensemble, conducted by Kristjan Jarvi. In January 2025, the ensemble Third Coast Percussion released the album Aguas da Amazonia by Philip Glass through Rockwell Records, featuring flutist Constance Volk of Ensemble Dal Niente.

Akhnaten (opera)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Performance history#

Akhnaten was commissioned by Württembergische Staatstheater, Stuttgart and had its world premiere on March 24, 1984, at the Stuttgart State Theatre, under the German title Echnaton. Paul Esswood sang the title role, German director Achim Freyer staged the opera in an abstract style with highly ritualistic movements. The American premiere, directed by David Freeman, was on October 12, 1984, at the Houston Grand Opera, where Glass’s opera The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 also premiered. The UK premiere, based on the American production, was on June 17, 1985, by English National Opera at the London Coliseum. This production was revived at the London Coliseum in March 1987. The award-winning Polish premiere, directed by Henryk Baranowski, was on May 20, 2000, at the Grand Theatre in Łódź. The French premiere was on September 23, 2002, at Opéra national du Rhin in Strasbourg as a co-production with Boston Lyric Opera which had premiered the production in February 2002 A new co-production by English National Opera and LA Opera and in collaboration with Improbable directed by Phelim McDermott starring Anthony Roth Costanzo and Zachary James premiered at the London Coliseum on March 4, 2016, which won a 2017 Olivier Award, and at LA Opera on November 5, 2016. This production saw the addition of juggling choreography by Gandini Juggling. A revival of this production in London took place in March 2019 and played at the Metropolitan Opera in their 2019/2020 season, winning the 2022 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording. The 2019 Met production was streamed online on June 20 and November 14, 2020, and February 12, 2021, and returned in 2022. A new production directed and choreographed by Nanine Linning premiered at Theater Heidelberg on June 6, 2014, another new production directed by Laura Scozzi premiered at Oper Bonn on March 11, 2018. A November 2020 production at Opéra de Nice Côte d’Azur was performed without an audience and screened online, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This production was produced and choreographed by longtime Glass collaborator Lucinda Childs, who conducted rehearsals remotely. She also performed the speaking roles in the opera, which were pre-recorded and projected during the performance. The Opéra de Nice reprised their performance in October 2025 at the Philarmonie de Paris, again with Lucinda Childs as the narrator.

Appomattox (opera)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Synopsis (2007 version)#

:Time: The final days of the American Civil War.

Prologue#

Julia Dent Grant sings of her fears for her husband, Ulysses, and her sense of foreboding. She is soon joined by Mary Anna Custis Lee and her daughter, Eleanor Agnes Lee, who worry for their way of life and hope the war will be over soon. Mary Todd Lincoln appears and asks her black servant Elizabeth Keckley to interpret a nightmare her husband, the President, has had. All sing of the sorrows of war and the hope that this will be the last, joined by a female chorus who carry pictures of their loved ones killed in the war.

Cello Concerto No. 1 (Glass)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Classification#

The work has noticeable “classical” (as Glass would describe his current musical style) elements in addition to minimalist ones; while it still projects many of the minimalist aspects which characterize Glass’ music, it has audible differences, ushering a new look to composition in Glass’ more recent musical approach.

Structure#

The concerto is in the standard three movement form (this is notable because, as with the earlier Violin Concerto, Glass did not intend for the work to conform to conventional concerto structure as much as the piece simply developed that way). The three movements comply with the traditional fast-slow-fast tempo configuration.

Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Orchestration#

The concerto is scored for a large orchestra with particular emphasis on percussion: *Woodwinds: piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, E clarinet, 2 B clarinets, bass clarinet in B, 2 bassoons *Brass: 4 horns in F, 3 trumpets in B, 2 trombones, bass trombone, tuba *Percussion (4 players): snare drum, glockenspiel, xylophone, tenor drum, bass drum, piano, triangle, tambourine, tom-tom, tam-tam, chime, wood block, cymbals, suspended cymbals, vibraphone, marimba *Strings: harp, piano, violins I and II, violas, cellos, double basses *Two solo timpanis

Einstein on the Beach

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition and performance history#

Glass and Wilson first met to discuss the prospects of a collaborative work, and decided on an opera of between four and five hours in length based around a historical persona. Wilson initially suggested Charlie Chaplin or Adolf Hitler, whom Glass outright rejected, while Glass proposed Mahatma Gandhi (later the central figure of his 1979 opera Satyagraha). Albert Einstein was the eventual compromise. The title appears to reference the apocalyptic novel On the Beach by Nevil Shute. The opera was originally to be titled Einstein on the Beach on Wall Street but was later shortened; neither Glass nor Wilson remember when or why. The music was written in 1975 while Glass was in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Glass recounts the collaborative process: “I put Wilson’s notebook of sketches on the piano and composed each section like a portrait of the drawing before me. The score was begun in the spring of 1975 and completed by the following November, and those drawings were before me all the time.”

Galileo Galilei (opera)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Production notes#

All genius meets with extreme resistance before it is accepted as truth. In the case of Galileo, it was the mere hypothesis that the Earth revolved around the Sun. The notion was considered heretical and blasphemous by scholars and clergy alike. Much was done to destroy Galileo’s reputation. And since they could not do so through scientific proof, they did so through slander and threats of torture. It was not until recently that the Catholic Church finally admitted that they were wrong in persecuting Galileo. It took hundreds of years for them to admit the mistake. Galileo died believing that all of the advancements he had made in science were for naught. His books were banned, and his name was disgraced. All of this, for suggesting a theory that turned out to be true. In addition to depicting Galileo’s trials before the Inquisition, the opera also allows us a glance into Galileo’s more personal side. Namely, in showing us his relationship to his daughter Maria Celeste, who was a nun. Maria Celeste shared her father’s love of learning and science, but also understood that he was a man of great faith. She recognized that science was the very subject that served to deepen his faith, and she encouraged him on this path. The two met rarely. They were separated not only by distance, but by Galileo’s often ailing health. Sadly, they were ultimately separated by her death at the age of 33, a source of incredible sadness for Galileo. However, their connection in this opera serves to give his story a more personal rendering. The story itself is told backwards through time. It begins with an aged Galileo, blinded from having looked at the Sun too often and ends with him as a child. This is related to the function of a telescope, which works by reversing images with lenses. Much of the staging in this production is representative of Galileo’s theories and follows the patterns of the discoveries, planets, and constellations that his inventions made known to the world.

Glass Pieces

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Production#

Choreographer Jerome Robbins was first invited to direct Philip Glass’s opera, Akhnaten. Due to the unusual nature of the opera, Robbins decided to make a ballet with the music first and figure out the stage directions. However, due to scheduling conflict, Robbins withdrew from the opera, but went ahead with the ballet. Though the score is minimal, Robbins decided to treat it differently. He made charts of the music’s structure on graph paper, then worked with Ronald Bates, who also designed the lighting, to make backdrop that looks like a piece of graph paper. as the scores “struck him as being markedly different in character”. Robbins also claimed that since he was focused on the music during the creative process, he was surprised to see the critics interpret it as “images of urban life”. On the entire ballet Robbins said it has a “a ritualistic sense” which may be “inevitable” due to Glass’s music.

Glassworks (composition)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

“Opening”#

“Opening” uses triplet eighth notes, over duple eighth notes, over whole notes in 4/4 time . Formally it consists of three groups of four measure phrases of three to four chords repeated four times each, ABC: ABC, which then merges with the next movement, “Floe” with the entrance of the horns.

“Floe”#

There are two formulaically identical sections to the movement. Although rhythmically driven, the melodic implications of “Floe” occur somewhat coincidentally by orchestration. There is no modulation, but the harmonic progression simply repeats over and over again. The layering of contrasting timbres is characteristic of the piece as a whole. Floe borrows a theme from Jean Sibelius’s fifth symphony.

Harpsichord Concerto (Glass)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Instrumentation#

This concerto calls for a relatively small chamber orchestra: *one flute, two oboes, one bassoon *two horns in F *violin I, violin II, viola, cello, double bass *solo harpsichord

Structure#

The work is written in the standard three movement concerto format, with a typical fast-slow-fast progression.

First Movement#

The concerto opens on a scale and long trill played by the harpsichord, which first seems to resemble Bach before turning decisively into a recognizably Glass-style configuration of triplets. The orchestra is low at this point, and after perhaps forty seconds, enters the scene with short bursts which aid the harpsichord’s rapid spins. The movement slows somewhat into a more lyrical second section, dominated by strings. Soon after horns play quietly, allowing for the soloist to reenter. After a period of development the movement, eight minutes in duration, recalls the Bach-like theme introduced at first, and draws to a close.

Hydrogen Jukebox

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Of the project, Glass said: In 1988…I happened to run into Allen Ginsberg at St. Mark’s Bookshop in New York City and asked him if he would perform with me. We were in the poetry section, and he grabbed a book from the shelf and pointed out Wichita Vortex Sutra. The poem, written in 1966 and reflecting the anti-war mood of the times, seemed highly appropriate for the occasion. I composed a piano piece to accompany Allen’s reading, which took place at the Schubert Theater on Broadway. Allen and I so thoroughly enjoyed the collaboration that we soon began talking about expanding our performance into an evening-length music-theater work. It was right after the 1988 presidential election, and neither Bush nor Dukakis seemed to talk about anything that was going on. I remember saying to Allen, if these guys aren’t going to talk about the issues then we should. The piece was intended to form a portrait of America covering the 1950s through the late 1980s. Glass and Ginsberg sought to incorporate the personal poems of Ginsberg, reflecting on social issues: the anti-war movement, the sexual revolution, drugs, eastern philosophy, environmental issues. The six vocal parts were thought to represent six archetypal American characters—a waitress, a policeman, a businessman, a cheerleader, a priest, and a mechanic. Ginsberg said: Ultimately, the motif of Hydrogen Jukebox, the underpinning, the secret message, secret activity, is to relieve human suffering by communicating some kind of enlightened awareness of various themes, topics, obsessions, neuroses, difficulties, problems, perplexities that we encounter as we end the millennium. The title Hydrogen Jukebox comes from a verse in the poem Howl: ‘…listening to the crack of doom on the hydrogen jukebox…’ It signifies a state of hypertrophic high-tech, a psychological state in which people are at the limit of their sensory input with civilization’s military jukebox, a loud industrial roar, or a music that begins to shake the bones and penetrate the nervous system as a hydrogen bomb may do someday, reminder of apocalypse. The work formally premiered May 26, 1990 at the Spoleto Music Festival in Charleston, SC. However, the workshop staged version had premiered one month earlier at the American Music Theater Festival held in the Plays and Players theater, 1714 Delancey Place, Philadelphia, PA on April 26. It ran there until May 6, followed on that closing night by an invitation-only reception attended by Philip Glass and Allen Ginsberg and other members of the company was held nearby. The Australasian premiere was given on April 17, 2003 at the Mount Nelson Theatre (Hobart, Tasmania) by the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music, conducted by Douglas Knehans and directed by Robert Jarman.

In Creases

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

In Creases is the first ballet then-New York City Ballet corps de ballet member Justin Peck made for the company, though he had already choreographed at the New York Choreographic Institute for several years. He originally expected his first “big opportunity” would be Year of the Rabbit, but was commissioned to make an expansion of a piece originally made for the institute.

Choreography and music#

The title of the ballet is a pun, a comment on the music and what Peck “wanted to do structurally with the choreography.” Compared with the Choreographic Institute, the rehearsal schedule for a main stage production is far more unpredictable and Peck would only receive the schedule the days beforehand, therefore he “was freaking out a little.” While choreographing, he was also rehearsing and performing other ballets.

In the Penal Colony (opera)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

Kafka’s harrowing story “In the Penal Colony” ("") was adapted as a play by Steven Berkoff in 1969. Glass chose to use it as the basis for an opera and selected the creative team. He and his long-time collaborator and former wife JoAnne Akalaitis worked on the idea on and off for three years before receiving a commission from ACT Theatre in Seattle. Akalaitis worked closely with the librettist, Rudy Wurlitzer, in adapting the story for the musical stage and directed the premiere production. Glass referred to the work as a “pocket opera” and deliberately chose the small-scale format of a chamber opera to increase the likelihood that it would be frequently performed. In Kafka’s story, only two of the four characters speak, The Officer and The Visitor, whose roles in the opera are assigned to a bass-baritone and tenor respectively. As in the story, The Prisoner and The Guard remain silent. Akalaitis added a fifth character for the premiere production, Kafka himself, who serves as a narrator and onlooker. The texts for the narration were chosen by Akalaitis from Kafka’s diaries. The opera’s music is played by a string quintet. In the original production, they appear as musicians from the penal colony where the story takes place and are costumed variously as soldiers and civilians.

Kepler (opera)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Synopsis#

“Fragments from the life and ideas of the scientist Johannes Kepler are contrasted with segments from the story of creation and poems by Andreas Gryphius, which portray Europe during the Thirty Years War.”

Act 1#

Prologue
I. Questions 1
II. Polyeder
III. Genesis
IV. Gryphius —Auf die Nacht (Upon the Night)
V. Physica Coelestis
VI. Gryphius 2
VII. Questions 2
VIII. Gryphius 3—Eyes. Optical Paradox

Act 2#

I. On Astrology
II. Gryphius 4—To the Stars
III. Hypotheses
IV. Gryphius 5:—Tears of the Fatherland
V. Ephemerides
Epilogue

La Belle et la Bête (opera)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Conception#

Glass had the idea of removing the original soundtrack from Cocteau’s film, including the voices of the actors, and replacing it with his own music and the voices of the singers. In order to perfectly match the singing with the movements of the actors’ lips on the screen, he transcribed all the lines and meticulously located them so that the music perfectly matched the image. Glass thus timed each word of the film’s dialogues by electronic tracking of the film and placed them mathematically in the score, then synchronized music and film using a computer that, in charge of sorting the delays and advances of the spoken and sung words, recalculated the digital signals of the audio tape on the film’s digital circuit.

Les Enfants terribles (opera)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Synopsis#

After the death of their mother, Elizabeth and Paul, orphaned brother and sister left to their own devices and bound by an exclusive affection, live together in their large Parisian apartment. They have built themselves a chimeric universe governed by sibylline symbols. Their room is a real sanctuary where a “treasure” is enthroned with a meaning that is also known only to them. “Elizabeth” met Michael and married him, but the next day he died in an accident without their marriage having been consummated. She inherited Michael’s fortune, including a large private mansion where Paul came to join her with their famous treasure. Gérard, a comrade of Paul and his friend Agathe, who strangely resembles Dargelos (a schoolboy that Paul idolized), soon come to live with them. But when Elizabeth understands that love is born between her brother and Agatha, like a Greek divinity, a kind of Parque, she weaves a Machiavellian web so that her brother cannot escape it. As in all ancient tragedies, the outcome can only be fatal. Fascinating by the morbid desire carried by the Paul/Elisabeth relationship, this seemingly banal story hides a tragedy: the inevitable end of adolescence, its myths, its grace, its illusions. Elizabeth and Paul die for breaking this law by wanting to eternalize a moment of passage. Indeed, as soon as Dargelos’ snowball reaches Paul in the chest, time stops, “the room” begins to live. It became their deserted island, the little piece of land isolated from the rest of the world where they built cabins with their pillows and led a Robinson’s existence at night. Their bodies grow, Paul’s legs protrude under his sheets, they play at having the desires of grown-ups; but in fact, nothing moves. If they move, it’s to rebuild the room immediately. Behind their incessant quarrels, their constant agitation, there is a morbid desire for immobility… It was Dargelos, the hidden god of this tragedy, who precipitated its outcome by sending a poisoned black ball to Paul, who completed the work of the first snowball. Elizabeth, priestess of the chamber, is only the instrument of fate. By killing herself and her brother, she brings their adolescence into eternity.

Monsters of Grace

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Creation of the opera#

Originally, Wilson intended the fantastical scenarios he envisioned to actually be staged. When he realized the enormous costs and effort that would be involved in performing such a project (which included such tableaux as a gigantic hand pulling a sword from the ocean and a helicopter flying over the Great Wall of China), Wilson and producer Jed Wheeler began looking into creating the entire visual end of the production with 3D computer graphics. Wheeler eventually awarded the contract for the visual effects to the Kleiser-Walczak Construction Co., a firm that specializes in computer animation for movies. One major drawback that seems to have been the project’s main flaw was the length of time required for creating and rendering the animation. It took twenty animators almost a full year to complete the footage based on Wilson’s original intent. Wilson, who has been described as liking to maintain great control over his projects and to change details at the last minute, gradually grew frustrated upon seeing how much time was required to change the animations, and ended up distancing himself from the animators. This led to a final product that, from his standpoint, was unpolished. In an interview with the New York Times, he remarked, “This is like being a dog with a litter of puppies that went away six weeks later. . . . Here I was working with people who didn’t know my work, in a medium I didn’t know.”

Music in Twelve Parts

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Recording/performance history#

The work has been recorded three times: first for Virgin (1974 (vinyl) 1990 (complete recording on CD, completed 1988)), later for Nonesuch in 1993, and for Orange Mountain Music in 2007. On Monday 1 May 2017, the work was performed at the Barbican Hall in London, England, UK, by a group of musicians assembled and led by keyboard player James McVinnie, the first time the work had been performed live other than by the Philip Glass Ensemble.

Orphée (Glass)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Structure#

Act 1
Scene 1, le Café
Scene 2, la Route
Scene 3, le Chalet
Scene 4, Chez Orphée
Scene 5, la Chambre d’Orphée
Scene 6, le Studio d’Orphée
Scene 7, le Bureau du Commissaire
Scene 8, la Poursuite
Scene 9, Chez Orphée
Act 2
Scene 1, le Voyage aux Enfers
Scene 2, le Procès
Scene 3, Orphée et la Princesse
Scene 4, le Verdict
Scene 5, Interlude musical - le retour chez Orphée
Scene 6, Chez Orphée
Scene 7, le Studio d’Orphée
Scene 8, le Retour d’Orphée
Scene 9, la Chambre d’Orphée

Discography#

The Orphée Suite for Piano, music by Philip Glass, transcription by Paul Barnes (piano), recorded in April 2001. Orange Mountain Music (2003).
The Portland Opera Orchestra conducted by Anne Manson, first full version recorded in November 2009. Orange Mountain Music (2010).
The Orphée Suite for Flute, strings, and percussion , music by Philip Glass, transcription by James Strauss (flute) and Camerata Simon Bolivar, recorded in April 2017. Orange Mountain Music (2019).

Bibliography#

Orphée: The Making of an Opera, Philip Glass, n.n editions (1993)
Orphée Suite for Piano (score), Philip Glass, Dunvagen Music Publishers (2006)
Orphée (the play), Le Livre de Poche, La Pochothèque (1995)
Orphée (scenario of the film), J’ai lu, Librio n°75 (2001)

Passages (Ravi Shankar and Philip Glass album)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Reception#

AllMusic’s Jim Brenholts called the music “brilliant”. Benholts wrote that Shankar’s “smooth” style and Glass’ dissonant orchestrations mixed well, and recommended Passages to fans of other minimalist composers such as John Cage, Steve Reich and Terry Riley.

Track listing#

“Offering” (Philip Glass)– 9:47 # “Sadhanipa” (Ravi Shankar) – 8:37 # “Channels and Winds” (Philip Glass) – 8:00 # “Ragas in Minor Scale” (Ravi Shankar) – 7:37 # “Meetings Along the Edge” (Philip Glass) – 8:11 # “Prashanti” (Ravi Shankar) – 13:40#

Personnel#

Tim Baker – violin
S. P. Balasubrahmanyam – vocals
Seymour Barab – cello
Al Brown – viola
Ashit Desai – conductor
Blaise Dupuy – engineer
Barry Finclair – viola, violin
Mayuki Fukuhara – violin
Jeannie Gagné – voices
Jon Gibson – soprano saxophone
Philip Glass – performer, producer
Peter Gordon – French horn
Regis Iandiorio – violin
Rory Johnston – executive producer
Karen Karlsrud – violin
Abhiman Kaushal – tabla
Jack Kripl – alto saxophone, flute
Suresh Lalwani – arranger, conductor, mixing, orchestral assistant, producer
Regis Landiorio – violin
Beverly Lauridsen – cello
Batia Lieberman – cello
Ronu Mazumdar – flute
Michael McGrath – assistant engineer
Kurt Munkacsi – producer
Keith O’Quinn – trombone
Richard Peck – alto saxophone, tenor saxophone
Melanie Penny – art direction
Martin Perlich – liner notes
Lenny Pickett – alto saxophone, tenor saxophone
Alan Raph – trombone
Michael Riesman – conductor, mixing, piano
Ebet Roberts – photography
Partha Sarathy – sarod, veena
Sergiu Schwartz – violin
Ron Sell – French horn
Ravi Shankar – arranger, orchestration, performer, producer, vocals
Shubho Shankar – sitar
Richard Sortomme – viola
T. Srinivasan – drum sounds, mridangam
A.R. Swaminathan – engineer
Masako Yanagita – viola, violin
Frederick Zlotkin – cello Credits adapted from AllMusic.

Charts#

In the United States, Passages reached a peak position of number three on Billboard Top World Music Albums chart.

Piano Concerto No. 2 (Glass)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Instrumentation#

The work is scored for the following Classical-size orchestra: * One Native American flute, one clarinet, one oboe, one bassoon * One trumpet, two horns in F * Bass drum, snare drum, cymbals, tambourine * Strings and solo piano Note that this orchestration is relatively small-scale in comparison to much of Glass’ other symphonic work.

Structure#

The work is in the standard three-movement concerto format, with the traditional fast-slow-fast tempo changes. As he discussed in regard to his earlier Violin Concerto, Glass did not use the conventional format as a cession to tradition, but rather as a tool for depiction of the specific concerto theme.

Satyagraha (opera)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Performance history#

Satyagraha was commissioned by the city of Rotterdam, Netherlands, and first performed at the (Municipal Theatre) there on September 5, 1980, by the Netherlands Opera, featuring the choir of the Rotterdam Conservatory and the , conducted by . The opera premiered in North America at the Artpark in Lewiston, New York, on July 29, 1981. That production was mounted later that year at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The opera was also staged that same year by the Stuttgart Opera (which went on to perform the complete trilogy in 1990); this production was taped during its revival in 1983 and released on video. The Lyric Opera of Chicago presented the first production by a major international opera company on September 28, 1987, at the Civic Opera House. Douglas Perry sang the role of Gandhi. The UK premiere was a joint production by Bath Spa University and Frome Community College in the theatre of Kingswood School in Bath in 1997. There was a performance by San Francisco Opera at the War Memorial Opera House in 1989. staged a new production of the opera in 2004 at the Theater Bonn, Germany, with a revival in 2013, with Ulrich Windfuhr conducting the Beethoven Orchester Bonn. A new staging by the English National Opera and Improbable theatre, co-produced by the Metropolitan Opera, opened in London in April 2007 and in New York in April 2008. It was revived in London in February 2010 and in New York in November 2011; the New York performance on November 19 was part of the Met Opera: Live in HD series. It aired on Great Performances from PBS in 2012, Season 39 Episode 19 on March 22 and March 25. The Metropolitan Opera’s 2011 production was streamed online on June 21 and November 1, 2020. On September 16, 2014, a new production was staged at the Ekaterinburg State Academic Opera in Russia. The creative team included Thaddeus Strassberger (direction and scenic design), Mattie Ullrich (costume design) and Oliver von Dohnányi (conductor). A new production by Folkoperan and Cirkus Cirkör, directed by and conducted by Matthew Wood premiered in Stockholm on September 14, 2016. It was revived twice in Stockholm in April 2017 and in May 2018. The production also went on tour to Stora Teatern in May 2017, to the Copenhagen Opera Festival in August 2018 and to the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Harvey Theater in October – November 2018. Leif Aruhn-Solén sang the role of Gandhi nearly 50 times and is therefore likely the singer who has performed the role the most. On 18 November 2018, Vlaamse Opera premiered a production by director and choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, together with stage designer Henrik Ahr and costume designer Jan-Jan Van Essche. Paris Opera premiered a new production of Satyagraha on 10 April 2026, with direction and choreography by Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber.

Solo Piano (Philip Glass album)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Track listing#

All tracks composed and arranged by Philip Glass. #“Metamorphosis One” – 5:41 #“Metamorphosis Two” – 7:22 #“Metamorphosis Three” – 5:33 #“Metamorphosis Four” – 7:01 #“Metamorphosis Five” – 5:10 #“Mad Rush” – 13:48 #“Wichita Vortex Sutra” – 6:53

Songs from Liquid Days

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Details#

The album was conceived in 1983, but mostly written and recorded in 1985. Glass said, “I was curious. The question I asked myself was: ‘If I, a person from the world of concert music and opera, wrote a song, what would it sound like?’” On the project, Glass said: :The words come first. From these I fashioned a set of six songs which, together, form a cycle of themes ranging from reflections on nature to classic romantic settings. After the music was written, I — along with producer Kurt Munkacsi and conductor Michael Riesman — began the long and difficult process of ‘casting’ singers for the individual songs. We felt that the interpretation a singer brings to a song is an immense contribution to its character — contributing their own personality to the work perhaps more than any other performer. The recording features performances by Bernard Fowler, the Kronos Quartet, Janice Pendarvis, Douglas Perry, the Roches, Linda Ronstadt, and the Philip Glass Ensemble, directed by Michael Riesman. The recording was released in 1986 by CBS Records. The song “Lightning” was performed by the Philip Glass Ensemble on Saturday Night Live, March 22, 1986. The title comes from a lyric written by Byrne. Glass said, “It had a feeling of how the songs flowed into each other, as if each song were a day and the liquidity was the flow of the songs from one to the other. There’s no break between the songs. The end of one becomes the introduction to the next.”

String Quartet No. 2 (Glass)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition#

After withdrawing his first sketch of a string quartet in 1963, Philip Glass composed his String Quartet No. 2 seventeen years after his first quartet, even though it was not initially conceived as chamber music, but for theater. This work was composed as a result of Glass’ collaboration with the Mabou Mines quartet, of which he married JoAnne Akalaitis, one of its members. Glass himself decided to extract the music he had written for Samuel Beckett’s Company, and wrote a score thought to be a concert work on its own.

String Quartet No. 4 (Glass)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition#

It was commissioned by Geoffrey Hendricks in remembrance of the artist Brian Buczak, who succumbed to AIDS-related complications in 1987 at the age of 33. It was premiered at a memorial service on the second anniversary of the artist’s death on July 4, 1989 at the Hauser Gallery. Glass wanted his fourth quartet to represent “a musical impression of Buczak as a person as well as a tribute to his life’s work”.

Symphony No. 1 (Glass)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The symphony#

The symphony was composed in 1992 and scored for full orchestra with 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, E clarinet, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, percussion, harp, piano, and strings (including 8 first violins, 6 second violins, 4 violas, 4 cellos and 2 double basses). The symphony has three movements: “Some Are”, the David Bowie song on which the second movement was based, was not included on the original release of Low, but was recorded around the Low recording sessions. The song was later released on the Rykodisc reissue of the album in 1991, as well as the 2008 David Bowie compilation “iSelect”.

Symphony No. 10 (Glass)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition#

The symphony reworks music originally written as Los paisajes del rio for the Philip Glass Ensemble, premiered at the 2008 Expo Zaragoza. Due to the famed curse of the ninth, Glass composed the piece before the premiere of his Ninth Symphony.

Instrumentation#

The work is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, three clarinets (second doubling on E clarinet, third doubling on bass clarinet), two bassoons, four French horns, three trumpets, two trombones, bass trombone, tuba, timpani, six percussionists (chimes, glockenspiel, xylophone, marimbas, triangle, anvil, tamtam, clash cymbals, castanets, wood block, snare drum, tenor drum, bass drum), celesta, piano, harp, and strings (violins I & II, violas, violoncellos, and double basses).

Symphony No. 12 (Glass)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Reviews#

The premiere was greeted with positive reviews in the Los Angeles Times, with soloist Angélique Kidjo praised for “illuminating on every level” the lyrics of David Bowie. The San Francisco Classical Voice was not so kind, calling the work “as overstuffed as a lumpy couch” and criticizing the choice of vocal soloist for the work. The premiere in London at the Royal Festival Hall was positively reviewed by the Financial Times complimenting Angelique Kidjo’s performance: “With a husky, Marlene Dietrich-style low end, she was a bracingly expressionist presence, reimagining Bowie’s surrealistic verses as Weimar cabaret. She rose impressively to the demanding role.” Bachtrack gave a favorable review also: “Glass wrote the work with the formidable voice and presence of Kidjo in mind, and she gave a performance of deep presence and strength, her voice beginning in a purposeful, chromatic drone that followed Glass’ chromatic lines, but drawing the audience in a journey of gradual expansion and emotion as the symphony progressed. The music itself is lush and formidable, overlaid by the presence of the Royal Festival Hall’s imposing organ which acts as a forceful parent to the orchestra.”

Symphony No. 13 (Glass)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

The idea for the Symphony was first envisioned by Jennings’ children, as a multimedia musical work, during a visit to their aunt Sarah in Ottawa. Their aunt had heard that the National Arts Centre Orchestra were looking to commission a new piece by an international composer. She gave her support without choosing the composer; in 2019, the orchestra ending up choosing Philip Glass whom had been awarded the Glenn Gould Prize in Ottawa in 2016. Glass composed the piece over the summer of 2020 “I was very impressed by the NAC Orchestra when receiving the Glenn Gould Prize, and was excited to receive this commission from them to honour the person, work and ethos of Peter Jennings, on a theme which is very close to my heart,” Glass in 2019.

Symphony No. 15 (Glass)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

In 2022, Glass was commissioned to compose the symphony to honor the life of President Abraham Lincoln and to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Kennedy Center of Performing Arts. Prior to this piece, Glass had included Lincoln as a character in several of his works, but unlike in those older compositions, Lincoln would be the main focus. During the composing of the piece, while Glass primarily drew from the “Lyceum Address,” he also took inspiration from Lincoln’s later speeches and writings, such as Lincoln’s Farewell Address (1861), the Emancipation Proclamation (1863), and Lincoln’s final address, which had been spoken on April 11th, 1865.

Symphony No. 2 (Glass)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Scoring and structure#

The work is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes doubling cor anglais, E clarinet, two B clarinets, bass/contrabass clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, four percussionists, timpani, two harps, piano, celesta, and strings. It has three continuous movements with contrasting themes and lasts approximately 40 minutes. According to James M Keller, “Structural experimentation and orchestral sonorities notwithstanding, the most striking aspect of Glass’ Symphony No. 2 may be the ways in which melody and harmony interlock in a polytonal fashion. Glass has commented on his use of polytonality in the work: “The great experiments of polytonality carried out in the 1930s and 40s show that there’s still a lot of work to be done in that area. Harmonic language and melodic language can coexist closely or at some calculated distance, and their relationship can be worked out in terms of either coexisting harmonies or ambiguous harmonies. … I’m more interested in the ambiguous qualities that can result from polytonality — how what you hear depends on how you focus your ear, how a listener’s perception of tonality can vary in the fashion of an optical illusion. We’re not talking about inventing a new language, but rather inventing new perceptions of existing languages.”

Symphony No. 3 (Glass)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Form#

The symphony is in four movements. The first movement is elemental in nature, initially based on pulsing Cs but giving way before long to contrasting scales. It is soft and brief, evocative of the composer’s earlier string quartets, and acts as a prelude to the faster and more lively second movement, which begins with running quavers that immediately signal a change in texture and harmonic breadth. The movement progresses to a series of abrupt metrical changes, and ends when it moves without transition into a new closing theme with pizzicato counterpoint. The third movement forms the core of the piece, taking the form of a dark, slow-building chaconne beginning with a ground bass in the cellos and violas. The rest of the orchestra joins the pattern with each repeat, setting in place a layered effect before a solo violin introduces a high, keening cantabile melody over the accumulated rhythmical tissue. The melody passes to a different member of the violin section with each repeat, as the other instruments continue to build the underlying structure. The melody is eventually subsumed beneath contrapuntal filigrees and trills from the rest of the violin section, disappearing almost entirely within the texture, and the movement ends abruptly once the theme has reached its peak and all instruments have been included. The energetic fourth movement recapitulates and develops material from the end of the second, with brisk chords intersected by short chromatic runs. These chromatic sequences come to dominate as the movement progresses, taking over from the earlier chord stabs and steering the movement into its closing theme.

Symphony No. 4 (Glass)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Symphony#

The symphony is scored for 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 3 horns, 3 trumpets, 2 trombones, bass trombone, tuba, percussion, harp, piano, celesta, and strings. The symphony is in six movements: “Abdulmajid”, the David Bowie song on which the second movement was based, was not included on the original release of Heroes, but was recorded around the Heroes recording sessions. The song would later be released on the Rykodisc reissue of the album in 1991.

Symphony No. 5 (Glass)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Structure#

The symphony has a duration of roughly an hour and forty minutes is divided into twelve movements:

Instrumentation#

The symphony is scored for solo soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone, and bass-baritone, a children’s chorus, SATB choir, and a large orchestra consisting of piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, E clarinet, bass clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, two trombones, bass trombone, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, piano, and strings.

Symphony No. 7 (Glass)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition#

The symphony is scored for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 B clarinets, E clarinet, 2 bassoons, 4 horns 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, rattle, tom-tom, wood block, glockenspiel, piano, celesta, harp, violins, violas, cellos, basses, organ, and chorus. At 30 minutes long, it has three movements:

Inspiration#

Glass said that he wrote the symphony about Mesoamerica and the life of Native Americans centuries before the arrival of European explorers. The first movement, “The Corn,” focuses on the interplay between Mother Nature and those she provides for. “The Hikuri (the Sacred Root)” is not a root (it is a cactus) that grows in the northern and central Mexican deserts and is thought to be a gateway to the spiritual world, hikuri. Finally, the last movement is about “the holder of the Book of Knowledge,” whom every truth-seeking person must face. Glass has thus integrated three transcendental concepts of ancestral culture (Huichol) into the symphony: The first is corn, symbolizing the desire to return to the innocence of pre-adulthood and the connection with Mother Earth. The second is hikuri (peyote), a sacred cactus used in Huichol rituals to induce visions. Through these visions, the individual perceives deeper truths and is granted a sacred insight in which corn and the Blue Deer appear united, symbolizing the interconnectedness of life, sustenance, and spiritual awakening. The third is the Blue Deer, a divine messenger and guide. According to Huichol belief, encountering the Blue Deer marks the moment of transformation: the seeker is no longer ordinary but spiritually awakened, able to cross from the physical world into the spiritual realm.

Symphony No. 9 (Glass)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Reception#

The symphony has been highly regarded by critics and quickly became a bestseller on iTunes following its U.S. premiere. Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times lauded the work, declaring it “late Glass at his most momentous, a significant symphony by America’s most significant symphonist.” Richard S. Ginell of Variety also praised the work, saying, “The 50-minute-plus Ninth is not Glass’s biggest symphony – that would be the 97-minute, choral Fifth – but it is one of his more imposing pieces, three sprawling movements for a very large symphony orchestra.” Andrew Clements of The Guardian was slightly more critical, but commended the work, noting, “If the music occasionally hangs fire, its craftsmanship, as ever with Glass, is exemplary.”

The Civil Wars: A Tree Is Best Measured When It Is Down

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Minneapolis section: The Knee Plays#

The American section of The Civil Wars was a series of twelve brief interludes intended to connect the larger scenes and provide time for set changes. David Byrne was the composer of these mostly wordless pieces, and choreography was by Suzushi Hanayagi. The Knee Plays premiered in April 1984 at the Walker Art Center. With no singers, The Knee Plays told its story through nine dancers wearing white doctor’s smocks. The style of presentation was influenced by Japanese Bunraku puppetry and Noh and Kabuki theater. The designs, by Jun Matsuno with Wilson and Byrne, were modular white squares resembling Japanese shoji screens that moved fluidly to redefine the space for each scene. Byrne’s music, however, took its inspiration not from Japan but from the Dirty Dozen Brass Band of New Orleans. The instrumentation was for a brass ensemble, and incorporated a number of traditional tunes, including “In the Upper Room”, “Social Studies (The Gift of Sound)”, “Theadora is Dozing”, and “Things to Do (I’ve Tried)”. New York Times critic John Rockwell wrote “The ‘plot’ traces the transformation of a tree into a boat into a book into a tree again, almost as a cycle of nature … All of which means little in words, but much in stage pictures.” Wilson coined the term “knee play”, meaning an interlude between scenes, for the opera Einstein on the Beach. The term emerges from Wilson’s conception of these pieces as connective tissue linking the “meat” of a performance.

The Concerto Project

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Volumes#

There are four volumes of the Project: * The Concerto Project Vol. I, containing the Cello Concerto and the Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra. * The Concerto Project Vol. II, containing the Piano Concerto No. 2: After Lewis and Clark, and the Concerto for Harpsichord and Orchestra. * The Concerto Project Vol. III, containing the Concerto Grosso and the Concerto for Saxophone Quartet and Orchestra. * The Concerto Project Vol. IV, containing the Double Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra and the Tirol Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (also known simply as Piano Concerto No. 1). These concerti were all produced by Orange Mountain Music.

The Juniper Tree (opera)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Performance history#

It was premiered on December 11, 1985, at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The first UK performance was premiered by Helen Astrid as part of the Richmond Festival in March 2017 at The Hammond Theatre. For its 25th anniversary of creation, the presented the Canadian premiere of the opera in September, 2010, at the Salle Jean-Paul Tardif in Quebec, Canada.

Synopsis#

The Grimm fairy tale tells of a wicked stepmother who murders her stepson, fearing that he reminds her husband of his late wife and serves him up in a stew to his hungry, unsuspecting father. The boy’s sister buries her brother’s bones under a juniper tree where their mother is buried, and the child’s spirit returns as a singing bird who wreaks vengeance on the evil stepmother (dropping a millstone on her) before being restored to life in the bosom of his family.

The Light (Glass)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 (opera)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Performance history#

The opera was first performed at Houston Grand Opera on 8 July 1988. The British premiere was 9 November 1988 by English National Opera at the London Coliseum. This production was broadcast live in the UK on BBC Radio 3 on 13 December 1988.

Synopsis#

The people of Planet 8 are peaceful and content, until one of the Canopean Agents arrives and tells them to prepare for an impending ice age. The embattled population fights courageously in the face of certain death, and their efforts are transformed when they become the one single “representative” of the planet’s people and culture.

The Perfect American

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Genesis#

The Perfect American arose from a commission of the New York City Opera in September 2008. The project idea was suggested by Gerard Mortier, who was appointed director in February 2007, and gave a copy of Jungk’s novel to Philip Glass, seeing a perfect frame for a future production.

Libretto#

The libretto by Rudy Wurlitzer is based on the controversial biographical novel Der König von Amerika by Peter Stephan Jungk. When he was a child, Jungk’s parents received frequent visits from their friend, physicist Heinz Haber, who at the time worked for Disney as a scientific consultant. The novel imagines the last three months of the life of Walt Disney from the tales of the fictional Austrian cartoonist Wilhelm Dantine, who – before being fired – had worked for Disney between 1940 and 1950. The creator of Mickey Mouse is depicted as something of a megalomaniac racist, misogynist (only men were allowed to draw, women were only allowed coloring) anti-Semite and Nazi sympathiser, and for exposing three of his employees before the Committee on Un-American Activities. Disney, played in the opera by Christopher Purves, comments on the march on Washington in August 1963: “Where leads all this freedom, negroes walking to Washington, the misfits who fornicate like rabbits?” Glass describes the last years of the life of Walt Disney “unimaginable, alarming and truly frightening”, but cedes him responsibility for his own ideas because he believes they are the product of the context in which he lived. He sees him as “a child of his time with very conservative ideas, yes, but a great visionary”, “a human being in ordinary and extraordinary times”, “an icon of modernity, a man capable of building bridges between high culture and popular culture”. In this sense it recalls that “Disney has always been conscious of the attitudes of ordinary people and also allowed the masses to address the high culture by introducing the music of Tchaikovsky and others in his films.” For him, his opera “is not a documentary or portrait” but a “journey poetic and tragic” through the last months of the life of an artist who “faced the same doubts that beset us all”. He therefore conceived the work as a kind of poem on the quintessentially American and a reflection on death.

The Photographer (opera)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Subject#

Eadweard Muybridge was an English-born photographer who relocated to the American West and was an early pioneer in photographic technology. He photographed well-known landscapes of Yosemite that pushed the aesthetic and technological boundaries of the medium. His early photographic motion studies conducted in association with Leland Stanford led to the earliest moving photographic images. In 1874, Muybridge murdered Major Harry Larkyns (referred to as ‘Colonel Harry Larkyns’ in this work), whom he suspected of being his wife’s lover, and was acquitted by a jury against the instructions of the judge on the ground of justifiable homicide. His trial is well-known because his defense argued that a head injury incurred in a stagecoach accident altered his personality, which modern neuroscientists believe could have been caused by certain types of brain damage. The text included in Glass’ work is based on words drawn from the transcripts of the trial People v. Muybridge and Muybridge’s actual letters to his wife. The second act features a slideshow of Muybridge’s photographs. While based on historical events in Muybridge’s life, the work also comments on aspects of Muybridge’s work, melding both themes.

The Trial (2014 opera)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Act 1#

On his 30th birthday, a bank manager, Josef K., is arrested at his flat for an unidentified crime. Neither the guards, Franz and Willem, nor the police inspector offer any explanation, although all of K.’s neighbours seem to understand better than K. why they are present. Franz and Willem inappropriately look through Josef K.’s belongings, to the latter’s annoyance. After observing Josef K.’s reaction to his arrest, the inspector allows K. to go to work. Later that same evening, K., apologises to his landlady, Frau Grubach, for the disturbance that morning resulting from his arrest. K. meets a fellow tenant, Fräulein Bürstner, and tells her of his arrest. She is drawn to his plight, and he abruptly kisses her. K. locates the court in an inconspicuous urban block. A washerwoman guides him in, where he learns that everyone there is waiting for him. K. protests the proceedings, and a sudden cry is heard, coming from the washerwoman, as a man presses himself on her. K. speaks in her defence and accuses the court of corruption. The magistrate warns K. that he is damaging his own case. K. returns to the court for a second hearing, to find that the court is not in session. The washerwoman tells K. that she is the wife of the bailiff. She offers herself to K. and says that she admired his protest, but that she meant her cry to interrupt him. K. examines the Magistrate’s books and finds that they contain pornography. Whilst the washerwoman continues her advances toward K., the student Berthold appears and carries her off. The court usher then arrives and registers his disdain that the inhabitants of the court always carry her off. The usher posits the scenario that K. could punish Berthold for his behaviour. K. requires assistance to leave the courtroom. In his office, K. receives a visit from his uncle Albert, who berates his nephew for concealing his arrest. He then offers to bring K. to an expert barrister. K. reluctantly consents to the visit. Whilst leaving work, K. hears odd noises from another room. A flogger is whipping Franz and Willem, for their misbehaviour during their arrest of K.. When asked about the noises, K. replies that it’s ‘only a dog’.

The Voyage (opera)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Synopsis#

Glass did not want to create a biographical opera about Columbus, especially in a year when there were countless films, documentaries and other events doing the same job. Instead he opted to make his opera a more general study of exploration – of the oceans, of space and time and of the mind. Columbus remains a central character though, appearing in the second act and the epilogue.

Prologue#

We see a scientist in a wheelchair (reminding us of Professor Stephen Hawking), pondering time and space. He sings that despite man’s inadequate mind, body and technology, the will to explore and follow one’s vision “towards holes on the horizon” has always existed. Meanwhile, the chorus poses eternal questions about time and space repeatedly, growing in volume and intensity.

Violin Concerto No. 1 (Glass)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Conception#

Following Glass’s early operas, the conductor Dennis Russell Davies had been urging the composer to write more orchestral pieces, and the concerto marks Glass’s first full-scale venture into non-theatrical orchestral composing. Glass’s original concept was for a five-movement work, and Zukofsky requested a slow, high finale. As the composition process developed, however, Glass decided that five movements were too many and settled for a more conventional three-movement format. According to Glass, this traditional structure was not a concession to formality but simply a result of the work finding “a voice of its own” as the first and second movements developed into longer pieces than he had originally conceived. The work was composed with Glass’s father, Ben, in mind, despite the latter’s death some sixteen years earlier: “I wrote the piece in 1987 thinking, let me write a piece that my father would have liked … A very smart nice man who had no education in music whatsoever, but the kind of person who fills up concert halls. … It’s popular, it’s supposed to be — it’s for my Dad.”

Violin Concerto No. 2 (Glass)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Conception#

Glass composed the work in the summer and autumn of 2009 after several years of exchanges between him and McDuffie with the idea of creating a piece that would serve as a companion to Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. When the work was presented to McDuffie, it emerged that his interpretation of the seasons was somewhat different from Glass’. For this reason, Glass presents this as an opportunity for the listener to make his/her own interpretation. The titles of the movements therefore offer no clues as to where Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter might fall, with the composer welcoming other interpretations. Instead of the cadenza typically found in most violin concertos, Glass provided a number of solo pieces for the violinist, which act as a prelude to the first movement, and three “songs” that precede each of the following three movements. Glass also anticipated that these could be played together as separate concert music when abstracted from the whole work. This concerto is now in the repertoire of the Kremerata Baltica and was played for the first time in San José, Costa Rica with Gidon Kremer as soloist in August, 2013.

Waiting for the Barbarians (opera)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Performance history#

Waiting for the Barbarians premiered on September 10, 2005 at Erfurt Theater, directed by Guy Montavon and conducted by Dennis Russell Davies. There was one other European performance in Amsterdam in 2006. Its American premiere was performed on January 19, 2007 by the Austin Lyric Opera in Austin, Texas. The opera was also performed on June 12, 2008 at the Barbican Centre in London.

Synopsis#

On the border of an unnamed Empire, the Magistrate of a relatively peaceful and unimportant town spends the days working for the well-being of his community and the nights in the company of his lady-friends. Abruptly, the peace of this seeming idyll is broken by the arrival of a detachment of the government’s Civil Guard, headed by the cold, obsessive Colonel Joll, apparently in response to rumors that the barbarians are massing to attack the Empire. As Joll says, “We are forced to begin a short war in order to safeguard the peace.” Joll and his men set out to attack a group of the barbarians, and bring back to town a number of prisoners, whom they interrogate, torture, and, in the case of one old man, kill. The Magistrate protests, at first weakly; Joll then returns to the capital city of the Empire to report and to plan further attacks on the barbarians. The Magistrate discovers a barbarian girl, crippled and partially blinded, begging in the town. He feels a mixture of pity and, increasingly, attraction to her, and arranges for her to stay and work in the establishment where his female friend the cook works. He spends time with the girl, questioning her about the interrogation and torture by Joll’s men which has left her disabled. Confused by his growing feelings of sexual attraction, pity, and anger, the Magistrate takes the girl on a journey through the wilderness in order to return her to her people, the Barbarians. Upon his return to the town, he finds that Joll has been spreading doubts about the Magistrate’s loyalty to the Empire; the populace accuse him of being a traitor and “barbarian-lover”, despite his protestations that, far from being a military threat, the barbarians are peaceful nomads who have no interest in occupying the Empire. The Magistrate himself is now imprisoned in solitary confinement for some months and tortured. Eventually he is released; the Empire’s military forces have been routed by the guerilla tactics of the barbarians, and they are being “temporarily” withdrawn to the capital of the Empire, ostensibly to wait for next year’s Spring offensive. The town’s supplies have been pillaged by the troops, and the Magistrate exhorts the people to be brave and to work to survive the winter by planting root vegetables, catching and drying fish, and conserving the little food that has been left to them. He goes to visit his old friend the Cook, who rebukes him for having used the Barbarian girl and for not having been able to understand her at all. He is left alone, wondering even more about who the true barbarians are.

White Raven (opera)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Conception#

When contacted in the early 1990s by António Mega Ferreira, member of the Portuguese Commission and future Expo ‘98 Commissioner, Glass, who had just written The Voyage to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus in America, initially shows no enthusiasm for the idea of redoing an opera on the theme of discovery. Invited to think about it again, he accepts on condition that Robert Wilson be part of the project. He then left for Brazil where he composed music for a whole winter. Originally, O Corvo Branco was to be part of a diptych of which it would have been the conclusion. The first part, which was never written, was to be called The Palace Of Arabian Nights and focused on the development and expansion of Islam from the 9th century to the Renaissance. O Corvo Branco covers the rest of the story, from the 15th century to the 21st century. The reason this other part of the diptych never was done is believed to be due to a misunderstanding between Glass and Wilson. The title White Raven is taken from Greek mythology: Apollo, in love with Princess Coronis, daughter of Phlegias, king of the Lapiths, entrusted a white crow, his favorite companion, to watch over her. But as the days went by, the bird, finding its mission more and more boring, decided one night to betray its master’s trust. The raven told Apollo that Coronis was cheating on him with a mortal named Ischys. Mad with rage, Apollo killed the young girl with an arrow in the chest before realizing that the crow had lied. To punish him, Apollo transformed with his fiery hand his immaculate plumage into a collection of feathers as black as coal. The white crow is therefore here a messenger and a symbol of lost innocence. As with the other collaborations between Glass and Wilson (Einstein on the Beach, The CIVIL warS and Monsters of Grace), White Raven doesn’t really tell a story. The libretto presents a sort of panorama of characters and events by mixing poetic verses with scientific treatises, newspaper headlines or, as in the finale, a long list of Portuguese historical figures. In this sense, the opera is not so much a celebration of exploration, but a meditation, an open reflection on the process and meaning of the concept of discovery, from the expeditions of the famous Portuguese explorer to the modern era of missions on the Moon, and until the future exploration of the Universe. Anthony Tommasini wrote in his review for The New York Times: With his formulaic approach to composing, Mr. Glass has churned out a lot of inconsequential music. With White Raven, at least in places, you sense that he is working harder. It’s amazing how by adding just a little complexity here and there to his mind-massaging music – breaking up foursquare rhythmic repetitions with asymmetrical patterns and nudging syncopations, or surprising us with a jarring bass line that adds a dissonant ripple to the tranquil pool of diatonic harmony – Mr. Glass can suddenly perk up your ears. Still, as the opera goes on (this is a three-hour evening), the score seems increasingly padded. For his part Mr. Wilson, working with the inventive costume designer Moidele Bickel, has created a beautifully surreal stage show. Da Gama and his fellow explorers wear stiff cream-white sailor costumes, and the queen appears in a gargantuan black-collared dress. The stage is soon populated by a whole roster of weird characters: Africans with garishly painted bodies, one of whom has a huge elephant foot; exotic birds and animals; a sad-faced Dog Man; a spindly dragon; a Miss Universe character in sequined black singing arias on a crescent moon; and a galumphing Tin Man who could have stepped out of a Robert Wilson production of The Wizard of Oz. The libretto in Portuguese by the writer Luisa Costa Gomes is a cut-and-paste assemblage of philosophical ruminations, historical and epic texts, travel logs, journals and newspaper headlines. In one of the opera’s freshest segments, the king and the queen discuss the proper rules of etiquette for entertaining. If only the creators had used humor more often to explore their themes of exploration and discovery. In its fanciful way, this scene has powerful resonance, for after all, touring another country, or even going to your neighbor’s house, involves learning to adjust to different, and often rattling, customs and protocols.

Philip Glass on Music Theory Print

1000 Airplanes on the Roof

Synopsis#

Aguas da Amazonia

Tracks#

Performance history#

Akhnaten (opera)

Performance history#

Appomattox (opera)

Synopsis (2007 version)#

Prologue#

Cello Concerto No. 1 (Glass)

Classification#

Structure#

Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra

Orchestration#

Einstein on the Beach

Composition and performance history#

Galileo Galilei (opera)

Production notes#

Glass Pieces

Production#

Glassworks (composition)

“Opening”#

“Floe”#

Harpsichord Concerto (Glass)

Instrumentation#

Structure#

First Movement#

Hydrogen Jukebox

History#

In Creases

Background#

Choreography and music#

In the Penal Colony (opera)

Background#

Kepler (opera)

Synopsis#

Act 1#

Act 2#

La Belle et la Bête (opera)

Conception#

Les Enfants terribles (opera)

Synopsis#

Monsters of Grace

Creation of the opera#

Music in Twelve Parts

Recording/performance history#

Orphée (Glass)

Structure#

Discography#

Bibliography#

See also#

Passages (Ravi Shankar and Philip Glass album)

Reception#

Track listing#

“Offering” (Philip Glass)– 9:47 # “Sadhanipa” (Ravi Shankar) – 8:37 # “Channels and Winds” (Philip Glass) – 8:00 # “Ragas in Minor Scale” (Ravi Shankar) – 7:37 # “Meetings Along the Edge” (Philip Glass) – 8:11 # “Prashanti” (Ravi Shankar) – 13:40#

Personnel#

Charts#

Piano Concerto No. 2 (Glass)

Instrumentation#

Structure#

Satyagraha (opera)

Performance history#

Solo Piano (Philip Glass album)

Track listing#

Songs from Liquid Days

Details#

String Quartet No. 2 (Glass)

Composition#

String Quartet No. 4 (Glass)

Composition#

Symphony No. 1 (Glass)

The symphony#

Symphony No. 10 (Glass)

Composition#

Instrumentation#

Symphony No. 12 (Glass)

Reviews#

Symphony No. 13 (Glass)