16 ms·
Philip Glass: My problem is people don’t believe I write symphonies (2017)
- emptyfile 6y ago>Yes, after Einstein on the Beach I went back to driving a New York cab. I didn’t mind that. It was interesting work. I didn’t have an agent. I ran all the business side of it and the box office myself. I enjoyed it. Interesting, I had no idea.
- ranko 6y agoThere are a couple of great anecdotes about Glass working at other jobs while starting out as a composer, one involving the art critic of Time magazine and another about driving a taxi. https://interlude.hk/philip-glass-composer-taxi-driver/ https://interlude.hk/philip-glass-composer-taxi-driver/ 'Glass understood that he had finally arrived as a composer when a woman tapped on the side of his cab and told him “you have the same name as a very famous composer.”
- seattletech 6y agoHe was also roommates with the Viking of 6th Avenue, Moondog
- JKCalhoun 6y agoAnd cousin(?) of Ira Glass.
- brianzelip 6y agoHe recounts being nearly mugged while driving a taxi, and other stories, in this Fresh Air episode with Terry Gross,https://freshairarchive.org/segments/philip-glass-legacy-future-its-all-around-us-0 https://freshairarchive.org/segments/philip-glass-legacy-fut...
- mgr86 6y agoI first herd Einstein on the Beach after a particularly manic period in undergrad. My advisor wasn't familiar with it, and I may have spooked her a bit try to explain it. I think to this day its great background music for programming work, but to me more because it can illicit that sense of young focus and drive that I find increasingly fleeting. Perhaps not unlike how music can "wake up" dementia patients. It elicits a deep base response. Anyhow, I didn't know that either about his life. Very fascinating. As an aside I believe I discovered Einstein on the Beach after listening to Hydrogen Jukebox. I wonder how others come about listening to it for the first time. Especially those in their 30s like myself who were born a decade after its success.
- digilypse 6y agoI discovered Einstein on the Beach this year, also in my 30s, and was nearly brought to tears. I played classical piano for most of my youth and had a deep appreciation for it but stopped exploring new composers during years of depression. It’s a wonderful experience with a nice pair of headphones. Something about the way the repetition lasts just long enough to produce a sense of anticipation and delight.
- Slow_Hand 6y agoI'm a massive fan of Einstein On the Beach. It continues to be one of my favorite pieces of music, since first hearing it 12 years ago. There's a vitality and a sense of energy to it that keeps me coming back. It's also large enough in scope that I've been able to spend a long time chewing it over and digesting all of it's movements. I think a unique quality of it is the contrast between it's simplistic harmonic content and it's constantly modulating structure. The simplicity of the tonality (one key center, very slow chord changes, non-florid counterpoint) allows the listener to focus on the modulating phrase lengths and the texture of the stacked rhythms. This is an interesting inversion of something like, say, a classic bebop tune, which might be melodically and rhythmically complex or divergent, but keep it's structure predictable with 4 bar, 8 bar, or 32 bar chunks of time. I think the effect in it's fast movements is like being in the middle of a massive rush of water. It's uniform in texture, but it has an intensity and sense of turbulence that is overwhelming as it passes you.
- dorkwood 6y agoHe also worked as a plumber. > Throughout this period, Glass supported himself as a New York cabbie and as a plumber, occupations that often led to unusual encounters. “I had gone to install a dishwasher in a loft in SoHo,” he says. “While working, I suddenly heard a noise and looked up to find Robert Hughes, the art critic of Time magazine, staring at me in disbelief. ‘But you’re Philip Glass! What are you doing here?’ It was obvious that I was installing his dishwasher and I told him I would soon be finished. ‘But you are an artist,’ he protested. I explained that I was an artist but that I was sometimes a plumber as well and that he should go away and let me finish. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2001/nov/24/arts.highereducation1 https://www.theguardian.com/education/2001/nov/24/arts.highe...
- danbmil99 6y agoFile under art imitates life: the episode of Portlandia where Fred and Carrie hire Aimee Mann and Sarah McLachlan as house cleaners
- emptyfile 6y agoMan, that's just great. Movie-like scene.
- scns 6y agoIMO the sign of a true artist. She/He lives for her/his art, but does not expect from it to provide for her/him.
- geofft 6y ago> Have the old divisions between musical styles – a source of surprisingly bitter contention in the last decades of the 20th century – now healed? Do people now accept your chosen path of tonal harmony, melody, repetitive structures? > No no no no no. Those divisions never healed. Those people just died! The people who don’t want you don’t change their minds. You outlive them, if you’re lucky. They’re all dead now, the older guys. The battle was never won or lost. The army just went away. What can I tell you? Isn’t that the truth? It’s biology. Nothing more than that. They’ve just gone away… and we carry on playing. This seems true in so many things: politics, engineering approaches, even theology at times. Keep doing what you think is worthwhile, but don't expect to change the minds of the old guard: you "win" by having the newer generation accept your approach.
- privong 6y agoScience as well. There's the oft-quoted: ‘A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.’ - Max Planck Also see this link, for a study that tried to test/quantify this: https://www.nber.org/digest/mar16/does-science-advance-one-funeral-time https://www.nber.org/digest/mar16/does-science-advance-one-f...
- vanderZwan 6y agoThis is such a famous truism that there's even a paper that investigates whether or not science really advances one funeral at a time: https://www.nber.org/papers/w21788 https://www.nber.org/papers/w21788 edit: heh, too slow - it was already posted in the few minutes I took to read the article
- andybak 6y agoI've seen all three of the "Portrait operas" live. The second two are definitely very different to Einstein on the Beach which feels more "modern" and experimental (but also really approachable - this is far from what many people expect of 20th Century avant-garde music) Steve Reich seemed to want to also move towards more conventional narrative forms later in his career and seemed to sacrifice some of the elegance and purity to do so. John Adams on the other hand came a generation later and those compromises always felt more natural and less forced for him. (Terry Riley is the real maverick out of the original minimalists. He just does his own thing and damn everyone else. I had the pleasure of having a very brief chat with him after a concert and he was a lovely chap. I asked him about John Cale)
- motohagiography 6y agoThese days I would pick a movie to see based on who did or contributed to its soundtrack. Glass, Zimmer, Richter, and Preisnser, in particular. Some of Glass' work transposes well to other instruments, but a real extra gift to the world would be if he wrote a guitar suite. I've been hacking around with a classical guitar arrangement of Pärt's "Spiegel im Spiegel," and might see if Glass' new "The Teacher" is more amenable, as it's very much an homage about 1/3 the length and complexity.
- naringas 6y agojust in case you've been missing this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFc40M1g8kA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFc40M1g8kA they have recorded 4 of his quartets arranged for guitar
- motohagiography 6y agoHuge fan of these, and they were part of what inspired me to take up guitar again. Highly recommend. There is a fellow who does "Metamorphosis" as well, and it was one of the first pieces I learned. edit: Thomas Csaba performing the complete Metamorphosis : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMyQM589Kbs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMyQM589Kbs
- magicalhippo 6y ago> Some of Glass' work transposes well to other instruments Here's one example which works very well IMHO. Lavinia Meijer, Harp, Metamorphosis Four https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ivXNzf5a8I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ivXNzf5a8I
- idiocrat 6y agoHere is an excellent Violin => Soprano Sax transposition by Amy Dickson. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoMPALIUxco https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoMPALIUxco
- Cactus2018 6y agoRecently learned Hans Zimmer is in the Buggles' 1979 music video Video Killed the Radio Star. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8r-tXRLazs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8r-tXRLazs (and incase you missed it, Hitler and Stalin deepfake lip-sync Video Killed the Radio Star https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DysigzGQvU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DysigzGQvU )
- FBISurveillance 6y agoPhilip Glass is my hero and inspired me to learn playing piano. Personal anecdote: I've managed to get invited to a small Einstein on the Beach play at The Greene Space NYC - I've been flying to NYC for business and this alone made my whole trip so much nicer. I remember him sitting 2 chairs away from me and the play was beautiful. If you're curious, I strongly suggest watching Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts documentary about his life and career. What a man.
- ExcavateGrandMa 6y agoMy problem is that I don't care ppl believes I write symphonies... :Ð
- AndrewUnmuted 6y agoNo, Philip Glass's problem is that he believes he writes symphonies. He's the Donald Trump of the classical music world - trying desperately to be considered one of the "big ones," while piling on incessantly with new "works" that rehash the same tired minimalist tropes, which have all been explored by far more competent composers such as Berio, Feldman, Riley, and Reich. I am not surprised to read these glowing reviews of the man on HN, though, as Glass always does get the royal treatment outside of the music world. He makes the kind of soulless dreck that would be suitable for writing code without getting distracted by any chance of meaning or beauty.
- rolfea 6y agoI'm very interested in what minimalist tropes you would say Berio and Feldman explored in any of their work.
- jan_Inkepa 6y agoFeldman's second string quartet (https://youtu.be/QPMUHVza-KA https://youtu.be/QPMUHVza-KA) is very long, has lots of repetition, with occasional pulsating rhythms/drone notes. I quite like it when I'm in the mood. There's a lot in it, but it's so slowly developed so slowly moment to moment it has characteristics of minimalism. This short article covers some of his work including the second quartet from this perspective in slightly more detail: https://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/17/arts/music-where-minimal-and-maximal-meet.html https://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/17/arts/music-where-minimal-...
- AndrewUnmuted 6y agoIndeed, much of Feldman's late period fits this description. I would also recommend Piano and String Quartet [0] [1] from Feldman as an extreme example of his interests in minimalism. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_and_String_Quartet_(Feldman) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_and_String_Quartet_(Feld... [1] https://vimeo.com/231496382 https://vimeo.com/231496382
- rolfea 6y ago
- kerblang 6y agoIf you want to see a hilariously awful documentary, watch "Glass: A Portrait of Philip In Twelve Parts". It's hard to say whether the director really intended to create a more subtle and wry Spinal Tap, or it just came out that way. (Not knocking Mr. Glass - you're welcome to enjoy his music as much as any other and I like some of it too)
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- tmountain 6y agoI saw Glass at a performing arts center in my hometown. The PAC has a lot of season ticket holders, and Glass' music triggered an older attendee to march to the front of the auditorium and yell, "this isn't music". He was quickly ushered out by his wife, but Glass was noticeably smirking, and the whole thing really added to the avant garde vibe of the performance. Amazing concert BTW. One of my favorite artists.
- andrewljohnson 6y agoI wonder if there is any chance that's stagepersonship.
- hypertele-Xii 6y agoPaid actor.
- jedimastert 6y agoI think I trust Phillip Glass a bit more than that.
- jtbayly 6y agoYou mean stagemanship?
- pnut 6y agoYou mean venueentityvessel?
- AndrewUnmuted 6y agoThe label "avant-garde" is surprising to see used to describe Philip Glass's works. What performance were you attending?
- barbecue_sauce 6y agoPhilip Glass is constantly described as avant-garde. You may take issue with that label, but I hardly see how it can be surprising.
- mongol 6y agoSeems that there was a lot of controversy around his work earlier on. But I don't get about what.
- JohnJamesRambo 6y agoI miss the documentary about Glass that used to be available on streaming. It's one of the few discs I plan to actually buy. I don't understand the business model of small films that withdraw from streaming completely, especially documentaries. Surely that can't be more profitable? I think about this question a lot while going through the dreck on Netflix and Amazon Prime. I think about all that work and knowledge and art just going silent and no one ever finding it or watching it again.
- barbecue_sauce 6y agoWhy do you assume it's the owners of the small films that withdraw, and not the streaming services that drop them in order to redeploy funds to other content?
- WorldMaker 6y agoOr to intentionally "vault" subsets of their catalogs for given periods so that when it shows back up in the catalog it is "new content" for some of the audience to discover?
- JohnJamesRambo 6y agoHmm I never thought of that I guess. I wish it was like the Spotify model where everyone wants their film on the service and they are paid each time someone watches it.
- mozak1111 6y agoI make electronic music. 7 years ago, in a very sad period of my life, I made a classical piece of music, (From midnight to 4am) which I am very proud of it today. It would make me really happy to get some feedback from you guys if you know a thing or two about music. It tells a very personal story and here is the link to it: https://soundcloud.com/bitmarx/story-of-a-rexile https://soundcloud.com/bitmarx/story-of-a-rexile
- hypertele-Xii 6y agoI discovered Philip Glass' music through the movie Koyaanisqatsi, which I heartily recommend. If you haven't seen it, go into it without expectations of what a movie is supposed to be like; it's weird.
- Bayart 6y agoI love the urban hell of Pruit Igoe [1]. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq_SpRBXRmE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq_SpRBXRmE
- skuthus 6y agoAlso used in Watchmen (2009) to great effect
- dreamcompiler 6y agoMe too. Haven't heard it in over a year so thanks for re-lighting those neurons.
- Alex3917 6y agoIMHO Baraka and Samsara are much more realized versions of the idea behind Koyaanisqatsi.
- iooi 6y agoRon Fricke, the man behind Baraka and Samsara, was the director of photography (and writer, editor) for Koyaanisqatsi. I would keep in mind how novel Koyaanisqatsi was for its time, and that Baraka and Samsara are mere evolutions on a revolutionary film.
- noema 6y agoHave to disagree - personally found those films to be too heavy-handed with their "message". Koyaanisqatsi maintains a certain ambiguity throughout, conveying both awe and fear at modern civilization.
- barbecue_sauce 6y ago
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- okareaman 6y agoIf you're a fan of Philip Glass but haven't explored the works of Steve Reich I highly recommend it
- AndrewUnmuted 6y agoSteve* Reich. IMO, an excellent first listen would be Tehillim. [0] [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiaTvR9sFX8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiaTvR9sFX8
- okareaman 6y agoSteve* thanks fixed it. My intro was Different Trains. I think his 9/11 piece is the best art to come out of that tragic event. Steve Reich - Different Trains (Part 1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E4Bjt_zVJc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E4Bjt_zVJc Proverb https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5lgAUHVFC4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5lgAUHVFC4 Steve Reich: WTC 9/11 I. 9/11 Kronos Quartet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWhTkOMue70 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWhTkOMue70
- WorldMaker 6y agoDifferent Trains can be incredibly powerful live. A local to me collective of musicians put together somewhat recently (last year around this time, or perhaps the year before) a small show that involved both Different Trains and Terry Riley's In C with local compositions in between. It was a powerful evening for the small audience (myself included) that was there to appreciate it. (ETA: Must have been two years ago as other memories flit in. That was an interesting year too because it was a year I saw two very different live versions of In C, which seems unusual to have occur twice in the same year.)
- PaulDavisThe1st 6y agoIMO, there's really no good first listen for Reich's work. You might love or hate "Come Out" or "It's Gonna Rain", and hate or love "Different Trains". You might be entranced or utterly bored by "Six Marimbas" but be disinterested or engaged by "Music For Ensemble and Orchestra". etc. etc. Best to plan on diving in about once a decade and see if you like what he was doing then. My suggestions would be: 60s: Come out 70s: Music for 18 Musicians 80s: Tehillim 90s: Different Trains 00s: Double Sextet 10s: Reich/Richter Personally, I'm a huge fan of his phase-shifting work, so for me the keys works would be: Six Pianos / Six Marimbas Clapping Music Music For 18 Musicians Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ Drumming There are also some very "pretty" ensemble orchestral works: Sextet Desert Music and then ... so much more! For the adventurous, also check out the album "Shift" by Chris Hughes: renderings of various early Reich works (or ideas) using totally different timbres.
- zwieback 6y agoHe is a big hero in my home town of Stuttgart, I went to see his operas there many times, one of them I think was funded and had its premiere there.
- codeulike 6y agoThe Philip Glass Mishima string quartets by the Smith Quartet are pretty nice if you havent heard them. From the soundstrack to a film about Mishima, who was also being discussed on HN the other week String Quartet No.3: "Mishima": "Blood Oath" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXf77yY8qVg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXf77yY8qVg String Quartet No.3: "Mishima": "1957: Award Montage" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJE7I8GfOaY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJE7I8GfOaY
- mulcahey 6y ago"Opening" & "Closing" are my favorite on that OST https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txoqe611j-o&list=PLHgMKCkVO8R-7r52fHrxElemHaq-Xc_3v https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txoqe611j-o&list=PLHgMKCkVO8... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLLB0elriL0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLLB0elriL0
- codeulike 6y agoIndeed, here is the Smith Quartet performance of 'Closing' from Mishima https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8AVHthXevI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8AVHthXevI
- pdevalla 6y agoNever commented on the internet before, but I just started to learn playing the Intro Theme to Candyman on piano [0] yesterday and then saw this. Weird coincidence... The movie Candyman itself and the rest of the songs in the score are also fantastic. Heard about that song from the sample in Travis Scott's The Prayer [1]. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7FFEu7Har0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7FFEu7Har0 [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iOH8V0KTVI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iOH8V0KTVI
- rajangdavis 6y agoI would have never guessed that he wrote this theme, sounds more like something Danny Elfman would write. Very cool!
- thinkr 6y agoFirst time hearing The Prayer, wow. Just threw on my headphones and listened to it 5 times.
- patates 6y agoThis happens to me on HN very often. I know I sound like a conspiracy theorist but I sometimes feel we are all in a big machine-learning experiment :)
- DiabloD3 6y agoI most certainly am spoiling it. This new gestalt AI overlord is going to swear how like one uses punctuation. It and I will be the best of friends.
- danielbarla 6y ago(I realise you're joking, but...) it's most likely a form of the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. In this case, of course the <insert obscure subject> is not an everyday topic on HN, but we all have enough of these running concurrently in our lives that sooner or later, they coincide with HN. And due to the perceived, impossibly low odds, people tend to really focus on it when it happens.
- Gehinnn 6y agoWhat is the first minute of his symphony no. 11 if not minimal music? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU_uBDujLAE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU_uBDujLAE The theme that starts at 2:18 is just so typical for him (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU_uBDujLAE&feature=youtu.be&t=141 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU_uBDujLAE&feature=youtu.be...). I do believe that he composes symphonies, they are just not so different from his other works.
- tabtab 6y agoI love some of Glass's works, but others I find annoying. If you experiment on the cutting edge, you will have clunkers and duds, but also break ground every now and then. Or invent something half-finished that a future composer will improve upon. Works that transitioned from Baroque to Classical are often considered clunky by modern standards, but that's because they were trying new things. If those pioneers didn't experiment, we wouldn't have Mozart and Beethoven. (I do enjoy Baroque though.) Keep experimenting, Mr. Glass!
- natechols 6y agoIn my experience - as both a player and listener - minimalism is really difficult to do well! It's a lot of work to avoid becoming repetitive white noise. But to be fair, even Mozart and Beethoven had their occasional duds.
- technofiend 6y agoI admit to having owned a Glass CD or two. Even so I once heard a joke that goes "Knock, knock. Who's there? Knock, knock. Who's there? Knock, knock. Who's there? Knock, knock. Who's there? Knock, knock. Who's there? Philip Glass." and felt that right or wrong adequately covered some of his work. To be fair musical tastes change over time; I found myself bored and restless relistening to some old Tangerine Dream favorites.
- TigeriusKirk 6y agoWhen I was in high school, my friend got the cassette tape of the first part of Satyagraha stuck in his car stereo. For some reason rather than digging it out, we just went around blasting it for months. We were even singing along in overly dramatic fashion by the end of it.
- JoeDaDude 6y agoPhilip was awarded a Kennedy Center Honors in 2018 for lifetime achievement [1]. St Vincent performed one of his pieces from the Mishima film soundtrack on guitar [2], but it has since been removed from the web. If anyone can locate it, please post link. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_Center_Honors#2010s https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_Center_Honors#2010s [2] https://consequenceofsound.net/2018/12/st-vincent-tribute-philip-glass-kennedy-center/ https://consequenceofsound.net/2018/12/st-vincent-tribute-ph...
- jancsika 6y ago> Have the old divisions between musical styles – a source of surprisingly bitter contention in the last decades of the 20th century – now healed? Do people now accept your chosen path of tonal harmony, melody, repetitive structures? > No no no no no. Those divisions never healed. Those people just died! Ain't that the truth! The cool thing about (most of) the assholes being dead is that they didn't need to be correct in their various ideologies for their work to be meaningful, even for composers who work outside of a particular aesthetic. So today you can have composers still engaging with and drawing upon the work of the assholes without having to deal with any of the negative side effects of interacting with them (verbal abuse, professional ostracization, etc.). Edit: clarification
- chokeartist 6y agoHis music in The Fog of War absolutely made the picture.
- bigredhdl 6y agoI didn't think I liked Glass when exposed to Koyaanisqatsi, but then I found "The Hours" soundtrack and realized I shouldn't dismiss him. I'm now a fan.
- every 6y agoI almost drove my college roommate insane by playing Terry Riley's "In C"[1] over and over again. The novelty of Minimalism wore off rather quickly though. Some practitioners adapted and others didn't... [1]: https://youtu.be/tbTn79x-mrI https://youtu.be/tbTn79x-mrI
- prvc 6y agoSuch a strange comment to make. I do not believe anyone disputes his right to choose whatever title he desires for his compositions. On the other hand, those pieces are not equivalent to works with that title, say, written in the 19th century. He seems to want to create precisely that conflation.
- ternaryoperator 6y ago>I’ve written 26 operas, 20 ballets, I don’t know how many film scores. I write theatre music. I write concert and symphonies too. I’m working on a new film score right now. By "concert," I presume he meant "concerti." And indeed among my favorite pieces by him is his little-aclaimed first violin concerto. [0] [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lGNtPXcA04 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lGNtPXcA04
- pantulis 6y agoHis style of minimlaist music is certainly attractive to the HN demographics, I'd say that it helps a certain type of focused flow given its apparent lack of melody or traditional chord progressions. Take for example his "Opening" from Glassworks (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2vRbNehGB0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2vRbNehGB0) is not that difficult to play once you get the hang of the polyrhythm, but it's difficult to understand why it works the way it works.