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I listen to both Bach and Glass somewhat regularly. ie. they pop up in my Spotify "made for you" list form time to time. The clear difference to me is that com
by jspash 6y ago
I listen to both Bach and Glass somewhat regularly. ie. they pop up in my Spotify "made for you" list form time to time.
The clear difference to me is that compositions by Glass never stop me in my tracks, make me think, make me feel anything. It's background music, full stop.
I've had the pleasure to see Philip Glass perform on two occasions. I would rate it with the time I saw The Blue Man Group. An entertaining evening. Never bored. Couldn't wait to get to the restaurant afterwards. And the concert wasn't discussed as much as the appetizers.
Just one man's opinion.
- abrowne 6y agoThis mean Glass makes a great movie soundtrack!
- adamkittelson 6y agoI only heard about Glass because he was used in this Battlestar Galactica scene. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCrxDsuwXjI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCrxDsuwXjI
- nicklaf 6y agoIndeed. In particular, when OP said he wasn't moved emotionally by Glass's music, I immediately thought of the track "67 Cities" from Errol Morris documentary, The Fog of War: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOCYcgOnWUM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOCYcgOnWUM Glass's score makes this a very powerful scene, IMO.
- abrowne 6y agoYeah, I was thinking of that film as well as Elena by Andrey Zvyagintsev. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drDu9Ta1JWc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drDu9Ta1JWc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elena_(2011_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elena_(2011_film)
- gnulinux 6y agoI have the same opinion, but imho this is not on Glass. Bach is simply something else, even within his own generation, his music transcends everyone else. Maybe my music knowledge isn't very wide but I spent some decent time dissenting many baroque composers to find something, even remotely remotely close to, e.g. BWV 1004 (especially Chaconne). Open to suggestions here! I don't have a formal music theory education but I've been playing violin (classical training) since my childhood.
- 3131s 6y agoHave you heard some more well-known Baroque composers already like Corelli, Frescobaldi, Couperin, Purcell, Scarlatti, Rameau, and Geminiani? Bach is pretty outstanding, maybe this is only because I heard so much Bach growing up, but I can recognize a Bach piece almost immediately. Apparently Bach was mostly forgotten for hundreds of years though up until the last century.
- nickserv 6y agoMore Renaissance than Baroque, but some of John Dowland's lute pieces have the same emotional impact on me as Bach. Lachrimae Pavane, his most famous, is exceptional when played on lute. Although in all fairness the instrument itself is something I find quite magical.
- Uhhrrr 6y agoI'm absolutely fine with that being your opinion, but will say I'm a huge fan of Glass (and Bach), and can enjoy it as foreground music, even the most meditative works like Music in 12 Parts and the piano pieces. But I've been moved by some works. The Mishima soundtrack and Itaipu come to mind. Also the Reggio soundtracks, although it's hard to separate those in my mind from the movies, which are also great.
- Waterluvian 6y agoI love this comment so much because I very intensely feel the opposite. Glass' music teleports me to another world. Bach... Okay Bach actually has a lot of incredible pieces. But also a ton of on-hold music. I love disagreeing so strongly about this because it tells me there's at least one entire parallel universe to how I experience music. So there's so much more to experience.
- gnulinux 6y agoThis is why music is such an incredible art form. It's all sine waves of air at the end of the day, but there are entire universes hidden somewhere there in the air. You can be a musician, explore classical western music, jazz, rock, pop etc... and still discover a brand new genre or avant-garde style that sounds nothing like any other music. What is most sad to me is, nowadays music mostly taught as a means of practice. People go through entire schools of music without composing their own pieces. As a total nooby, composing music is one of the most fun I have interacting with music, it allows me to explore what these composers thought about writing their music. Like, pick up a guitar and try to improvise a jazz piece, or pick a classical composer (Bach/Mozart/Glass/etc...) and try to write variations based on their theme or re-harmonize the piece. It shows you what each composer valued the most, and why certain trade-offs made sense. For example, Bach was absolutely obsessed with polyphonal/contrapuntal music, maybe to an insane, unhealthy degree. He was so obsessed with this idea, that he went ahead and wrote entire fugues for solo violin, and entire suites for solo cello that have nothing but arpeggiated chords. Once you realize what was the "musical project" (so to say) of each composer was (not just classical but also any genre of music including mainstream pop), your music enjoyment increases an order of magnitude. Like, when Bach was alive the art form of "fugue" was considered outdated and old, but he loved it so much that he simply dedicated his life to exploring contrapuntal music.
- scop 6y agoI share your opinion. I listen to Glass somewhat regularly, almost always as background music. Its fun, though The more attention I give it the less I enjoy it. Whereas with Bach, I am always returning to him. I go and listen to Mozart...and halfway through the piece I stop and switch it to Bach. Go and listen to a favorite movement of Beethoven, and then I’m back into endless Bach. Spend a few hours enjoying Metallica or Megadeth, and then I round out my day with Bach. Bach unifies the emotional and intellectual life unlike any other art I’ve encountered. His music is almost unbelievably deep. I’ve listened to some movements an absurd number of times, yet there is always something new to notice.
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- alanbernstein 6y agoIt seems so common for technical people to be into Bach, but I don't get it. To me, Bach is basically slow, boring religious stuff, or grating harpsichord stuff. What am I missing? And I mean that as in, what can I listen to, that will help me see what others see?
- nickserv 6y agoA lot of Bach (and "classical" music in general) may feel slow, but is actually quite fast if you measure the amount of notes played per minute. But this is something I only realized when I started to learn guitar and tried playing some pieces. Anyway, what I really like about Bach is how much many of his compositions just swing. He was a big fan of the canon, where a melody is played simultaneously by several voices/instruments, but with an offset and counterpoints. He uses this to create what to me are beautiful textures and great rhythm.
- jabl 6y ago> A lot of Bach (and "classical" music in general) may feel slow, but is actually quite fast if you measure the amount of notes played per minute. But this is something I only realized when I started to learn guitar and tried playing some pieces. Not sure classical music generally is much slower or faster than "modern" music (there is of course a wide variety in both), but I would say, also generally, that a classical piece is harder to learn to play because it tends to have a more complex structure and is less repetitive than most contemporary pieces. (This is not a slight against modern music; personally, I enjoy listening to both classical and modern.)
- nickserv 6y agoWe are in agreement. I was mainly commenting on the feel of the music. I remember as a teenager listening to Mozart and thinking "this is slow and boring", while Metallica is "super fast and cool", when in actuality the Mozart piece has a faster tempo and many, many more notes produced per minute. Not a dig on Metallica, I still enjoy their music, just that my horizons have broadened.
- inopinatus 6y agoThat lumpy blue sweater you're wearing? It's actually cerulean. I've been dealt a very different view, perhaps because I'm tainted by the analytical snobbery of a formal musical education, one that included studying, arranging, and performing the works of both. The pioneers of minimalism - Terry Riley, Philip Glass, Steve Reich et al - redefined my expectations and comprehension of music, and I perceive their ideas bright and clear in every genre today from pop to EDM to incidental. I too have seen and heard Mr Glass play live, in two very different settings. Once in a very small chamber close enough to hear the piano stool creak in Metamorphosis, and once as part of the 2013 staging of Einstein on the Beach. Both were mind-blowing, and the only topic of conversation afterwards was the music. For my generation of music students, both Glass and J.S.Bach remain towering geniuses whose influence will ripple for centuries, whose ideas are clearly still identifiable, and thereby form an indelible contribution to the arts. Spotify won't give you the whole of Mishima, in the same way it will never collect together the three essential recitals of the Op.92 II. Allegretto, nor will it knowingly preface The Orb's Adventure's Beyond The Ultraworld with Steve Reich's Electric Counterpoint, nor Hendrix with Handel, and in general is not a conscientious guide to anyone's oeuvre or the relationships across music forms.
- jimlikeslimes 6y agoI just listened to some of the music you mention in your post, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Do you have any other recommendations? Especially where you see connections between modern musicians / electronic artists and classical? I've listened to a lot of electronic music, especially at parties, but I'm still fumbling around in the classical world.
- riverdweller 6y ago> the three essential recitals of the Op.92 II Allegretto Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic (1963) for grave and majestic, Gardiner and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique (1994) for bright and invigorating - but what's the third?
- inopinatus 6y agoWell, obviously I'm joshing a little, since there are certainly more than three worth the listen, and no "top 3" can be definitively argued. For example, I actually prefer Karajan's 1951 recording with the Philharmonia, and of the more sprightly renditions I go for the Christopher Hogwood (1997) with the Academy of Ancient Music, which is salient not merely for its instrumentation but also the interplay of the ensemble. Nevertheless, for my personally selected essential version, I'll always nominate Erich Kleiber (1950, Decca) with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Once heard, never forgotten, it is spine chilling. His son Carlos's is better known, but I think it's a goofy misreading. Bonus: the Liszt transcription for piano reveals fascinating details that otherwise tend to submerge in the symphonic effusion. There's a pleasing version on Youtube purporting to be from Glenn Gould, but note that the provenance is disputed.