Philip Glass – Music in Twelve Parts – Part 1
Glass sees Music in Twelve Parts as the culmination of his Minimalist period. For the project I am going to look at Parts one and twelve. This piece starts with flutes and organ. The organ is constant throughout all twelve parts. The piece consists of a repeating rhythmic pattern, that continues to develop through constant progression. A female voice comes into this piece over the organ, which acts as a bass continuo as well as leading the melodic lines. Glass uses three electric organs in Music in Twelve Parts.
Philip Glass – Music in Twelve Parts – Part 12
This has a similar structure to part one, of a repeating but developing rhythmic pattern. This part is played at a far quicker tempo, with more use of the female voice and electronics. Part Twelve, being the last part comes to an abrupt end. The other parts flow into the next, without a break.
Philip Glass – Einstein on the Beach – From ‘Bed Cadenza’ in final act.
Philip Glass’s first and longest opera, Einstein on the Beach, was written in collaboration with theatre director Robert Wilson in 1975 and premièred at Festival d’Avignon in 1976. On it’s Metropolitan Opera première in November of the same year it was received with a mixed reaction, but was highly acclaimed by some critics, and was the work that bought Glass to a wider audience.
I listened to the climax only of this piece, as the whole opera is in excess of five hours. It is written in four acts, with five knee plays between acts and at the beginning and the end. The bed cadenza and prelude follow a similar pattern to the work examined earlier, with repeated rhythmic patterns, constantly developing. The aria that follows features a soprano voice, using solfege syllables, a feature of the work. The opera then comes to a climax with ‘Spaceship’, which starts with electronic organ, before the 16-part chorus joins in as the tempo rises. The climax further develops with chorus and organ as tempo and dynamic rise.
The Knee Five at the conclusion of the work, starts with electronic organ, chorus counting numbers, melodically and rhythmically with a female voice quoting text. A male voice then takes over quoting another text, which starts off talking about darkness and then about a couple of lovers on a park bench. The solo violin is playing behind this spoken text, with the chorus also singing.
Philip Glass – Koyaanisqatsi (1982)
I have chosen two pieces from the soundtrack to this Godfrey Reggio film. The first, the title track, is a low bass voice, saying “koyaanisqatsi” over an electronic bass instrumental. This is repeated at the end of the film. The second piece from the soundtrack I listened to was “The Grid”, which is the best known music from the film. The structure of this a repeated phrase, synthesizer at first, but joined by voices chanting in the hoppi language, which slowly builds dynamically and in tempo, over the 21 minutes of the movement.
Philip Glass – Symphony No 4 “Heroes” (1996)
This symphony demonstrates Glass’s development as a composer, from the early minimalism pieces to the concert platform, with good use of both counterpoint and harmony. Scored for full orchestra, including piano and celesta, this work is a traditional sounding symphony, whilst still within the basic confines of the repeating patterns of the minimalist style.
This symphony is written in six movements, based on the David Bowie album, Heroes. Some of the interesting features of this work, are the exotic sounds of the second movement, featuring some ‘casbah’ sounding percussion, possibly created by maracas, and the basso ostinato, which is a theme of the third movement. Changing dynamics are another feature of this movement. I enjoyed this symphony.
Completion of Part One: Project Four: Contemporary Classical Music
I have now completed this section, and the work on Philip Glass. It was hard to keep it to about 500 words.