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I thought playing something by him in recital would be great because it's easy for audiences to grasp and you don't here much of him in piano recitals (not to mention learning his music is a matter of minutes ). Other modern composers usually frown upon Glass because they believe he's too commercial and composes music that even the most classically illiterate can grasp on to. If this is the case, then do you think people "in the know" like most of you here would frown upon a pianist who plays his music and not take the performer seriously?

Mike

I actually like the harmonic novelty of his music, although I can usually only stomach 20 minutes of his music, max. His Fifth Symphony was performed at CCM in April and it sold out. He came to the performance and gave a lecture about the piece and about his compositions...he seems like an amiable person.

Have you heard any of his film scores? Some of them are very good.

I can't listen to ANY Philip Glass music without envisioning scenes from "Koyaanisqatsi," and its sequel (whatever it was called). The perfect marriage of image and music, IMHO.

I have a fairly old CD of Philip Glass music, with 1 or 2 really interesting piano pieces. I like them, but they do sound sort of hard. They are so hypnotic I wonder if, as a performer, it's difficult to learn. The variations from one minute to the next are sometimes so tiny it seems like it would be hard to memorize.

Brendan, have you ever played any of his music?

Nina

His "mad rush" for piano is interesting. Have you heard Riley's "In C"? Its a whole bucket of fun, for 40 minutes. Its interesting to listen to it grow with more instruments and the like, and it can get hypnotic.

Ditto on the film scores. He recently won a BAFTA here for his music in The Hours - deservedly so, IMO.

He's done a lot of interesting stuff. I remember a few years back he arranged a Richard D James (not sure if that name means anything to anyone here) tune for orchestra. Icct Hedral is the name of the piece.

I thought the results were really good, considering what Glass had to work with (not much). James didn't think so - he described it as "s**t", which struck me as a great way for a young musician to open up doors for himself. A shame, because it was a novel and interesting collaboration.

David

Thanks for the replies so far. Actually, there is a piano piece called "Opening" that I really like. It's all 3 against 2, but after a while, it just sounds seemless. I like his film music a lot as well.

Crashtest, yes I have heard Riley's "In C" or at least one variant of it. Great idea, but I've heard better from Riley.

jazzyd, I had no idea Glass worked with Richard D. James although I always listened to him under the alias of Aphex Twin. I love his music! Too bad the end result wasn't to his liking.

Mike

I've never heard any Philip Glass - a gap in my listening soon to be corrected. I can't afford to look down on any player at all because they seem so much better than me. On the odd occasion when people have played my pieces in public I take pains to dismantle their reverence for the composer, which process usually isn't difficult once they've met me.

Ted2,
I'm sure you have, if you've ever sat still for 4 minutes and 33 seconds not doing anything just listening to the sounds around you then you've heard his 4'33"!!!

Yes, Opening is the one I was thinking of when I wrote my post earlier... couldn't remember the name. I think the hard part would be to get it to sound seamless, as you say, yet not just soporifically boring. (Is that redundant?)

Nina

Not trying to hi-jack, but in the same vein of Philip Glass, I've come across in the past few months a very interesting minimalist (whom I have grown to like quite a lot) named Steve Reich... anyone heard of him?

Whenever anyone mentions "In C," I'm always reminded of what Glenn Gould wrote about it - the first line of his review was:

"And you thought Carl Orff found an easy way to make a living?"

Seamless. "seemless" is what Brendan may wish he was in one of his earlier posts. (Sorry about that, Brendan.)

I took that very personally.

I've never played any of Glass' music. Don't really think that I'd get much out of it. There was a piano duo here who did Reich's Piano Phase in May. It was kind of cool to hear it live; it seemed less comedic than it does on recording.

Bernard, you mean John Cage's 4' 33". Please don't let this topic get hijacked into a thread about it--we've had plenty of those already. Regarding Steve Reich, I like his music very much too. His style of minimalism seems more complex (I know that in itself is a paradox). He is also a very funny comedian .

Mike

Well you did ask why we don't "hear" much of him in piano recitals. Sorry. Sorry, I take it back. I can't resist. (I hope you're the type who can take a joke.)

However, I shall from now on respect your wishes.

How do you know what audiences grasp? Don't underestimate!

From what I know (albeit, not much) about Phillip Glass, I put him in the same category as Jackson Pollack.

Yes! Different Trains - brilliant.

David

I love his work too. He is one of the few people to have created thoroughly original and listenable electronic music.

Unfortunately, as illustrated by the Glass project, one of the less attractive traits RDJ has shown over the years has been his egocentricity - but perhaps that's one of the reasons he manages to produce so much unique music.

He announced his "retirement" not so long ago, but have you seen the title of his latest album...?

"26 Mixes for Cash"!

Love him or loathe him, you have to love him!

David

Yeah, one of his tunes was on Classic FM yesterday. I sort of enjoyed it at first, even though it was only a 5 second loop with a couple of additions, but after about 3 mins I switched it over...a while later I tuned back in and guess what? She was still goin' just like before... hmm. My teacher loves minimalism but I sure do have a bit of trouble understanding it.

Peter

By the way, if you're looking for a quick parody of Philip Glass, Glenn Gould does one here, in an excerpt from his improvisations:

http://www.gould.nlc-bnc.ca/ra/real.htm

It's at the end of the recording at the bottom of the page (GG1746), when he's messing around with a Brahms Rhapsody.

Peter

PS The reocrding above it is good as well.