Phillip Glass C/D S/D

it's both i think.

I am also a fan of his Mishima soundtrack...

Einstein on the Beach and Music in 12 Parts are both great.

So, I'd say :
Classic - Einstein On The Beach, Music In 12 Parts, Akhnaten, Satyagraha, Koyaanisqatsi, Glassworks, 2 Pages, Music In Fifths, Music In Similar Motion, Mishima.

Dud - Songs From Liquid Days (really fucking appalling), Poyaaqatsi, anything else post 1985-ish (although I admit I haven't heard all of it).

The jury's still out on The Photographer.

dud: most everything after 1986. also: solo piano works.

tighter, faster performances, especially on the choral parts; you can really hear them enunciate those numbers on the fast runs now, which can be breathtaking. however, the farfisa's been replaced with a glossy digital organ patch, and the solo vocal performances throughout can't touch the ones on the original. no christopher knowles, no samuel johnson (though lucinda childs still sounds great). it's certainly worth picking up as a supplement to the original CBS/Tomato recording if you really love the piece (as one does).

basically anything before 1985 really. the last act of satyagraha is particularly perfect and good. and I love mishima.

>Songs From Liquid Days (really fucking appalling)

isn't it just amazingly bad? wow.

Another couple to search are the Dances 1-5 2cd (which doesn't seem to be that well known but sounds like a cross between Music In 12 Parts and Glassworks) and North Star, which is another album with shorter tracks from around 1980.

>And the final section Knee 5, is longer, and is quite amazing.

It's true, longer is better. Another good thing about the re-recording; instead of 4 discs of 45 minutes each that break every 22 minutes, the re-recording features 3 discs of 70 minutes each. several pieces last longer, and they flow into each other instead of fading out. I listen to the 90's version as often as the original. I think the original has better vocal solos, but it's hard for me to tell for sure if that's simply because I've been living with that one longer...

I love 'North Star'. Einstein era instrumentation reduced down to improbable pop length items, fucking gorgeous. Joan LaBarbara too. 'Are Years What?'

My favourite too - I must have bought the vinyl LP in '88 or so and only rediscovered it a couple of years ago. "Ange des Orages" has probably appeared on every comp I've done since. Before that Thin Blue Line (which is the best film context he music has ever had I think, including the Reggio stuff) and side A of Dancepieces used to get the most play.

as a sidenote...I went to Oberlin which has strong ties to Glass and his organization, Looking Glass studios, Point Music etc. The violin professor at the time played lead on the 90s re-recording of Einstein. He was also the professor of Blevin Blechdom who decided to perform a piece of Einstein for her recital. She dressed as Einstein, sat on the edge of the stage, while her brother and a friend sat on a bench wearing overalls doing the counting part.

yes, but the way samuel breaks off into total silence prematurely as lucinda simultaneously trails down is incredibly dramatic & unrepeatable, I love the way the original ends.

It's true, Bevin plays a mean fiddle. That must have been a fun recital.

What's that song made entirely of people counting up to eight really fast?

Okay, can anyone advise me where to start?

Sure I can. For the soundtrack work, get Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi (and get the DVDs as well while you're about it). For the early minimalist stuff, get Music In Twelve Parts. And for the expansive operas, get Einstein on the Beach. That lot should keep you going for a while.

I looked for video footage of Einstein on the Beach awhile back and was shocked that there doesn't appear to be anything much. That shit should have been filmed in its entirety.

Thank you Anagram!

glassworks is another good one to start with .. it's pretty much the 'this is what philip glass sounds like' record

Glass did change his style relatively drastically after the eighties. The electronics were almost completely replaced for a full classical orchestra and his signature repetition became only a background element; or disappeared almost completely. For later day Glass - which I deem more miss than hit -, check out for starters: The Voyage, Symphony No. 6 - The Plutonium Ode, Les Enfants Terribles and La Belle et la Bete.

It's well known that they always refused any attempt at filming Einstein. There are a few clips that were shown on PBS on documentaries and you can see them on youtube. I had a theater professor in college who had a video of most of it, he said it was a really big deal and a big secret. I think maybe he got it from the people who shot the clips that would be edited down for those docs.

I have a bit of an abusive relationship with Philip Glass - I am still not 100% sure I like him, but I make myself listen to him regularly. Maybe this is just the good old Canadian prairie kid in me: I know I have to do things that are supposed to be good for me even though I don't like it. Same reason I use Buckley's mixture when I have a cold, I guess.

Now, that said: I quite enjoy Koyaanisqatsi, because it shifts gears regularly enough that I don't get tired of his stylistic crutches that wear on me over the course of his extended pieces. I also quite enjoy his takes on the Bowie/Eno works, partially because he has other source material to base things on. Of course I'm going to keep forcing myself to listen to Glass at regular intervals in the hopes that some day I find it more meditative than repetitive (and grating) but in the meantime I find myself drifting to Reich more when I'm looking for minimalism.

Is Philip Glass really "supposed to be good for you"?

That's a really good question - when I was taking classes at the music school back in the late 80s, all of the other students seemed to be raving about Glass as if he was a genius full-stop, so I assumed that there was just something I'm not getting about him. So my comment is perhaps a bit glib, but some days it's how I feel.

I'd take the Mishima soundtrack over any of the other film work, but that might just be a personal thing.

The repetition can bring me in a trance, but if it goes on too long without any added or shifting elements, I snap out of it and get bored. Glass started his career with tedious repetition (600 Lines, Music with Changing Parts), only to end it - it seems - with romantic melodic pieces (his symphonies). Mid-seventies to mid-eighties Glass knew how to find the right balance between these two extremes. If you enjoy Koyaanisqatsi, be sure to check out Glassworks too; and Mishima, The Photographer and Dance Pieces. If the repetition continues to get you, focus on the nineties melodic pieces?

I don't know if Glass is good for you. I can use his repetitive pieces like taking a cold shower on a hot day. It releases tension. It cleanses. Though I'm sure it will drive others stark raving mad.

The funny thing is, the repetition isn't necessarily the grating part for me: I have really been enjoying everything I can get my hands on from William Basinski, and it's almost the most repetitive stuff I listen to...though because the loops he uses are so long, I don't find it anywhere near as annoying. With Glass, the shortness of the phrases, even though they morph over time, puts me into a much different state...and married to the constant arpeggiation, as if this is the only musical technique ever created, it just drives me batshit after a while.

Haha, there are many 'music-school' circles in which Glass would be seen as a guilty pop pleasure at best. Might have something to do with his work since the 80s.

I think he was great and innovative in the 60s and 70s, enjoyable if a bit crass in the 80s (and occasionally beyond), and mostly embarrassing since.

It's well known that they always refused any attempt at filming Einstein. There are a few clips that were shown on PBS on documentaries and you can see them on youtube. I had a theater professor in college who had a video of most of it, he said it was a really big deal and a big secret. I think maybe he got it from the people who shot the clips that would be edited down for those docs.

Wasn't that just rehearsal footage though?

Very annoyed that there is no decent Glass DVD, the Satyagraha one is weak (the Met didn't film their production from last year (?!)), my hope is that there will be an Einstein revival next year that I can actually go and see. There was a NYC Opera revival scheduled for next year but it's been cancelled. I know ENO's doing Satyagraha in February, and weirdly enough Portland Opera's doing Orphee right now.

I don't know re: rehearsal.

Glass can be seen as a guilty pop pleasure well before the 80s...to many serious music circles, the minimalist stuff, being mostly very tonal and simple, wasn't taken very seriously.

Oh, I know. If anything, it was a pretty direct reaction against what was going on in serious music circles. However, he wasn't the commercial behemoth he's become since then, collaborating with pop stars and scoring Hollywood films. I was just trying to account for the differences in Sean's and my music school experiences.:P

Well, there are multiple possibilities:

- shift in the critical tide between the time I went through (88 or so) and the time you started
- maybe they were being pretentious?
- I was being very vocal in not liking Glass and yelling "Emperor's new clothes!" so perhaps they were just having me on?
- our school did have a fairly notable contingent of instructors who were pro-experimental, and I was in classes that were more likely to be predisposed to liking experimental/minimalist/etc stuff that more conservative elements would shun...perhaps
- sick building syndrome

The Glass documentary from a couple of years back is really interesting, not least for the fact that it shows his marriage unravelling.

When I was blasting some Phillip Glass one time in the music room at my high school (c. 1982), the music teacher came out of his office and said something like: turn that off and put some music on! (Of course whatever was playing would have been a cassette copy taped off the radio, which probably didn't help anyway, but I don't think it was just that.) As mentioned on another thread, I recently have been enjoying Einstein on the Beach again, when I've heard it on the radio (KUNM, college radio, obv.).

The repetition can bring me in a trance, but if it goes on too long without any added or shifting elements, I snap out of it and get bored.

I was pleased to find this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty76wEPL-M4&list=PLirLVoOHstO5pYKp_AiWAs9ullp4ieNSl

Er, anyway, a full performance of Einstein on the Beach as a youtube playlist.

Love this guy

Wish his name was spelled right!!

Was just listening to Symphony No. 2. I really have no interest in ever checking out Einstein on the Beach.

Wow ok

Can't imagine anyone with the slightest interest in Glass not caring for Einstein.

It's the vocals that turn me off. I only like his instrumental music (making a slight exception for the chanting at the beginning of Koyaanisqatsi).

Def not for everyone but I do love that school of vocal experimentation specifically glass as opposed to Meredith monk for ex which is a lot for me

I like when he uses choral singers (Einstein), but not opera singers (Akhnaten, Satyagraha).

his Candyman soundtrack rocks fucking bells and anyone who sez it doesn't has fucking sown on fake ears - comments closed!

Don’t tell anyone but his film scores are my favorite part of his output.

shhh!

is there some snobbery towards his more *downmarket* movie work?

Not being snobbish, just don't think it's very good.

I love it even though I can comprehend why people wouldn't consider it amongst his best work. Just one of them times where I say "do one pal" to the widespread critical consensus on some music.

one can really lose oneself in the truly brilliant Koyaanisqatsi though tbf but still my affection for The Music of Candyman remains as strong as ever.