Along with composers Steve REICH and Terry Riley, Philip Glass is one of the most famous exponents of minimalism. He has also created some of the most accessible operatic works of the late 20th century, including the four-and-a-half hour epic Einstein on the Beach (1975–76), written with Bob Wilson, as well as Satyagraha (1980), Akhnaten (1983), and The Juniper Tree (1984).
Philip Glass was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on January 31, 1937. He started to learn the violin at age six and took up the flute at age eight, but by the time he was 15, he found the flute repertoire somewhat limiting. He studied at the University of Chicago, where he graduated in mathematics and philosophy, and experimented in 12-tone serial techniques. After he graduated at age 19, he began to study at the Juilliard School of Music in New York, where he renounced serialism in favour of the music of composers such as Aaron COPLAND and William Schuman.
In 1964, Glass moved to Paris to study under Nadia BOULANGER for two years. During this time, he had around 20 works published, although he later withdrew them. It was in Paris, in 1966, that he met Ravi SHANKAR, when he was hired by a film-maker to transcribe the Indian musician’s works into Western notation. It was through this work that he first discovered the techniques of Indian music that were to prove so influential in his own work.
On his return to New York in 1967, Glass continued to develop his interest in Indian music, studying with tabla player Alia Rakha. He began composing a series of pieces that combined Indian rhythms with a minimalist approach. His works were stronger and louder than those of other minimalist composers, and his Music in Fifths (1968), performed by his own amplified ensemble, had the energy of rock music.
Glass wrote his first opera, Einstein on the Beach, in 1975. It was performed at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, and was perhaps the first work of minimalism to achieve popular acclaim. It is scored for electronic organs and three wind players, and both the text and the music are repetitive and hypnotic. There is no story as such: Einstein’s life and theory are shown in a series of scenes with repeated images, including steam trains and spaceships.
A similar structure underlies his later operas. Satyagraha deals with the life of Gandhi, again in a series of disconnected scenes, but uses a normal full orchestra. Akhnaten approaches more nearly to mainstream opera in that it has a story line (about the attempt of an Egyptian pharaoh to change the Egyptian religion to monotheism), and characters with discernible roles. It was followed by The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 (1988) and The Voyage (1992), in both of which Glass’s musical approach remained essentially minimalist.
Glass has also written several film scores, both for relatively mainstream movies such as Hamburger H///Q987) and Candyman (1992), and art films such as Koyaanisqatsi (1983) and Mishima (1985). Koyaanisqatsi takes the form of a journey from the countryside of the American Southwest to the clutter of New York, making a statement about man’s destruction of the natural environment. Glass’s music, however, is joyful in mood, sometimes seeming deliberately at odds with the message.
Glass’s music combines the sound of popular music (electronic keyboard and saxophone parts) with the techniques of minimalism (simple tonality and repetition). He uses these in a way that evokes the hypnotic quality of traditional Asian music, making him one of the most popular serious composers at work today.
Richard Trombley
SEE ALSO:
FILM MUSIC; MINIMALISM; OPERA; SERIALISM.
Duckworth, William. Talking Music: Conversations with John Cage, Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, and Five Generations of American Experimental Composers (New York: Schirmer Books, 1995).
Akhnaten; Einstein on the Beach;
The Juniper Tree; Koyaanisqatsi;
Music in Similar Motion.