Composed in 1970 and first recorded in december 1971 although released only two years later, Music With Changing Parts (Chatham Square, 1973 - Nonesuch, 1994) for at least four performers including keyboard and wind instruments as well as vocals (but originally written in open score, with no specific orchestration, and conceived as an evening-long performance) was the first major composition by Glass to surface in Manhattan's avantgarde clubs. The 1971 recording documents a performance by eight musicians: Philip Glass on electric organ and alto flute; Barbara Benary on electric violin and voice; Steve Chambers on electric organ; Jon Gibson on electric organ, soprano saxophone, flute and voice; Dickie Landry on soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, piccolo, flute and voice; Kurt Munkacsi on electronics; Arthur Murphy on electric piano. Robert Prado on trumpet, flute and voice. (Note that on the original LP side 1 and 4 make up the first disc, while side 2 and 3 make up the second disc). Here the architect of sound freed himself of his own compositional logic: analytic geometries wed improvised shifts, the lattice dilates and from the openings emotions pour out. The piece is born out of the interaction between an organ whose timbre and graceful whirlwind of notes is reminiscent of Bach's fugues and another organ that seems to simulate and stretch the process of breathing. The latter keeps growing, stretching its "lungs" to the limit, while the former slowly mutates and multiplies, emphasizing the pulsing quality of its pattern instead of the potentially melodic aspect. The pulsations, in turn, end up creating their own form of polyphony. The crystal tones compete for attention in a Darwinian soundscape that continuously reinvents itself out of the same genetic pool. Each instrument lives in a parallel universe, according to its own flow of time, although all the clocks are synchronized by the collective force they generate. The chaotic temporal reshuffling of the instrumental lines dramatically increases the entropy of the music. The music however maintains the inhuman aspect of Glass' early algorithms, relishing a formal perfection that has as its ultimate referent the nature of sound itself. The festival of tones is channeled into an ordered, low-entropy flow by the concomitant action of the two processes, one mathematical and one biological. The second part restarts from scratch, this time adding the human vocals (in the form of elongated drones) to the "choir" of instruments. Their role (and the role of the trumpet) is to balance the hopping notes of the keyboards with long, extenuating tones. A particularly long and shrill one ends the second part. The third part (that roughly begins after 31 minutes) is the most chromatically rich and propelled by a faster rhythm. The jungle of tones contrasts with the longer and louder tones of the trumpet. The fourth part (that begins after 46 minutes) again employs the voice for the dilated tones.

Nel 1970 i suoi lavori cominciano a vedere la luce grazie all'ensemble formato con Reich e all'ospitalita' dei club di Manhattan. Con Music With Changing Parts (1970) per sette musicisti, l'architetto del suono si libera dalla prigionia della sua stessa logica compositiva: le geometrie analitiche si sposano a scarti improvvisati, il reticolo si dilata e dalle maglie colano fiotti di emozioni. La varieta' di timbri, colori e toni viene semplicemente incanalata dalla forma aprioristica in una comune direzione attraverso due ritmi paralleli, uno forzato dalle tastiere, l'altro ricavato dal ritmo naturale del respiro. La musica conserva comunque il carattere inumano dei primi algoritmi, beandosi di una perfezione formale che ha come estremo referente l'assenza del suono.

A gentler, warmer Philip Glass emerged from the monumental Music In Twelve Parts (1974), premiered in 1974 and first recorded in may 1975 (Parts 1-6) and in december 1987 (Parts 7-12) (by a six-piece ensemble with two keyboardists, three saxophones, and a female vocalist, no less than Joan La Barbara in the first six parts), but re-recorded in june 1993 (with the addition of a saxophone). The score of Part 1 (1971) has twelve lines of counterpoint, which lend the piece its name (the other eleven parts came later). The lulling cyclical structures rely on individual parts that differ both in the melody, in the rhythm and in the algorithm. Longer tones, a new timbric emphasis and a stronger human presence in the vocals lend a different emotional quality to the music compared with the early austere pieces. Part II shifts tempo towards a more festive atmosphere, with the instruments competing for rhythmic and melodic variety while the soprano engages in a pointillistic form of solfeggio. The repetition is actually more deterministic than in the first part, but somehow the process leads to the opposite extreme, sounding akin to a folk dance of medieval times and to a Chinese ballet. In terms of hypnotic effect, nothing matches Part III, in which syllables and tentative chords compose a post-industrial mantra inspired by both spiritual Indian music and the frenetic and dissonant Western lifestyle. Part IV performs one of the most mesmerizing metamorphoses. It opens slowly in the Bach-ian fashion of some of his early compositions. Then it quietly accelerates while weaving variation after variation on a static chord. Subtly this flow splits in two strands: the vocals are part of a childish pattern that seems to chant a nursery rhyme while one of the organs carries a dancing melody alone. This harmony is suddenly broken, with one of the keyboards playing a dissonant "remix" of the melody and the vocals emitting long drones and another keyboard spinning the melody at supersonic speed in a timbre worthy of an amusement park's ride. This triple partition survives until the orgasmic ending. Part V is, instead, one of the most lively and uplifting pieces, a sort of Vivaldi of minimalism, with broad tonal strokes and carillon-like rhythms, and relatively little variation. Celestial vocals provide a mellow undercurrent for the fibrillating theme of Part VI, but they eventually take over and prove to be harsher than the tremor that they were trying to placate. The very long Part VII is the one movement that is very reminiscent of the austere and geometric compositions of the early years. Even the melismatic singing by the soprano, that (after the fourth minute's sudden soaring of the music) requires acrobatic skills, lacks the human touch that the previous parts had. Another "Vivaldian" movement, Part VIII, restores the vibrant and joyful atmosphere of the first movements. The soprano emits Gregorian-like wails, while harpsichord-like keyboards keep a frantic polyrhythm and other instruments (with the flute slowly upstaging the others) repeating an ascending-descending pattern. After ten minutes all the currents meet and the soprano starts singing a folkish melody accompanied by the ever more chaotic fanfare. Part IX (the shortest piece) presides over the most complete transformation of a pattern, while Part X is the exact opposite, containing very little of interest. Neither stands up to the standards of the previous eight movements. Part XI too seems alien to the program of the first eight movements. It is ostensibly a different kind of study, in which "the harmony changes with every new figure". The work closes with the "scherzo" of Part XII, that sounds like a traditional soprano gurgling an operatic aria with the accompaniment of an ensemble that adapts to the melody of the vocals and fills out the blanks. The last movement heralds the Copernican revolution of Einstein on the Beach, and the previous three sound like fillers to achieve the magic number of twelve. The real deal is contained in the first eight movements, particularly parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8.

Poi Glass completa la monumentale Music In Twelve Parts (1974), composta su strutture cicliche armonicamente costanti: le parti individuali (affidate a musicisti del giro di Reich, come la cantante Joan LaBarbara, l'organista Jon Gibson e il sassofonista Richard Landry) differiscono sia nella melodia sia nel ritmo sia nell'algoritmo. Le note allungate e l'enfasi sui timbri riconducono l'esperimento nell'orbita dei coevi brani di Reich, ma il carattere ciclico dei blocchi armonici e' un marchio di fabbrica esclusivo.

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Il manierismo che in quest'opera e' ancora scongiurato dirompe invece nelle successive colonne sonore: per il cinema (North Star, miniature "ambientali" che impiegano per la prima volta la voce umana, poi rese hit da classifica in versione disco), per il teatro (l'immane Einstein On The Beach, di quattro ore e mezza, per Bob Wilson), per il balletto (Dance); opere che gradualmente incorporano contrappunto e armonia, e che risultano di piu' immediata fruizione, foriere di fama e successo, anche se talvolta sterili e poco innovative. Il processo additivo che e' alla base della musica di Reich viene ora impiegato da Glass per ottenere effetti sonori piu' facili. Non a caso da questo momento la sua produzione si limita praticamente alla "colonna sonora", per il cinema o per il teatro. Le cinque Dance (1978-86) per voce, elettronica, flauti e sassofoni, costituiscono, per purezza ed esuberanza, il primo capolavoro di questo periodo, traboccanti come sono di spunti tratti dai valzer, dai carillon, dagli inni anglicani (la 1, la 3 e soprattutto la 5) e di assoli minimalisti alla Riley (la 2 e soprattutto la 4, che e' un maestoso e commosso requiem d'intensita' Bruckner-iana).

Over four hours long, Einstein On The Beach (1996) is an opera scored on a libretto by Bob Wilson (but the nonsensical lyrics are merely numbers and syllables). If English is your first language and you could translate the Italian text, please contact me. Scroll down for recent reviews in English.

Einstein On The Beach (1996), di oltre quattro ore, su libretto di Bob Wilson, e' la sua opera piu' rigorosa, pregna di uno spirito meccanicista che priva il canto di emotivita' (i testi sono soltanto numeri e vocali) e adotta un incedere industriale sovraccarico di riferimenti tecnologici. Dell'ensemble fanno parte la cantante Iris Hiskey, il violinista Paul Zukosky, il flautista Richard Landry i sassofonisti Jon Gibson e Richard Peck, l'organista Michael Riesman (oltre a Glass stesso). Nei cinque atti dell'opera si sublima il processo di sovrapposizione di parti strumentali e cantate, trasportato ora nell'intensa sacralita' di un cerimoniale religioso (il coro di voci maschili, adulte e infantili, che si intrecciano glaciali e marziali in Knee Play 1, il coro di bassi e tenori accompagnato dal solo violino in Knee Play 4), ora nell'incalzare ludico di un puzzle armonico (il solfeggio frenetico e i singhiozzi di Hiskey dentro il ritmo concitato di flauto e sax di Train, il movimentato concilio operistico di Night Train, le frequenze vertiginose di violino, organo e voce di Dance 2, i riverberi del coro a cappella di Knee Play 3), ora nella straniante weltanschaung di un anelito cosmico (il coro femminile riflesso all'infinito alla fine di Train, i dialoghi dell'assurdo fra sassofoni e clarinetto di Building, il desolato canto di Hiskey sulla lenta ipnotica cadenza di organo di Bed, i vortici apocalittici di Spaceship). Le parti piu' suggestive sono quelle per violino, che conferiscono all'opera gran parte del suo lirismo.

Einstein on the Beach (the logical evolution of the program inaugurated with Music In Twelve Parts) and Steve Reich's Music For 18 Musicians are the works that mark a new era for the movement that used to be called "minimalism". Glass, in particular, is an ambiguous composer, not always as revolutionary as his peers but always much more capable of taking advantage of the zeitgeist and of connecting with the masses. The opera Satyagraha (premiered in september 1980) was Glass' first recording with the classical orchestra, although it remained faithful to key aspects of his aesthetic: phonetic obsession, wave-like counterpoint, cyclic melodies, baroque-like atmospheres. Like its predecessor, it was largely a moral and political work that dealt with not too distant events and with issues that were still current. Each act of the opera is dedicated to a historical figure: Leo Tolstoy, Rabindranath Tagore, Martin Luther King (respectively the past, present and future of Gandhi's ideology of Satyagraha while he was still alive). Musically, it introduced minimalist repetition into the format of the classical opera. While classical opera emphasizes the arias and rewards acrobatic vocals, Glass' opera repeats a melodic motif until the repetitions come to constitute an emotional resonance that replaces the suspense of the action. As usual, the "repetition" is not literal but mutating via the usual "additive" process of addition and subtraction of notes while the pattern is being repeated. This time, however, Glass stuck religiously to tonal chords. The "Tolstoy" act opens with On the Kuru Field of Justice, a pompous aria that draws from both Verdi and Russian folk music. The music grows slowly but steadily, with another voice joining the first one, and then another one, and the orchestra making itself felt more and more decisively with its celestial oscillatory movement. Eventually the choir assails the strings with all its power, only to decay and leave the tenor alone again. The sublime, tragic melody in the strings of Tolstoy Farm (1910) is taken up by the soprano, and then by a female choir. Always underscored by the suave movement of the strings, the female voices engage in an intricate counterpoint with the leading male voice and the flute, eventually peaking with a collective lament that sounds like a requiem. If the first movement emphasizes melodrama and the second one emphasizes melody, Glass' typical repetitive frenzy dominates the third one, The Vow (1906), a nice contrast to the massive vocal architecture. "Tagore", the second act, opens with the phonetic game of Confrontation and Rescue (1896): the percussive vowels and syllables, pronounced in unison by all the singers, create the dramatic tension that is then lifted by a whirlwind of strings to a higher orbit. After a second cycle of the same idea, the soprano emerges to take the lead in a powerful tone. And the male choir responds by using the same "percussive" style in unison to continue the dialogue and bring it to its apotheosis. This is probably the zenith of pathos for the entire opera. Rhythmic vocal techniques are employed again in Indian Opinion (1906) over the propulsive repetitive/additive dance of the strings. Protest (1908) breaks the pace by retreating to a mournful and subdued theme, but the voices soon launch in a Beethoven-ian crescendo, although Glass does not seem capable to sustain their progress. The third act, "King" contains only one piece, New Castle March (1913), structured in three movements. This act is vastly inferior to the previous two. And it is not the first time that Glass seems to exceed his welcome by protracting a work after having exhausted what he had to say. The act, however, closes with an insistent melodic theme that is second only to Tolstoy Farm. While it is hard to condone the self-indulgence and the amateurish theatrical skills, this opera was even more influential than Einstein to legitimize minimalism within the crowds of the classical theater. Glassworks (1982) for solo piano and string-less orchestras contains the cosmic melancholy of Facades. The soundtrack Koyaanisqatsi (originally composed in november 1981, first recorded in 1982 and released in 1983, re-recorded restoring missing material in 1998) was the first part of a trilogy for director Godfrey Reggio, and became an international hit. After the bleak Gregorian passacaglia for bass voice and keyboards Koyaanisqatsi, the sprightly and intricate vocal counterpoint of Vessels introduce a less austere and more lightweight face of Glass' additive process. A peak of pathos is reached in the soaring second part of Pruit Igoe for strings, brasses and voices (mechanically repeating patterns of vowels in a fashion similar to the repetitive patterns of most of the instruments). A swirling keyboard pattern launches the variations of The Grid (of which only 14 minutes of the original 21 appeared on the first edition), under whose austere surface one can hear references to baroque and medieval music. The closing movement, Prophecies (of which only eight of the 13 minutes appeared on the first edition), returns to the somber monastery-inspired atmosphere of the first movement. Photographer (1983) is a multimedia piece inspired by a real case. The "Egyptian" opera Akhnaten (composed in july 1983 and premiered in march 1984), also written in an archaic language (ancient Egyptian), continues Glass' slow drift towards the romantic melodrama, and employs for the first time multiple simultaneous tonal centers. The first act opens with the stately strings-only melody and pace of the Prelude. When the entire orchestra joins in with a complementary algorithm, the atmosphere turns menacing and, after the wind instruments jump in, even barbaric. The trombones, in particular, introduce a sense of pomp and doom in Glass' music. Percussion, choir and brass instruments dominate Funeral of Amenhotep III, the epitome of the opera's magniloquence. but the effect is facile and too reminiscent of Hollywood's big historical productions. Strings and trumpets intone an elegiac melody at the beginning of The Coronation of Akhnaten. The orchestral and choral emphasis that soon follows does little to enhance that melody's charm. Glass' "additive" process risks becoming a curse when it's applied to a classical format. The third scene of the first act, The Window of Appearances boasts two intertwined arias that evoke, respectively, renaissance music (the castrato) and romantic music (the soprano), with an orchestral soundscape that is initially loose and abstract. Again, the magic is lost when the brass instruments take over. It appears that Glass is much more effective at managing voices than the loudest instruments of the orchestra. The Temple, the first scene of the second act, begins with a mournful hymn and later employs the percussive phonetic effect. The spoken-word interludes (in plain English) certainly do not help maintain a high level of interest, nor does the Spanish-tinged Dance of the third scene. The fourth scene, Hymn, has a mid section full of pathos, when the horns duet with the singer over the rhythm of the strings, and a choral finale that rolls out quite nicely from the preceding orchestral setup. sounds positively aimless The third act opens with the aimless The Family, followed by the vehement and propulsive Attack and Fall, where the attacks of choir and brass finally come together in full force. Unfortunately, as usual, the last act is the weakest, with too much material that sounds trivial fluff (and more of the tedious spoken-word "subtitles"). The difference in timbre and atmosphere between this opera and the first ones is remarkable. Glass is becoming the Vangelis of minimalism. Since neither the melodies nor the techniques are particularly innovative, one is left with the impression that this opera is merely a "remixing" of ideas that were already explored in the previous ones. These works of the early 1980s constitute the most successful attempt at popularizing the techniques of minimalism. However, the baroque artifices of their elaborate scores represent a symptom of the decline of the movement's ideological and aesthetic premises.

Einstein on the Beach (che realizza semplicemente il programma enunciato da Music In Twelve Parts) e Music For 18 Musicians di Reich (di due mesi prima) segnano l'inizio di una nuova era per quello che era stato chiamato "minimalismo". Glass si rivela personaggio ambiguo, raramente dotato di vero genio, ma pronto a sfruttare l'occasione propizia di un rinnovamento della scena culturale per proporsi come "musicista laureato" del nuovo corso. Satyagraha (1980), opera su Gandhi da un libretto sanscrita, e' la sua prima registrazione con l'orchestra completa, ma conserva inalterati i tratti caratteristici della sua musica: fonetica ossessiva, contrappunto ondulatorio, melodie cicliche, ritualismo liturgico. Al contrario dell'opera classica, in cui le arie si distendono in sviluppi vocali acrobatici, in Satyagraha i temi vengono ripetuti ossessivamente fino a costruire una risonanza emotiva che prende il posto della suspence (per esempio in King e Protest, i momenti piu' sensazionali della narrazione). L'opera Akhnaten (1984) sull'antico Egitto, ancora in lingua arcaica, e` ancor piu' vicina alla retorica e alla cronologia del melodramma romantico (in particolare il barbaro cerimoniale dell'ouverture), ed e` la prima a usare piu` centri tonali in simultanea. Glassworks (1982) per piano solo e orchestre senza sezione d'archi contiene la struggente malinconia cosmica di Facades. Photographer (1983) e` una piece multimediale su un fatto di cronaca nera. La colonna sonora Koyaanisqatsi (1983), per sezione d'ottoni e vocalismo di massa, divenne un hit internazionale (prima parte di una trilogia del regista Godfrey Reggio, ri-registrato con aggiunte nel 1998). Questi lavori degli anni '80 costituiscono il piu' riuscito tentativo di volgarizzare il minimalismo; ma, negli artificiosi barocchismi delle loro accuratissime partiture, rappresentano anche un sintomo dell'inesorabile declino del movimento.

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Nella seconda meta` degli anni '80 Glass e` uno dei compositori piu` richiesti sia dal cinema, a cui da` Mishima (1985), per archi e percussioni, sia dal balletto, per cui orchestra In The Upper Room (1986), avvolto in suspense maestose e barocchi riverberi (soprattutto Dance II e Dance VIII), sia dalla musica popolare, in cui si cimenta con il ciclo di leader Songs For Liquid Days (1986). Ma e' soprattutto nell'opera teatrale (nel frattempo ha composto le partiture per The Juniper Tree, 1986, e The Civil Wars, 1984), che Glass trova il medium ideale per il suo magniloquentismo psico-drammatico. The Fall Of The House Of Usher (1987), allucinata da atmosfere gotiche ed espressioniste, e soprattutto l'audace 1000 Airplanes On The Roof (1989), psicodramma per voce parlante, sillabe di soprano e piccolo ensemble di sintetizzatori, sono le piu' spettacolari. Queste e quelle della trilogia (Einstein, Satyagraha e Akhnaten) ne fanno il Wagner del minimalismo, ma un Wagner che in realta' e' specializzato in passacaglia, la tecnica di variazioni che fu popolare nel barocco francese e che costituisce gran parte del suo bagaglio tecnico.

Film scores include: Powaqqatsi (Nonesuch, 1988), the second Godfrey Reggio collaboration, The Thin Blue Line (Nonesuch, 1988), A Brief History of Time, Anima Mundi, Hamburger Hill, Candyman, Compassion In Exile, Kundun (Nonesuch, 1998), Dracula (Nonesuch, 1999), scored for string quartet, The Truman Show (1999), etc. Operas include: The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 (1988), with libretto by writer Doris Lessing, the mediocre Hydrogen Jukebox (1990), with libretto by beat poet Allen Ginsberg, the extravagant The Voyage (1992), a trilogy based on the films of Jean Cocteau, (Orphee, 1993, La Belle et La Bete, 1995, which ranks as one of his most lyrical pieces, and Les Enfants Terribles), Monsters of Grace (1998), The Mysteries and What's so Funny, In the Penal Colony (2000), Naqoyqatsi (2001), the final installment of Godfrey Reggio's trilogy (masterfully enhanced with moving cello and xylophone melodies), White Raven (2001), Galileo Galilei (2002), etc. Dance pieces include: A Descent into the Maelstrom, which sounds like a variation on the Mishima soundtrack, Dancissimo (2001), etc. Glass has also composed five string quartets (1966, 1983, 1985, 1988, 1991), of which the third, fourth (the very bleak fourth) and fifth rank among his most ambitious works, The Hours for piano and string quartet (also available in a solo piano arrangement by Michael Riesman), the orchestral works The Light (1987), Itaipu' (1988), The Canyon (1988), Symphony No 2 (based on themes from Bowie & Eno's Low), Symphony No 3 for small string orchestra (1995, based on themes from Bowie & Eno's Heroes), the indulgent and much more massive Symphony No 5 for chorus, voice, and orchestra (that pays homage to the ancient religions of the world), the equally imposing Symphony No 6 (2002), with texts by Allen Ginsberg, and Symphony No 8. But his symphonies were mostly trivial and disappointing. Concertos include: Violin concerto (1987), the lighthearted Concerto for Saxophone Quartet, Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra (2000), the bombastic Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (2001), Tirol Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (2000), etc. Works for the piano are collected on Solo Piano (Venture, 1989), Circles (Materiali Sonori, 1998), Minimal Piano Works, Volume 1 (Piano Productions, 1999), Piano Music (Romeo, 2000), Glass Cage (Arabesque, 2000), Etudes for Piano (Orange Mountain, 2003), etc. Organ works are performed on Glass Organ Works (Catalyst, 1993) and Music for Organ (Nimbus, 2001). Glassmasters (Sony, 1997) is a three-disc anthology. The Fog Of War (Orange Mountain, 2003) was yet another soundtrack. 600 Lines; How Now (Stradivarius, 2003) collects two 1968 performances. Analog (Orange Mountain, 2006) collects unreleased recordings of the late 1970s. The Illusionist (2007) is the soundtrack for Dick Pope's film. Dances And Sonata (2007) debuted the Trilogy Sonata, based on interludes from Einstein On The Beach, Satyagraha and Akhnaten.

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