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Philip Glass was born in Baltimore, Maryland on January 31, 1937. His father, Benjamin Charles Glass, owned a record store and his mother, Ida, was a librarian. His family were Jewish immigrants from Lithuania. In his memoirs, Glass recalls that at the end of World War II his mother aided Jewish Holocaust survivors, inviting recent arrivals to America to stay at their home until they could find a job and a place to live. She developed a plan to help them learn English and develop skills so they could find work.
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Glass developed his appreciation of music from his father, discovering later his father's side of the family had many musicians. His cousin Cevia was a classical pianist, while others had been in vaudeville. He learned his family was also related to Al Jolson. Glass's father often received promotional copies of new recordings at his music store. He spent many hours listening to them, developing his knowledge and taste in music. This openness to modern sounds affected Glass at an early age.
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Glass said, “My father was self-taught, but he ended up having a very refined and rich knowledge of classical, chamber, and contemporary music. Typically he would come home and have dinner, and then sit in his armchair and listen to music until almost midnight. I caught on to this very early, and I would go and listen with him.” Philip’s father promoted both new recordings and a wide selection of composers to his customers, sometimes convincing them to try something new by allowing them to return records they didn't like. His store soon developed a reputation as Baltimore's leading source of modern music.
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Minimalism in Art: Frank Stella, 'Darabjerd I', 1967, Glass House
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Minimalism in Music: Metamorphosis Four,
Philip Glass
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Minimalist music is, by definition, any music that works with limited or minimal materials: pieces that use only a few notes, pieces that use only a few words of text, or pieces written for very limited instruments, such as antique cymbals, bicycle wheels, or drinking glasses. It includes pieces that sustain one basic electronic rumble for a long time. It includes pieces made exclusively from recordings of rivers and streams. Minimalist music is very plain to some, and displeasing to the ears of others. A lot like Edgard Varese’s music.
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Philip Glass was one of several composers experimenting with new compositional techniques that came to be known as the New York Hypnotic School in the downtown New York scene of the 1960’s. They used limited or minimal musical materials to create the concept of a work in progress.
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Ask any musician where to go for the best musical education in America, and they will tell you Juilliard in New York City. Not only has The Juilliard school taught such famous artists as our favorite composer, John Williams, and supreme violinist Yo-Yo Ma, but it is in the hub of the performing arts capital of the nation, New York City. Philip Glass is among the most famous of The Juilliard School’s alumni.
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Not long after graduating from Juilliard, Glass went on to study composition in Paris. It was there that he started to form his own ideas of how music should be composed. He soon met Robert Wilson and in the summer of 1975, the two began working on a 5 hour opera called “Einstein on the Beach.” Glass recounts the collaborative processof writing this opera: "I put [Wilson’s notebook of sketches] on the piano and composed each section like a portrait of the drawing before me. The score was begun in the spring of 1975 and completed by the following November, and those drawings were before me all the time." |
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When “Einstein on the Beach” premiered in France in 1976 and was such a success that it was booked in 6 other European countries by the end of the year. Wilson and Glass decided they needed to bring their opera to America. So, the booked the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. It opened, in America, to rave reviews (that means everyone loved it). The Washington Post even described it as “one of the seminal artworks of the century.”
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The early compositions of Glass are somewhat simple, with little embellishment on the principal theme. These works are for small instrumental ensembles, and Glass often performed in these groups. They contain organs, woodwinds—particularly saxophones—and vocalists. His current works are more sophisticated. He often performs with his own group, the Philip Glass Ensemble.
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Robert Wilson & Philip Glass, 2012
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Philip Glass & Robert Wilson, 1975
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As he plays with the way notes are arranged, he creates new pieces of music. Philip would often take this music and put it together to create an anthology. He did this with opera’s he wrote, symphonies and many other pieces. He would often write his music to be played for his own ensemble, or band, that he put together.
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Philip Glass was a very creative person. He wasn’t afraid to take risks and look outside the rules of what had been done before in order to create something new. He was brave, and bold, and he wasn’t afraid to be who he really was. That’s a very important trait for a highly creative person to have. In the early 80’s, Glass began writing music for movies. In 1997, he received an Academy Award for his music for the movie Kundun about the Dalai Lama.
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Rickie Lee Jones |
