Composer Phillip Glass: Recommend something that will blow me away

[Cisco]

@Cisco

some of the verbal lyrics

Some of the verbal singing. Lyrics would, by definition, be verbal :).

[The_Hook]

I like Fog of War.

[Mehitabel]

1. Set aside seven minutes or so.

2. Turn on the sound on your computer.

3. Go to Shawn O’Boyle’s Modern Ruins website and choose ASYLUM (with sound).

4. Prepare to be totally creeped out to the music of ‘Island’, from his album GLASSWORKS. Beautiful, unforgettable, tragic, pictures.

You may also have heard it in ‘The Hours’ during some of the Viriginia Woolf scenes. My favorite score of his is the one from ‘Mishima’.

Anyway, ya gotta love a guy who was parodied in an early South Park Christmas episode. “As the sun turns, we celebrate…” “What the hell is THAT?!”

[Moe]

I just wanted to say that apparently google crawled this thread, though strangely it read Ravi Shankar as the dominant theme of the thread, since 3 of the 4 ads are Ravi Shankar links. The 4th is Glass.

Mehitabel, very chilling video. Thanks.

[Moe]

OK, I promise not to hijack this thread further after this post, but somehow my last post caused google to decide that an ad about a classical music event, and one labelled “Florida Glass - free mobile service in 48 states” was even more relevant to us in this thread, than links to Glass and Shankar CDs.

OK, back to your regularly scheduled thread about the music of Philip Glass
OK, back to your regularly scheduled thread about the music of Philip Glass
OK, back to your regularly scheduled thread about the music of Philip Glass
OK, back to your regularly scheduled thread about the music of Philip Glass
OK, back to your regularly scheduled thread about the music of Philip Glass
OK, back to your regularly scheduled thread about the music of Philip Glass
OK, back to your regularly scheduled thread about the music of Philip Glass

[WordMan]

@Moe

I would take issue with this characterization. Glass is 2nd, only to Reich in importance for the genre (with honorable mention to Terry Riley who’s really credited with the first composition in this genre “IN C”). It is true that Glass is generally much more pop-oriented than Reich. Reich is leagues more interesting, but that doesn’t make Glass not the “real thing”. I think Glass is a brilliant composer. I think Reich is a genius.

Music for 18 is one of his masterpieces, but I wouldn’t recommend it as a first intro to him. It’s a lot to take in and takes a lot of patience. I’d recommend “Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices, and Organ”, or “Electric Counterpoint” (hey it’s 15 electric guitars, who wouldn’t love that?) first.

it’s not often that a thread gets started about minimalist music - the fact that the OP looked for recommendations was a good opportunity to chime in with a couple of other excellent minimalist pieces. I wouldn’t dismiss Glass as Kenny G the way VCO3 did, but as you say, Glass is more commercial and perhaps the OP poster might really enjoy Reich and Part.

If you haven’t heard Tabula Rasa - oh man…talk about subtle and emotionally rich.

[plnnr]

One of my favorite knock-knock jokes:

Knock, knock
Who’s there?
Phillip Glass
Phillip Glass who?

Knock, knock
Who’s there?
Phillip Glass
Phillip Glass who?

etc

I enjoyed Koyaanisqatsi when I saw it at an IMAX theater. It is much more effective than on a TV-sized screen.