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Philip Glass: My problem is people don’t believe I write symphonies (2017)

theguardian.com

161–170 of 185 posts

Re: Philip Glass: My problem is people don’t believe I write symphonies (2017)

#161

>Yes, after Einstein on the Beach I went back to driving a New York cab. I didn’t mind that. It was interesting work. I didn’t have an agent. I ran all the business side of it and the box office myself. I enjoyed it. Interesting, I had no idea.

He also worked as a plumber. > Throughout this period, Glass supported himself as a New York cabbie and as a plumber, occupations that often led to unusual encounters. “I had gone to install a dishwasher in a loft in SoHo,” he says. “While working, I suddenly heard a noise and looked up to find Robert Hughes, the art critic of Time magazine, staring at me in disbelief. ‘But you’re Philip Glass! What are you doing her…

Man, that's just great. Movie-like scene.

Re: Philip Glass: My problem is people don’t believe I write symphonies (2017)

#162
post #18

>Yes, after Einstein on the Beach I went back to driving a New York cab. I didn’t mind that. It was interesting work. I didn’t have an agent. I ran all the business side of it and the box office myself. I enjoyed it. Interesting, I had no idea.

I first herd Einstein on the Beach after a particularly manic period in undergrad. My advisor wasn't familiar with it, and I may have spooked her a bit try to explain it. I think to this day its great background music for programming work, but to me more because it can illicit that sense of young focus and drive that I find increasingly fleeting. Perhaps not unlike how music can "wake up" dementia patients. It elicit…

While I love the opera, I've always found Einstein on the Beach really difficult to program to because of the distracting dominance of the spoken word parts (at least on some recordings) 'Oh these are the days my friend, and these are the days'. For me the Koyaanisqatsi score is the perfect stimulation for getting in the zone.

Re: Philip Glass: My problem is people don’t believe I write symphonies (2017)

#163
His style of minimlaist music is certainly attractive to the HN demographics, I'd say that it helps a certain type of focused flow given its apparent lack of melody or traditional chord progressions.

Take for example his "Opening" from Glassworks (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2vRbNehGB0) is not that difficult to play once you get the hang of the polyrhythm, but it's difficult to understand why it works the way it works.

Re: Philip Glass: My problem is people don’t believe I write symphonies (2017)

#164

I make electronic music. 7 years ago, in a very sad period of my life, I made a classical piece of music, (From midnight to 4am) which I am very proud of it today. It would make me really happy to get some feedback from you guys if you know a thing or two about music. It tells a very personal story and here is the link to it: https://soundcloud.com/bitmarx/story-of-a-rexile

Sorry, I'm not a musician so I can't comment as anything more than a listener, but I enjoyed listening to it. Thanks for posting.

Thank you very much for listening and your encouraging feedback.

Re: Philip Glass: My problem is people don’t believe I write symphonies (2017)

#165

Never commented on the internet before, but I just started to learn playing the Intro Theme to Candyman on piano [0] yesterday and then saw this. Weird coincidence... The movie Candyman itself and the rest of the songs in the score are also fantastic. Heard about that song from the sample in Travis Scott's The Prayer [1]. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7FFEu7Har0 [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iOH8V0KTVI

I had no idea he wrote that, very interesting! I need to look into other film scores he's written.

My first introduction to Philip Glass was his Book of Longing collaboration with Leonard Cohen. If anyone hasn't heard this, I'd recommend you check it out on Spotify.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAn8s13kleU

Re: Philip Glass: My problem is people don’t believe I write symphonies (2017)

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This happens to me on HN very often. I know I sound like a conspiracy theorist but I sometimes feel we are all in a big machine-learning experiment :)

(I realise you're joking, but...) it's most likely a form of the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. In this case, of course the is not an everyday topic on HN, but we all have enough of these running concurrently in our lives that sooner or later, they coincide with HN. And due to the perceived, impossibly low odds, people tend to really focus on it when it happens.

Spoiling the fun with facts ;-P

Another example of this effect: since taking a passing interest in the fairly niche Forth and Ada programming languages, I see them crop up on HN with surprising frequency.

Re: Philip Glass: My problem is people don’t believe I write symphonies (2017)

#167
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I first herd Einstein on the Beach after a particularly manic period in undergrad. My advisor wasn't familiar with it, and I may have spooked her a bit try to explain it. I think to this day its great background music for programming work, but to me more because it can illicit that sense of young focus and drive that I find increasingly fleeting. Perhaps not unlike how music can "wake up" dementia patients. It elicit…

I'm a massive fan of Einstein On the Beach. It continues to be one of my favorite pieces of music, since first hearing it 12 years ago. There's a vitality and a sense of energy to it that keeps me coming back. It's also large enough in scope that I've been able to spend a long time chewing it over and digesting all of it's movements. I think a unique quality of it is the contrast between it's simplistic harmonic cont…

Here is a live performance. Interesting to see how it is being sung.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PL9Rjn7EiRw

Re: Philip Glass: My problem is people don’t believe I write symphonies (2017)

#168

Never commented on the internet before, but I just started to learn playing the Intro Theme to Candyman on piano [0] yesterday and then saw this. Weird coincidence... The movie Candyman itself and the rest of the songs in the score are also fantastic. Heard about that song from the sample in Travis Scott's The Prayer [1]. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7FFEu7Har0 [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iOH8V0KTVI

> Weird coincidence...

Nothing weird at all. After I learned horse riding (focus: dressage) I started seeing horse-related stuff everywhere - horse carrying trailers on roads, shops, etc.

The "secret" is not some deep universe related mystery but your perception. Those horse-related things were there all along - I just never paid attention, my mind filtered it without any of it ever reaching my consciousness. Your mind filters out lots and lots of headlines when you scroll through the news or HN, your brain reacts when something is relevant.

That there has to be something relevant even if it's niche once in a while is not exactly shocking when HN goes through several dozens of headlines every single day. The site shows you so many diverse topics, it would be strange if you never have this experience.

Re: Philip Glass: My problem is people don’t believe I write symphonies (2017)

#169

Never commented on the internet before, but I just started to learn playing the Intro Theme to Candyman on piano [0] yesterday and then saw this. Weird coincidence... The movie Candyman itself and the rest of the songs in the score are also fantastic. Heard about that song from the sample in Travis Scott's The Prayer [1]. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7FFEu7Har0 [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iOH8V0KTVI

> Weird coincidence... Nothing weird at all. After I learned horse riding (focus: dressage) I started seeing horse-related stuff everywhere - horse carrying trailers on roads, shops, etc. The "secret" is not some deep universe related mystery but your perception. Those horse-related things were there all along - I just never paid attention, my mind filtered it without any of it ever reaching my consciousness. Your mi…

It's also called frequency illusion or Baader–Meinhof phenomenon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_illusion

Re: Philip Glass: My problem is people don’t believe I write symphonies (2017)

#170

These days I would pick a movie to see based on who did or contributed to its soundtrack. Glass, Zimmer, Richter, and Preisnser, in particular. Some of Glass' work transposes well to other instruments, but a real extra gift to the world would be if he wrote a guitar suite. I've been hacking around with a classical guitar arrangement of Pärt's "Spiegel im Spiegel," and might see if Glass' new "The Teacher" is more ame…

> Some of Glass' work transposes well to other instruments Here's one example which works very well IMHO. Lavinia Meijer, Harp, Metamorphosis Four https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ivXNzf5a8I

Here is an excellent Violin => Soprano Sax transposition by Amy Dickson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoMPALIUxco

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