The
cyber-
gods have been kind. Up to now the only music of
Philip Glass that's come my way were his
operas:
Akhnaten,
Einstein on the Beach,
Nixon in
China -- stuff like that.
Everything I heard I liked; well, actually I was extremely
enthusiastic about him and was at the point of declaring him a
genius, or something equivalent. Then a friend loaned me the CD called
Koyaanisqatsi reviewed in
E2 by
Ashley Pomeroy. Frankly, I think her
assessment was not only
fair but also
exceedingly
generous -- even when she described the part called "The
Grid" as "the audio-visual
equivalent of being
trapped inside a
washing machine."
I don't give up my
saints easily, so I looked around until I found a copy of his CD called "
Heroes
Symphony." The
jacket provides this
information:
Heroes (5:56)
Abdulmajid (8:57)
Sense Of Doubt (7:23)
Sons Of The Silent Age (8:23)
Neuköln (6:44)
V2 Schneider (6:48)
Total playing time 44:13
Reading further, I found that these pieces are...ah... reworkings,
adaptations, whatever of
music originally composed by
David Bowie &
Brian Eno. Well, I did think there were more
melodies in "Heroes" than in the other Glass works I've heard. This might explain it.
Nothing, however, can explain why a few bars into the title piece I think I hear a direct quote from Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake." Speaking of ballets, the dancer and choreographer, Twyla Tharp, used "Heroes" for one of her ballets. The last piece, "V2 Schneider," was written so that the work could end on a very high note.
I don't know that I'd go out and buy the CD, but it is interesting to hear another side of Glass' music.
Reference:
http://www.monsterbit.com/pcp/glass.html