Glassworks

Product Information

This movement has its origins in the film score Koyaanisqatsi, but was ultimately not used in the film; it is often performed as a work in its own right (ISWC T-010.461.089-0). [7] Philip Glass is one of the world’s most influential, accomplished and revered composers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Through his vast repertoire of award-winning compositions and wide-ranging collaborations with music creators ranging from Leonard Cohen to David Bowie and Brian Eno, Glass has had an extraordinary and unprecedented impact upon the musical and intellectual life of our times. The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 (1985–1986, premiered in 1988, libretto by Doris Lessing, after her fourth novel from Canopus in Argos) Passages for Saxophone Quartet and Orchestra (1989, three movements arranged in 2001 by Dennis Russell Davies)

The final movement “Closing” repeats the same themes heard toward the beginning, but here in a softer tone and with closer harmonies, offering up a sort of reverence for what has been played immediately before it. It’s a thematically fitting send-off for Glassworks, so influential would it be for the many to follow in Glass’s footsteps, from popular movie scores from the likes of Hans Zimmer sought to transmute similar emotions across a screen, or the minimalist work of Brian Eno. In their own idiosyncratic sound, these artists each return to the basics that Glass set forward, across all of his work, yes, but particularly and most thesis-like with Glassworks. That was gambit proved successful for Glass is almost incidental to its legacy, but successful it was, bringing him immense popularity and funding for further work that would continue to inspire a generation of artists. An era of minimalism was conceived of and defined by Glassworks, a record that set one of the most enduring standards of recent musical history. The Fall of the House of Usher (libretto by Arthur Yorinks after the short story by Edgar Allan Poe, 1987) In the Penal Colony for voices and string quintet (2000, libretto after the short story by Franz Kafka)

Versions

a b Martin, Erin Lyndal (April 30, 2012). "Celebrating The 30th Anniversary Of Glassworks By Philip Glass". The Quietus . Retrieved March 9, 2016.

Glass’ enduringly popular score for The Truman Show, starring Jim Carrey, won Best Original Score at the Golden Globes in 1999 and appears third in PRS for Music’s Philip Glass’ Most Popular Film Scores chart, while his score for The Hours, the 2002 film starring Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, and Julianne Moore, won the Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music BAFTA in 2003, and appears at number six. Waiting for the Barbarians for voices, chorus and orchestra (2005, after the novel by J. M. Coetzee)

What’s on

The Civil Wars: A Tree Is Best Measured When It Is Down, Act V – The Rome Section (1983, with Robert Wilson, libretto by Robert Wilson and Maita di Niscemi, including texts by Seneca the Younger) Circus Days and Nights (2021. Librettists David Henry Hwang and circus director Tilde Björfors based on a collection of poems by American poet Robert Lax. Premiered on Malmö Opera‘s main stage with live music to a live audience [1] and livestreamed worldwide May 29, 2021, thru June 13, 2021.) Koyaanisqatsi takes the top spot of the Most Popular Film Scores chart. Intrinsic to the 1982 American experimental non-narrative film produced and directed by Godfrey Reggio, Glass' score is noted as a prime example of the ‘minimalist’ school of composition. The score has become so popular in its own right that the Philip Glass Ensemble, comprising the principal performers of the music of Philip Glass, has toured the world performing the score live for concert hall audiences, in sync with film’s captivating visuals.