Philip Glass - Music In Contrary Motion

  On 7/22/2011 at 9:36 PM, Alcofribas said:

yes, philip glass is a completely incompetent composer whose international success is merely the result of keen business smarts and magic sorcery. beginning in his teens with the university of chicago, onto nadia boulanger's esteemed private schooling and ravi shankar's unenlightened musical practices he has completely fooled us all (except jim :sup:) you know all the basic components of music, like rhythm, harmony, etc? well, the guy knows nothing about this. you know how he's toured the world and put together hundreds of recordings? well, he's incompetent as fuck. you know how the minimalist movement flourished? well, he just went ahead and adopted a "minimalist" attitude in order to trick the foolish sheeple into buying tickets to his shows and stuff (which were naturally complete disasters as he knows nothing whatever about music and is entirely incompetent). come on guys, WAKE UP

Why do so many people think this? Is it that difficult to understand the genius behind the best works of Glass?

Let me ask you a serious question. When you hear the rhythm of an early composition by Philip Glass, does it sound like chaos to you? To most people who are used to listening to divisive rhythm, it would be a lot harder to understand how it is meant to be enjoyed.

Instead of repeating a regular length of time and dividing it into beats, he starts with smaller beats of irregular length and strings them together (which makes more sense if you think about it). And it's not just random lengths of time mashed together either - Music In Contrary Motion has a carefully written series of beats that increase and decrease in length, which creates a transfixing effect of time getting faster and slower.

I think a lot of people who criticize Glass don't actually know enough about him to be qualified to make their harsh, flat-out statements. One crucial point about his career is that, at some point in the late 70's, he abandoned minimalism and additive rhythm. After that, a lot of his output (which is what the majority of people who have heard Philip Glass are familiar with) is rather unexceptional, more akin to generic classical music. There are still some great compositions from this era, but they are not good in the same way as his early minimal works.

  On 7/23/2011 at 2:10 AM, vamos scorcho said:

the rhythmic shifts in Twelve Parts ETC are just flat out mindblowing. I don't mean to call them 'mindblowing' in the sense that it's like "WOAHHH MAN THIS IS WILD." More like, "I can never think about the time signatures in the same way again: everything is 1/1.

I'm glad someone here knows what it's all about

alcofribas was being sarcastic, dude.

the raw, embittered face of phillip glass hatred

  On 7/23/2011 at 12:29 PM, kaini said:

alcofribas was being sarcastic, dude.

Whatever, shit still needs to be said. Too many haters.

I recommend a listen to SATYAGRAHA to anybody who thinks that early Glass is wank.

well I enjoy Knee Play 5 and I won't let anybody tell me otherwise

Phillip Glass is not the best person but I find his works incorporating vocals uniformly pleasing so

maybe he's just got good taste in choirs

and if that's it then I still have a certain respect

Has anyone tried playing any of Philip Glass' stuff on piano/organ etc.? It sounds like it'd be one of the hardest things to learn due to the (really) slight variances in the motifs.

  On 7/25/2011 at 11:19 AM, mcbpete said:

Has anyone tried playing any of Philip Glass' stuff on piano/organ etc.? It sounds like it'd be one of the hardest things to learn due to the (really) slight variances in the motifs.

exhibit a

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl0BSh7RXPc

Aye, though I meant specifically anyone on this board ... It'd be interesting to hear some first hand experiences on how people tackle a piece like that.

i know you did, it was just a handy excuse to post what is maybe my favourite phil piece

part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0SgFg7OstI&feature=related

  On 7/16/2011 at 8:00 AM, Rhombix said:

Here is the SWF file, as a post attachment. I hope you can enjoy it as much as me. It uses an organ synth which I designed myself, but I invite you to create a better sounding version. You will be credited of course.

Can someone embed that SWF into a page so that I can actually run it?

I like Glass.

I think his structures have a lot in common with modern electronic stuff that this forum is about, and hence it makes sense that he's popular here.

Here's something he did specifically for Sesame Street:

[youtubehd]ch-R1aIM-C0[/youtubehd]

  On 7/25/2011 at 6:52 PM, zazen said:

Here's something he did specifically for Sesame Street:

 

[youtubehd]ch-R1aIM-C0[/youtubehd]

That was my first encounter with Mr Glass (though obviously I didn't know it was him at the time. And was obviously the inspiration behind this parody by Tim and Eric -

almost too good a parody

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dev1Ff2IcGI

actually, arguably even better

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6rt8rHM2Us

the additive rhythms are made totally explicit here

  On 7/25/2011 at 7:24 PM, kaini said:

almost too good a parody

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dev1Ff2IcGI

Actually a good portion of this piece feels much more like a John Adams mid-80's parody than Philip Glass.

  On 7/26/2011 at 12:52 AM, Philip Glass said:

  On 7/25/2011 at 7:24 PM, kaini said:

almost too good a parody

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dev1Ff2IcGI

 

 

Actually a good portion of this piece feels much more like a John Adams mid-80's parody than Philip Glass.

if you listen carefully, it quotes js bach's 'the well-tempered clavier' at the start. it's very clever.

  On 7/26/2011 at 12:52 AM, Philip Glass said:

  On 7/25/2011 at 7:24 PM, kaini said:

almost too good a parody

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dev1Ff2IcGI

 

 

Actually a good portion of this piece feels much more like a John Adams mid-80's parody than Philip Glass.

this.

but yes PDQ is so great.

seeing his show was definitely in the top 5 for me.

  On 7/25/2011 at 6:52 PM, zazen said:

  On 7/16/2011 at 8:00 AM, Rhombix said:

Here is the SWF file, as a post attachment. I hope you can enjoy it as much as me. It uses an organ synth which I designed myself, but I invite you to create a better sounding version. You will be credited of course.

 

Can someone embed that SWF into a page so that I can actually run it?

You should be able to right-click and open it with your browser. If not, paste this code into a text file and save it as a .HTML file, in the same folder as the SWF:

<html>

<body bgcolor="000000">
<center>
<br><br>

<object width="550" height="400">
<param name="movie" value="contrary%20motion.swf">
<embed src="contrary%20motion.swf" width="550" height="400">
</embed>
</object>

</center>
</body>

</html>