If you've been to the movies in the past decade or so, chances are you've heard Philip Glass' music. Nominated for Golden Globe and Academy Award scores to films such as The Truman Show, The Hours, Notes on a Scandal, and more, Glass' work pops up everywhere, and when familiar with his stylings, it's immediately recognizable. Pioneering the genre of "minimalism" (or as Glass calls it, "music with repetitive structures"), Glass has been composing for decades, building up quite the body of work, from his world reknowned opera
Einstein At the Beach to the score of the immeasurably influential Japanese film "Koyaanisqatsi." He's also collaborated with the likes of David Bowie, Brian Eno, and Aphex Twin, highlighting his influence in pop culture as well as his impressive report with the big guns in music. Glass' works, at least for the early portion of his career, were notoriously lengthy, at times playing one musical phrase for almost half an hour with nary a variation. With
Glassworks, Philip attempts to reach a broader spectrum of the population, Glass saying himself,
"Glassworks was intended to introduce my music to a more general audience than had been familiar with it up to then." For the most part he succeeds, restraining his pieces to never go past ten minutes, and trades epic repetition for glorious crescendos and climaxes to create emotion and beauty. While not without it's weaker movements,
Glassworks proves a worthy introduction to one of the most influential composers of the 20th century.
For all intents and purposes,
Glassworks is a 5 movement suite of music that reflects Glass' stab at "pop". "Opening" and "Closing" provide ethereal bookends to
Glassworks, the latter being an electronic reprise of the gorgeous acoustic-piano former, with sleek hemiola work, triplets over duplets, immediately inviting the listener into the complexity of Glass' compositional stylings. Both pieces remain stubbornly repetitive, staying at one volume with nary a change in phrasing or voicing, yet there's something so hypnotizing in both of them, they serve as the hypnotizer that lulls one into the record and the cool breeze that provides the awakening at the end, somnolent imagery intended. The repetitious nature of Glass' music mesmerizes to the point of trance, with each movement providing a different feel that provides emotion rather than specific events. For example, the strings of "Island" set up an apprehensive feel that builds with each layer Glass adds on to the original theme. The similar "Facades" is able to produce the opposite feel without much change in format or instrumentation, yet contrary to "Island", "Facades" is as easy-going as it is a release from the tension built up by the pieces preceding movements.
The quiet nature of four-sixths of the movements is certainly Glass' forte, as most of his future work would be as hushed and hypnotizing as "Island" or "Opening", but Glass' more intense works show his compositional range, with the album's best movement being "Floe". "Floe" is one of two chaotic movements in
Glassworks, with the other, "Rubric", being the one minor stumble in an otherwise smooth record. "Floe" transitions out of "Opening" with horns before exploding into arpeggiated synth lines and later throwing all the themes he builds in the piece together in a bombastic apex. Overall, "Floe"'s indicative of the greatest aspects of
Glassworks: with naught but strings, horns and lots of synths, Glass creates quite the track, which translates into a nearly equally sextet of music. Though repetitive,
Glassworks is as emotional as it is gorgeous, providing the world with a great introduction to one of the modern era's most celebrated composers.
