Philip Glass

Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer. His music is frequently described as minimalist, though he prefers the term theatre music. He is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public, in creating an accessibility not previously recognised by the broader market.

Works

Works for the Philip Glass Ensemble

• 600 Lines (1967)
• Music in Fifths (1969)
• Music in Similar Motion (1969)
• Music with Changing Parts (1973)
• Music in Twelve Parts (1971-1974)
• North Star (1977)
• Glassworks (1982)
• Orion (2004)

Operas, music theatre

There are two trilogies, one which subjects Einstein, Ghandi and Akhnaten -

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Einstein on the Beach (1976) for the Philip Glass Ensemble, and Satyagraha (1980) and Akhnaten (1983) for voices, chorus and orchestra. A second has Jean Cocteau's work as its theme: Orphée (1993), for voices and chamber orchestra, La Belle et la Bête (1994) and Les Enfants Terribles, a Dance Opera for soloists and three pianos (1996) after Cocteau's novel and the film by Jean-Pierre Melville. Other works for the music theatre include:

Related Topics:
Einstein on the Beach - 1976 - Philip Glass Ensemble - Satyagraha - 1980 - Akhnaten - 1983 - Jean Cocteau - Orphée - La Belle et la Bête - Les Enfants Terribles - Jean-Pierre Melville

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• A Madrigal Opera for voices, violin and viola (1980)
• the CIVIL warS (opera, 1984)
• Songs from Liquid Days (songs with Paul Simon, Suzanne Vega, David Byrne and Laurie Anderson, 1986)
• The Fall of the House of Usher (chamber opera, libretto after the short story by Edgar Allan Poe, 1987)
• The making of the representative for Planet 8 (opera, 1985-88, libretto by Doris Lessing)
• 1000 Airplanes on the Roof (work for stage, text by David Henry Hwang, 1988)
• Hydrogen Jukebox (libretto by Allen Ginsberg, 1990)
• White Raven (opera) (1991)
• The Voyage (opera, 1992)
• The marriages between zones three, four, and five (opera, 1997, libretto by Doris Lessing)
• Monsters of Grace (chamber opera for the Philip Glass Ensemble, 1998, with 3D digital footage directed by Robert Wilson, libretto from works of Jalaluddin Rumi)
• In the Penal Colony (chamber opera, 2000, libretto after the short story by Franz Kafka)
• The Sound of a Voice (chamber opera, 2003, libretto by David Henry Hwang)
• Waiting for the Barbarians (2005, after the novel by J.M. Coetzee)

Chamber Music

• Three String Quartets (from the early 1960s, withdrawn)
• Play for two saxophones (1965, music for Samuel Beckett's play)
• String Quartet No.1 (1966)
• Music in the shape of a Square for two flutes (1967)
• Head On for violin, cello and piano (1967)
• Another Look at Harmony, Part III for clarinet and piano (1975)
• Fourth Series Part Three for violin and clarinet (1978)
• String Quartet No.2 Company (1983, composed for a dramatization of Samuel Beckett's novella)
• Prelude to Endgame for timpani and double-bass (1984, for the play by Samuel Beckett)
• String Quartet No.3 Mishima (1985)
• String Quartet No.4 Buczak (1989)
• Music from The Screens for chamber ensemble (1989, a collaboration with Foday Musa Suso)
• The Orchard from The Screens for violin and piano (1989)
• Cymbeline for ensemble (1991, music for the play by William Shakespeare)
• String Quartet No.5 (1991)
• Love Divided By for flute and piano (1992)
• In the Summer House for violin and cello (1993, music for the play by Jane Bowles)
• Concerto for Saxophone Quartet (1995, also orchestral version)
• Dracula for string quartet (or piano and string quartet) (1998, music for the 1931 film)
• Music from The Sound of a Voice for flute, pipa, violin, cello and percussion (2003)

Works for Solo Instruments

• Strung Out for violin (1967)
• Gradus for saxophone (1968)
• Arabesque for flute (1988)
• France from The Screens for violin (1989)
• Melodies for solo saxophone (1995)

Works for orchestra (with chorus and voices)

• Company for string orchestra (1983, composed for a dramatization of Samuel Beckett's novella)
• Phaedra for string orchestra and percussion (1985)
• In the Upper Room for chamber orchestra (1986, music for Twyla Tharp's dance piece)
• The Light for orchestra (1987)
• The Canyon for orchestra (1988)
• Itaipu, a symphonic portrait for chorus and orchestra in four movements (1989)
• Passages for chamber orchestra (a collaboration with Ravi Shankar) (1990)
• Concerto Grosso for chamber orchestra (1992)
• Symphony No.1 Low for orchestra (1992)
• T.S.E. (T.S. Eliot) for voices and ensemble (1994, music for a theatre work by Robert Wilson)
• Symphony No.2 for orchestra (1994)
• Symphony No.3 for 19 string players (1995)
• Symphony No.4 Heroes for orchestra (1996)
• Songs of Milarepa for baritone and chamber orchestra (1997)
• Days and Nights of Rocinha, Dance for orchestra (1997)
• Psalm 126 for orchestra and chorus (1998)
• Symphony No.5 (Choral) Requiem, Bardo and Nirmanakaya for soloists, chorus and orchestra (1999)
• Dancissimo for orchestra (2001)
• Symphony No.6 Plutonian Ode for soprano and orchestra (2001)
• Symphony No.7 Toltec for orchestra and chorus (2004)
• Symphony No.8 for orchestra (2005)
• The Passion of Ramakrishna for chorus and orchestra (2006)

Works for solo instruments and orchestra (Concertos etc.)

• Concerto For Violin and Orchestra (1960, withdrawn)
• Facades for two saxophones (or flute and clarinet) and string orchestra (1981)
• Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (1987)
• Echorus for two violins and string orchestra (1995, version of the Etude No.2 for piano)
• Concerto No.1 for Piano and String Orchestra Tirol (2000)
• Concerto for Two Timpani Players and Orchestra (2000)
• Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (2001)
• Concerto for Harpsichord and Chamber Orchestra (2002)
• Suite from The Hours for piano, string orchestra, harp and percussion (2002/2003)
• Concerto No.2 for Piano and Orchestra After Lewis and Clark(2004)

Vocal Works

• Hebeve Song for soprano, clarinet and bassoon (1983)
• Planctus, Song for voice and piano (1997, for Natalie Merchant)

Works for chorus

• Another Look at Harmony, Part IV for chorus and organ (1975)
• Fourth Series Part One for chorus and organ (1977)
• Three Songs for chorus a-cappella (1984, texts by Octavio Paz and others)

Works for solo piano

• How Now for piano (1968)
• Two Pages (for Steve Reich) for piano (or electric organ) (1969)
• Modern Love Waltz for piano (1977)
• Fourth Series Part Four (Mad Rush) for piano (1979)
• Trilogy Sonata for piano (1975/1979/1983, from Einstein, Sathyagraha and Akhnaten, arranged by Paul Barnes in 2001)
• Cadenzas for Mozart's Piano Concerto No.21 (K. 467, 1786) (1987)
• Metamorphosis for piano (1988)
• Wichita Sutra Vortex for piano (1988)
• The French Lieutenant Sleeps from The Screens for piano (1989)
• Night on the Balcony from The Screens for piano (or harpsichord) (1989)
• Tesra for piano (1993)
• The Orphée Suite for piano (1993, transcribed by Paul Barnes in 2000)
• Overture from La Belle et la Bete for piano (1994, transcribed by Michael Riesman)
• Etudes for piano, Volume 1 (1994-1995)
• Music from the Hours for piano (2003, transcribed by Michael Riesman and Nico Muhly)
• A Musical Portrait of Chuck Close, two pieces for piano (2005)

Works for two pianos

• Six Scenes from Les Enfants Terribles for two pianos (1996, transcribed by Maki Namekawa and Dennis Russell Davies)

Works for organ

• Fourth Series Part Two (Dance No.2) for organ (1978)
• Fourth Series Part Four (Mad Rush) for organ (1979)
• Voices for organ, didgeridoo and narrator (2001)

Film scores

Glass has scored many films, including:

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• Godfrey Reggio's documentary film trilogy Koyaanisqatsi (1983), Powaqqatsi (1988) and Naqoyqatsi (2002)
• ' (1985)
• John Irvin's Hamburger Hill (1987)
• Errol Morris's The Thin Blue Line (1988)
• Errol Morris's biopic A Brief History of Time (based on Stephen Hawking's popular physics book) (1991)
• Errol Morris's documentary Fog of War (an interview of Robert McNamara, former U.S. Secretary of Defense)
• Anima Mundi (1992)
• Candyman (1992) (based on the Clive Barker work), and its sequel '
• Jenipapo (including a song written for Suzanne Vega, 1995)
• Martin Scorsese's Kundun (1997)
• Peter Weir's The Truman Show (1998)
• Dracula (1998) (re-release of 1931 film starring Bela Lugosi)
• Shorts (Michal Rovner, Shirin Neshat, Peter Greenaway and Atom Egoyan)
• The Hours (2002)
• The Fog of War (2003)
• Taking Lives (2004)
• ' (2004)
• Partition (a third collaboration with Ravi Shankar, 2005)

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For further information on his works, complete lists and instrumentation see Philip Glass' Official Web site and the Web site of Chester Music and Novello.

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