Glass Notes

Muppets/ Sesame Street 1977

Much thanks goes out to Scott H. who brought attention to these amazing clips of Glass Sesame Street pieces on youtube.

According to Muppet Wiki:

"In 1977, Glass wrote a series of short vocal and instrumental pieces for Sesame Street. These include a series of animated films which employ geometric curves traced to various points on a circle to reveal other geometric shapes and colors. These works very closely resemble the "Dance" numbers written during the same time period as his Einstein on the Beach opera."

Links to the three videos:
Video 1
Video 2
Video 3

Glass Week in NYC

Tonight at Symphony Space, Paul Barnes will perform the premiere of his transcription for solo piano of Philip Glass' Piano Concerto No. 2 "After Lewis and Clark";

Across town Philip Glass will be performing solo piano at the Filmmaker's Co-Op event ;

Wednesday, NYU dedicates an entire concert to a "70th Birthday Celebration for Philip Glass" with all sorts of good stuff (1+1, selections from Powaqqatsi, chamber version of the Concerto Fantasy),

And of course Friday OMM's Dracula Concert.

The Sound of a Voice

Glass' 2003 opera is mounted next week in Pittsburgh at the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh.  These smaller pieces which have flown under the radar compared to the film scores and grand operas, somehow show a more intimate voice from a composer who is extremely comfortable on the largest stages.  I recall a piece in the Boston Globe on "Voice" in 2003 leading up to its premiere.  The chamber scoring for pipa, flute, cello and percussion, compliment a deeper investigation by Glass into writing for the english language.  This may sound like an obvious practice for one of the world's most prodigious opera composers, but my impression of the opera was an incredible clarity in presentation of the Hwang text...a sort of Glass Sprechstimme if you will.
Experiences like this clearly informed the composer's later vocal works.  An instrumental suite from "The Sound of a Voice" can be heard on OMM's latest release, Theater Music.

More on Satyagraha...

An observation: There have been both glowing reviews and some scathing for the ENO's new Satyagraha.  The opera being 30 years old I find it curious that when Puccini's 80 year old Turandot is performed, the reviews don't criticize the music,  just the performance and production. I think it's fair to say Satyagraha is a wonderful piece and has now received 27-28 years of performances.
I ask the question: Were the reviewers not prepared for what they were going to hear? In any case, for those who love this music, good reviews and bad only make us more excited when the opera comes to New York.

Satyagraha in London (New Reviews)

Jose contributed this link to 3 reviews for Satyagraha.

Philip Glass' 1980 opera SATYAGRAHA had its premiere in London 4 days ago. It's been very well received.  All of us stateside look forward to the Improbable Theater company's production when it hits the Metropolitan Opera this time next spring.
Other noteworthy Glass operas this year: The world premiere of Appomattox at San Francisco Opera; Orphee at Glimmerglass in upstate NY this summer, and of course the music from Einstein on the Beach at Carnegie Hall in December. -

Part - 3 Live at iTunes/ Theater Music announced

According to OMM's Newsletter, a new Series: "from the Philip Glass Recording Archive: Theater Music Vol.I" will arrive in May. 
Included on the album is an instrumental suite from his 2003 opera, The Sound of a Voice, which I attended at its original run in Cambridge, MA.   A truly unique Glass work, it is scored for flute, pipa, violin, cello and percussion and contains some Glass compositional trademarks, but I recall part of the choice in instrumentation was interesting for the reason that none of the instruments played chords, or at least the writing for them featured Glass writing four (or five) continuous lines of music, and that, poised some challenges to the composer and the results are lovely and exciting.
The second piece on the album is Glass' 1993 score for the play, In the Summer House.  It's a somber lyrical score for cello and violin.  These two pieces paired together present a picture of Glass'  unknown theater pieces which I have always been curious about and have never been commerically released. Other examples in this vein have always been of remarkable quality, such as Company.

On March 30, 2007  Part 3 of OMM's ongoing project of introducing one part per month of Philip Glass' momunental Music in 12 Parts, in celebration of the composer''s 70th Birthday year.