Philip Glass (Baltimore, January 31, 1937) is an American composer. His music falls under Minimal music, though he himself used the term Theatre music .
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Biography[Edit][]
Glass followed mathematicsand philosophy-lectures at the University of Chicago and took out there on his nineteenth a Bachelor of Artsdegree. However, he wanted to be a composer. He studied flute at the Peabody Conservatory of Music Conservatory . He then studied at the Juilliard School of Music where he mainly played keyboard .After studying Glass traveled to Paris for two further years of study with Nadia Boulanger. Here was asked to the Indian music of Ravi Shankar into Western music formats.He traveled to NorthernIndia in 1966, where he came into contact with Tibetan refugees. He was Buddhist, and learned Tenzin Gyatso , the fourteenth dalai lama, in 1972.He supports the Tibetan cause, among other things by its part in the Tibet House, an initiative including Richard Gere.
Working with Ravi Shankar, and his conception of rhythm in Indian music, to the specific style of the music of Philip Glass led. When he returned he was not more concerned with the style of composing for his travels and began writing heavy pieces based on additive rhythms and a time feeling that was influenced by Samuel Beckett, whose work he met when he wrote for experimental theatre. Glass formed the Philip Glass Ensemble and played mainly in art galleries. His work was slowly less heavy but more complex, which eventually gave rise to Music in Twelve Parts . His first opera Einstein on the Beach he made along with Robert Wilson. This eventually became a trilogy with Satyagraha, based on the life of Mahatma Gandhi and his experiences in South Africa, and with a strong vocal and orchestral composition in Akhenaton, that life tells of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten. Akhenaton is part of a trilogy in which the great revolutionaries of the world history be introduced. Akhenaten owes the title of revolutionary to the fact that he was the first in an attempt to establish a monotheistic oriented society did. Akhenaten is in this context in addition to Satyagraha and Albert Einstein. The work is in the Akkadianlanguage, Biblical Hebrew, old-Egyptian and Sung in the language of the audience. The work of Philip Glass for the theater contains a lot of compositions for the Group M Mines, which he founded in 1970.
Glass writes, since the 1990s, more and more conventional classical music for String Quartet and Symphony Orchestra.
Glass has worked for David Bowie, Godfrey Reggio and Errol Morris. In 1983 he participated in the album Hearts and bones by Paul Simon: The late great Johnny Ace the number ends with a coda composed by Glass.
For his film music is Philip Glass three times nominated for an Oscar, but without a win. It came to Kundun (1997), The Hours (2002) and Notes on a Scandal (2007). He also composed the music for the filmCompassion in Exile: The Life of the 14th Dalai Lama, the Oscar-winning documentary The Fog of War in 2003 and plays a role in the documentary Refuge of John Halpern from 2006.
Awards and nominations[Edit][]
Awards and honors[Edit][]
- 1998: Kundun
- 2003: The Hours
- 2007: Notes on a Scandal
Golden Globe Award nominations[Edit][]
- 1998: Kundun
- 1999: The Truman Show (won)
- 2003: The Hours
Grammy Award nominations[Edit][]
- 2004: The Hours
Filmography[Edit][]
- 1985
- Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (see also Yukio Mishima)
- 1987
- 1989
- 1990
- 1992
- 1994
- 1995
- 1996
- 1997
- 1998
- The Truman Show (additional music for Burkhard Dallwitz)
- 1999
- 2002
- 2004
- 2005
- 2006
- 2007
- 2009
- 2010
- 2011
- 2012
Other works[Edit][]
These are its most notable works (see also: Category: compositions by Glass)
- Music with Changing Parts (1973)
- Music in Twelve Parts (1974)
- Einstein on the Beach (opera, 1976)
- Satyagraha (opera, 1980)
- Glassworks (1982)
- The Photographer (1982)
- Akhenaton (opera, 1983)
- Koyaanisqatsi (film music, 1983)
- The making of The representative for Planet 8 (opera, 1985-88)
- Violin Concerto (1987)
- 1000 Airplanes on the Roof (with text by David Henry Hwang, 1988)
- Powaqqatsi (film music, 1988)
- Solo Piano (1989)
- Hydrogen Jukebox (libretto by Allen Ginsberg, 1990)
- Passages (with Ravi Shankar, 1990)
- String Quartet No. 5 (1991)
- Anima Mundi (film music, 1992)
- Symphony No. 1 "Low" (1992)
- Orphée (opera, 1993)
- La belle et la bête (opera, 1994)
- Symphony No. 2 (1994)
- Symphony No. 3 (1995)
- Symphony No. 4 "Heroes" (1996)
- Les Enfants terribles (Chamber opera, 1996)-libretto: Jean Cocteau -première: 18 may 1996, Zug, Théâtre Casino
- The marriages between zones three, four, and five (opera, 1997)
- Monsters of Grace (opera/theatre 1993-1998)
- Symphony No. 5 (1999)
- Tirol Concerto for piano and orchestra (2000)
- Symphony No. 6 "Plutonian Ode" (2001)
- Naqoyqatsi (film music, 2002)
- The Fog of War (film music, 2003)
- Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry (film music, 2004)
- Piano Concerto No.2 "After Lewis and Clark" (2004)
- Symphony No.7 "Toltec" (2004)
- Symphony No. 8 (2005)
- Kepler (opera, 2009)