Words Without Music: A Memoir

Words Without Music: A Memoir
Author: Philip Glass
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 527
Release: 2015-04-06
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1631490818

New York Times Bestseller An NPR Best Book of the Year Winner of the Chicago Tribune Literary Award Finalist for the Marfield Prize, National Award for Arts Writing "Reads the way Mr. Glass's compositions sound at their best: propulsive, with a surreptitious emotional undertow." —Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, New York Times Philip Glass has, almost single-handedly, crafted the dominant sound of late-twentieth-century classical music. Yet in Words Without Music, his critically acclaimed memoir, he creates an entirely new and unexpected voice, that of a born storyteller and an acutely insightful chronicler, whose behind-the-scenes recollections allow readers to experience those moments of creative fusion when life so magically merged with art. From his childhood in Baltimore to his student days in Chicago and at Juilliard, to his first journey to Paris and a life-changing trip to India, Glass movingly recalls his early mentors, while reconstructing the places that helped shape his creative consciousness. Whether describing working as an unlicensed plumber in gritty 1970s New York or composing Satyagraha, Glass breaks across genres and re-creates, here in words, the thrill that results from artistic creation. Words Without Music ultimately affirms the power of music to change the world.

The Stage Works of Philip Glass

The Stage Works of Philip Glass
Author: Robert F. Waters
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2022-08-04
Genre: Music
ISBN: 110704975X

Glass's stage works have attracted wide popular acclaim. This book assesses critical approaches to them and explores Glass's creative philosophy.

The Stage Works of Philip Glass

The Stage Works of Philip Glass
Author: Robert Francis Waters
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2022
Genre: Minimal music
ISBN: 9781107279148

"The Stage Works of Philip Glass discusses Glass's stage works from 1976 up to the present day, with chapters established according to different criteria. Three introductory chapters address the validity versus invalidity of terms such as minimalism, post-minimalism, postmodernism, and neo-Romanticism, together with a brief chapter of Glass's life and works up to 1975 to serve as necessary background. The book will then examine different types of theater responsible for the mesmerizing effect Glass's stage works have had on younger generations, including Robert Wilson's Theater of Images. Glass's philosophy regarding staging, text, and other theatrical components includes a defiance of conventional narrative, visual and aural dissociation as a theatrical technique, deconstructionist concepts, as well as semantically ambiguous language within selected compositions. Multimedia works will also be addressed, including those for dance. Glass's music will be analyzed followed by the response Glass has gotten from critics as well as audience members"--

The Stage Works of Philip Glass

The Stage Works of Philip Glass
Author: Robert F. Waters
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2022-08-04
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1009302701

The Stage Works of Philip Glass is the first publication to exclusively examine Glass's stage works from 1976 to the present day. Glass, who is regularly acclaimed as the most popular living classical composer, created stage works that have had a mesmerizing effect on younger generations. Robert Waters analyses Glass and his music for the theatre in the context of other composers interested in so-called minimalist features. His discussion includes three introductory chapters that address the validity versus invalidity of terms such as minimalism, post-minimalism, postmodernism, and neo-Romanticism, together with a brief overview of Glass's life and works. Waters examines the different types of theatre responsible for Glass's impact, including Robert Wilson's Theater of Images. He sheds light on Glass's philosophy regarding staging, text, and other theatrical components, which includes a defiance of conventional narrative, visual and aural dissociation as a theatrical technique, and deconstructionist concepts.

Glass: A Portrait

Glass: A Portrait
Author: Robert Maycock
Publisher: Bobcat Books
Total Pages: 178
Release: 2012-03-08
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0857128078

Philip Glass has had a unique impact on traditional popular culture over the past 40 years. Written jointly as an appraisal of his work and a biography, Glass details the landmark points of his career and the artists he recorded with, such as Ravi Shankar. Diverse projects, from his four hour epic "Einstein on the Beach" to operatic compositions such as "100 Airplanes, " and their impact on popular culture are explored -- recording a remarkable life in music.

Four Musical Minimalists

Four Musical Minimalists
Author: Keith Potter
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 412
Release: 2002-04-25
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780521015011

Offers the most detailed account yet of the early works of these four minimalist composers.

The Rest Is Noise

The Rest Is Noise
Author: Alex Ross
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Total Pages: 706
Release: 2007-10-16
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1429932880

Winner of the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism A New York Times Book Review Top Ten Book of the Year Time magazine Top Ten Nonfiction Book of 2007 Newsweek Favorite Books of 2007 A Washington Post Book World Best Book of 2007 In this sweeping and dramatic narrative, Alex Ross, music critic for The New Yorker, weaves together the histories of the twentieth century and its music, from Vienna before the First World War to Paris in the twenties; from Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia to downtown New York in the sixties and seventies up to the present. Taking readers into the labyrinth of modern style, Ross draws revelatory connections between the century's most influential composers and the wider culture. The Rest Is Noise is an astonishing history of the twentieth century as told through its music.

Singing Archaeology

Singing Archaeology
Author: John Richardson
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
Total Pages: 320
Release: 1999-03-31
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9780819563422

Illuminates the aesthetics of a major American composer.

Writings on Glass

Writings on Glass
Author: Richard Kostelanetz
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 400
Release: 1999-01-01
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9780520214910

Philip Glass, composer of symphonies, operas (Einstein on the Beach, Akhnaten, Orphe), film scores (Kundun, Mishima, Koyaanisqatsi), songs, and music for dance is a musician who determined early on that he wanted to compose independently, apart from institutions. That decision has made him a controversial figure among academic musicians, in spite of his rigorous training at Juilliard, and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. Richard Kostelanetz has gathered a lively and varied collection of writings about Philip Glass's work, along with several interviews and a conversation between Glass and sculptor Richard Serra. The chronology of the works and discography have been updated for the paperback edition. Philip Glass, composer of symphonies, operas (Einstein on the Beach, Akhnaten, Orphe), film scores (Kundun, Mishima, Koyaanisqatsi), songs, and music for dance is a musician who determined early on that he wanted to compose independently, apart from institutions. That decision has made him a controversial figure among academic musicians, in spite of his rigorous training at Juilliard, and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. Richard Kostelanetz has gathered a lively and varied collection of writings about Philip Glass's work, along with several interviews and a conversation between Glass and sculptor Richard Serra. The chronology of the works and discography have been updated for the paperback edition.