Orange Mountain Music 2024 In Review: Philip Glass Solo
“This record revisits my works for piano. From 2020-2021, I had time at home to practice the works I have played for many years. This record is both a time capsule of 2021, and a reflection on decades of composition and practice. In other words, a document on my current thinking about the music. There is also the question of place. This is my piano, the instrument on which most of the music was written. It’s also the same room where I have worked for decades in the middle of the energy which New York City itself has brought to me. The listener may hear the quiet hum of New York in the background or feel the influence of time and memory that this space affords. To the degree possible, I made this record to invite the listener in.” – Philip Glass, November 2023
“Philip Glass Solo,” available on January 26, 2024 via Orange Mountain Music, invites listeners to connect with Glass during a live at home studio recording in NYC, playing some of his most cherished works on his piano including “Opening,” “Mad Rush,” “Metamorphosis,” and “Truman Sleeps.”
During a time when NYC and the world felt like it had stopped, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Glass wanted to memorialize this moment in time, playing his compositions through a more personal lens. Included in this album are nuanced sounds of the city and what one might imagine to be Glass’ own thoughts as he recalls each work. Both lingering in the background and making this recording uniquely personal, Philip Glass continues to use his compositions as a template to document the cycles of his life.
The Pulse of Philip Glass
Philip Glass was born in Baltimore, MD in 1937 and graduated from the University of Chicago and the Juilliard School to become active in theater based arts. He also studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, and later Ravi Shankar while notating his scores. But, he did not stop there. All throughout his musical journey, Glass has become more of who he already was from an early age – a listener.
His father, Ben, owned a record store in Baltimore and built it from the ground up, sharing with Philip the value of growing a business and understanding the buying interests of his customers. From Bach (b.1685) to Bartók (b.1881), Philip amassed an internal catalog of knowledge at a crucial learning development stage in his childhood that would later influence his career in many ways. These shared listening sessions with his father invited him into the world of music and bridged a personal connection to his work that would stick with him all throughout his career.
Glass has also maintained the rights to his music and has a record label, Orange Mountain Music, making his own path along the way. His extensive collection of works mirrors his daily practice of dedicating his life to his craft. This is the pulse that drives him forward and continues to inspire his listeners today and for many generations to come.
Opening
The first track of “Philip Glass Solo” is “Opening.” This work is also the first track of Glass’ chamber music work of six movements composed by Glass in 1981, “Glassworks,” inspired by his desire to make classical music more accessible to modern audiences. It is his take on pop classical music and at the time was easy for listeners to travel with on their Walkmans. Glass wanted this to be a gateway for those who did not know him yet.
The intent of having this as the first track for “Philip Glass Solo” is for the listener to revisit their first memories of discovering Glass, or perhaps meeting him for the first time while listening to this new album. The gentle steady tempo generates waves of nostalgia from deep within, prompting reflection and wonder simultaneously. “Opening” is an internal surrender, fully giving into the beginnings of what propelled Glass forward from the start, a homage to his own beginnings and his listeners who continue to listen.
Mad Rush
Track two, “Mad Rush,” was composed in 1979 on the organ of the cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City for the Dalai Lama’s first public address in North America. This is an emotional swelling of everything that makes up the human experience. The mad rush of living this life at a visceral level of reasoning. In this work, Glass’ left hand keeps track of time as his right hand explores the space between the flutterings of new ideas.
“Mad Rush” lulls one into remembering how it feels to live and takes risks in the process of finding what it is that connects us back to one another – a musical notation of breath in ebb and flow with time.
“Music is a place. A musician has one foot in this world and one foot in another world.” - Philip Glass
Metamorphosis
"Metamorphosis," is a five-part solo piano composition originally released in 1988 as part of the album “Solo Piano.” It is also the featured movie soundtrack of “The Hours” (2002). When listening to this work one might recall Glass’ working history with Indian Classical music composer and performer Ravi Shankar.
Glass was hired to notate for Shankar in between 1964-65 for an upcoming film release of “Chappaqua,” featuring Shankar’s music. While Glass was trained to notate Western classical music, he was hired to help facilitate Eastern classical music to classically trained musicians for this particular recording. Through this experience he learned the value of musical flow by erasing the bar lines of his notations and seeing the rhythmic interplay that naturally existed in the music off the page.
“Metamorphosis” reminds listeners to enjoy the natural flow of Philip Glass’ compositions, depicting life as a journey navigating cycles. The five parts of this work are played by Glass with what sounds like a whole new level of self-awareness. His fingers intending to exercise the notes, illustrate a composer full of life at the age of 84. Glass plays with a feeling of buoyancy, lightness and pure-joy.
Truman Sleeps
Glass’ film soundtrack compositions are known to engage both the eyes and the ears of the audience simultaneously with the images on screen. One might be familiar with his collaborations with Godfrey Reggio for the Qatsi trilogy, “Koyaanisqatsi (1982),” “Powaqqatsi (1987),” and “Naqoyqatsi (2002).” They also just released their newest collaboration together, “Once Within a Time (2023).” Another historical example of Glass’ mesmerizing film soundtrack work is for the epic biographical film “Kundun (1997)” written by Melissa Mathison and directed by Martin Scorsese. Needless to say, it is how Glass creates these soundtrack masterpieces that illuminates who he is in dedication to his craft and his awareness of the human experience.
“Truman Sleeps” is another perfect opportunity where Glass reveals the infinite realm of the psychological soundscape. “Philip Glass Solo” concludes with this work, allowing the listener to spin and wonder in the atmosphere that only Glass can create. He plays with a sense of certainty in knowing his own voice, articulating through music the power of a universal language.
“Philip Glass Solo” is an album traversing various moments of Glass’ compositions through the lens of an artist in practice and at play, reminding one to stay the course of following their own path while listening along the way.
“Philip Glass Solo” Audio Credits:
Produced by Richard Guerin
Engineered and Recorded by Alex Gray
Mixed and Mastered by Michael Riesman
Cover Painting by Luis Alvarez Roure
Album Layout and Design: Ana Garlock
Legal: Tim O'Donnell
Philip Glass's music is published by Dunvagen Music: Adrienne White, Director
Executive Producers for Orange Mountain Music: Don Christensen & Philip Glass
Orange Mountain Music: Don Christensen, Director