Philip Glass: Classic or Dud? Search and Destroy

This guy's got a bunch of surprisingly good quality audience videos from multiple stops on the 2012 Einstein tour.

(He's also got a bunch of Captain Beefheart TV appearances, the complete Live from the Met: Nixon in China film, and a terrible looking-and-sounding video boot of a complete Laurie Anderson show from 1986.)

Total trainspotter Philip Glass question : in the credits to Koyaaniqatsi it says something like "additional music by Michael Hoenig", who I guess is the Agitation Free / Tangerine Dream guy. So does this mean Glass didn't actually write all the score? Something like this track doean't really sound like him, for the first couple of minutes at least :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o64zjJeXClw&feature=plcp

― don't slip in mud (Matt #2), Thursday, July 19, 2012 1:41 PM (3 months ago)

You're right about the music in that YouTube clip. I found a playlist online from a 2004 performance by Michael Koenig which includes this:

- Koyaanisqatsi, Clouds & buildings, Michael Hoenig, Michael Hoenig, Gema
- Koyaanisqatsi, Slow people, Michael Hoenig, Michael Hoenig, Gema
- Koyaanisqatsi, Microchip, Michael Hoenig, Michael Hoenig, Gema

"Slow People" and "Microchip" are both drone pieces that bridge between segments of the film ("Clouds & Buildings" probably is too, but I'm not remembering the sequence off the top of my head). Hoenig was also credited as Music Supervisor for the film, and with Glass having composed a lot of the score while they were shooting rather than in post-production, I'm guessing Hoenig filled in a couple of gaps in the score once they got down to editing.

I saw Einstein at Berkeley Saturday night and it was AMAZING. there were many cool parts but my favorite was the opening - basically they just let Knee cycle for a while until the audience collectively (and without instruction as far as I could tell) quieted down and let things start. this was also my first time hearing Glass performed live so I was kind of knocked out by the sheer stamina on display by the musicians; this was four and a half of non-stop no-intermission painstakingly incremental action action action.

also I cannot imagine how mortifying it must be to be That Guy at the Philip Glass opera who has to use the bathroom midway through and force the whole row to get up & break the trance. or, god forbid, That Guy whose phone goes off.

I say use the bathroom during the Trial sequences.

XP - Yea, they did that in London too, it was lovely to come in and have the players cycling away already.

I had the same worries about coming and going but PG has said that it's fine to do so, I tweeted Alex Ross for his opinion on the best time to have a break and he said in the middle of Night Train, which I agree with.

no way...I think Night Train is the most beautiful segment musically...the least happens physically but its such a beautiful image/sound!

I agree with dan, the trial sequences seemed like the least essential part of the whole thing for me.

The part that really floored me was the Building section, with that phenomenal sax solo. Not at all what I expected to hear at a PG concert but it provided a welcome contrast to all those pounding arpeggios (which I also love, of course).

I just hope I get to see the whole production again sometime.

I hear that, knowing the chances of hearing it again, at least in PG's lifetime were slim I'm going to see it in Amsterdam early next year.

I wasnt as into the sax solo. I appreciate the improv nature of it, but the solo I'm used to from the 90s nonesuch recording was much more sustained/droney, whereas what I heard at Bam was a bit more "jazzy". Still great, but I preferred the 90s one.

I loved the jazzy nature of it! Added a whole extra dimension to the piece for me.

each new version has to switch things up a little, but the original 'Building' sax solo is the overt tip of the hat to Young & Riley post-Coltrane sheets-of-sound style minimalism, so it really stings when they mess with it. I nearly gave in to this guy's super-soulful bluesy solo as he built to the high note but when he didn't hit the high note and went for skronk, my patience ran out

I also initially fought the unusually saucy take on 'prematurely air-conditioned supermarket' during 'Trial/Prison', really vamping it up, but by the end I was completely won over, she made it hers

I struggled a bit while watching, as you do with something you've been listening to since freshman year of high school, but... what a piece this is, I now wish I had gone twice

let me rephrase that last post

oh my god you guys the faces the numbers the twirling I can't even believe it YAY

What do the Glass aficionados think of Beck's 20-minute piece interpolating a large number of Glass' works?

http://soundcloud.com/dunvagenmusic/nyc-73-78

if he did a 20 minute piece based on Charles Ives or Scott Joplin and put it out with his Glass & Harry Partch pieces, it'd be my favorite album of his since Mellow Gold

Ha! I had almost that exact thought--was thinking Reich or Riley, but Ives would be *perfect*. Yeah, it would be an incredible album. Going to by the "Reworked" thing, but I'd really rather have this piece on its own. Nothing else on there comes close to the grandeur, grace, or beauty of Beck's.

If I can rephrase my original post, is there something particularly liturgical (or even holy?!) about the music of the knee plays? The second the first one started, I was already beginning to get overwhelmed with emotion.

Also, any plans for a recording of the current tour?

Nothing else on there comes close to the grandeur, grace, or beauty of Beck's.

Yeah, agreed. The rest of the pieces are nice enough, but Beck's really wowed me.

Hm, this is pretty nice.

Question for those who saw the 2012 tour: Did the bed get a round of applause then it reached vertical? I saw it in 1984 and 1992, and the audience gave it a hand both times.

Philip Ass.

I like the more lively bit from 14.20 to 15.50... Anyone now where the sample is from?

Hideous Lamp -- I don't think so. That I have a hard time remembering anything notable about it suggests that it definitely didn't receive applause.

There was no applause during the entire four hour performance in Ann Arbor. Only at the end.

The dance sequences were applauded in London, don't remember if the bed was or not.

EOTB in Amsterdam on Friday, first time in the city too, yay.

Bring food! The theater I saw it in ran out.

Ha yes, I saw it in London last year, so I'll be sure to buy some Poffertjes.

Thanks for that tip! :)
I'll be going on saturday. Psyched!

Kalamazoooooooooooo

Which Satyagraha recording is better, Sony or CBS?

Aren't they the same one? I thought Sony owned CBS now. The only recording I can find is by the New York City Opera Orchestra under Christopher Keene.

I thought so too, they recorded/overdubbed the tricky parts of it in a studio way back in the early digital days.

Jon Gibson solo records often slept on.

http://www.discogs.com/artist/Jon+Gibson+(2)

In Good Company is very fine: has a Terry Jennings comp. with LMY jamming away. Earlier LPs live up to their collector hype somehow.

Ah, assumed that choices were similar to Einstein.

I also initially fought the unusually saucy take on 'prematurely air-conditioned supermarket' during 'Trial/Prison', really vamping it up, but by the end I was completely won over, she made it hers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN2L6lVbKW0

BTW, does Orbital's "Out There Somewhere?" cop some of the "Spaceship" steez?

Some details of the Philip Glass Ensemble's setup (synths used and screenshots of patches from the Bidule system they were replaced with):
http://www.plogue.com/philipglassensemble/

tbh despite dabbling with software for years the list of synths is more interesting than what they're currently doing, but it's interesting to see that apart from the number of connections there's nothing that far beyond what a bedroom producer might use

I'm seeing it again in October when it comes to the LA Opera House!!! I got orchestra-level seats in the sixth row reasonably close to the center!!! exclamation points!!!

(it = Einstein, in case that wasn't obvious)

Great! My friend and I are working on seeing EOTB in Paris early next year, we saw it in London and in Amsterdam.

seeing it in LA too! wish i had your seats though

when i saw it in SF last year i wasted ... too much time leaving the theater to get food. won't make that mistake again.

pumped!

Lukas, that was my exact experience, too! Except it was Berkeley for me.

Seeing Music In 12 Parts this week, stoked for that.

Oh god yeah, not SF, sorry

We may have gone to the same showing! When did you go out for food? I left during "Train" and "Knee Play 3.

10/26 - left a couple times but couldn't tell you when

Just got back! TRIP REPORT:

- My seat was so good it affected my experience; I knew they were close t the stage but it turned out I was sitting maybe 15 feet away from the orchestra. I could hear individual singers' voices, see all the activity in the chorus & orchestra, all that shit. Jack Nicholson was there and I had a better view than he did ffs.

- The opening was a little less badass than it was in Berkeley, mostly because the music was cycling but the vocals weren't. Also unlike in Berkeley the LA crowd had to shush each other, which was less cool than everyone just suddenly and collectively deciding to shut the fuck up and let everything start. At any rate, the opening is still an absolute highlight, and Train 1 is too.

- I realized this time that although I still have no earthly idea what the plot of EOTB is, what it's ABOUT is endurance - an audience member staying put for like four solid hours, cast members having to sing these eternal repetitions and doing these insanely meticulous choreographed routines (THE FIELD SEGMENTS!!!!), that kind of stuff. Every single act just blew me away with the extent of the performers' preparation; I'd notice what I thought were human failures like the kid on the bridge adjusting the light-cube, only to realize over time that it was happening identically and on a schedule. Just staggering stuff.

- The part where Einstein sticks "his" tongue out is eye-rollingly embarassing, but it's followed in short order by that one lady's aria which was fucking INSANE. INSANE INSANE INSANE. Best aria in a Glass opera outside of the one at the end of Satyagraha, maybe? (Am I even using the term right?)

- The Trial segments were far and away the worst - Trial 1 moreso than Trial 2, although Train 2 was worse than either of them.

- The end was absolutely riveting; I didn't remember it nearly as fondly from the Berkeley performance but it absolutely wrecked me.

Overall A+++++ mega-classic even with the boring-ass Trial segments (and Train 2). I still think The Photographer is Glass' best work (followed by his soundtracks for Mishima, Koyaanisqatsi, and Candyman) but I've seen Einstein twice now and both times it's knocked my dick in the dirt.

With EOTB being such an unyielding work the main thing I noticed second time around was the audience's reactions and behaviour and not my own reactions to the music.

First time was London, second Amsterdam and the London crowd were (unusually) quiet, patient and willing to go the distance. Amsterdam however were an older more traditionally opera going audience and by halfway through the first Trial section there was a very palpable shifting in seats, glancing at watches and a couple of sneak outs. I sensed a lot of bored partners wondering wtf they had been dragged to. They were also hella noisy when getting seated which spoiled the intro section a little.

After a time though everything settled down and apart from a few more walk outs here and there, it was cool.

Kinda want to go and see it again in Paris next year but I have to save money, hope to god they document it before it's over.