<story><title>Philip Glass: My problem is people don’t believe I write symphonies (2017)</title><url>https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jan/22/philip-glass-80-interview-observer-new-review</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mgr86</author><text>I first herd Einstein on the Beach after a particularly manic period in undergrad. My advisor wasn&amp;#x27;t familiar with it, and I may have spooked her a bit try to explain it. I think to this day its great background music for programming work, but to me more because it can illicit that sense of young focus and drive that I find increasingly fleeting. Perhaps not unlike how music can &amp;quot;wake up&amp;quot; dementia patients. It elicits a deep base response.&lt;p&gt;Anyhow, I didn&amp;#x27;t know that either about his life. Very fascinating.&lt;p&gt;As an aside I believe I discovered Einstein on the Beach after listening to Hydrogen Jukebox. I wonder how others come about listening to it for the first time. Especially those in their 30s like myself who were born a decade after its success.</text></item><item><author>emptyfile</author><text>&amp;gt;Yes, after Einstein on the Beach I went back to driving a New York cab. I didn’t mind that. It was interesting work. I didn’t have an agent. I ran all the business side of it and the box office myself. I enjoyed it.&lt;p&gt;Interesting, I had no idea.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Slow_Hand</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m a massive fan of Einstein On the Beach. It continues to be one of my favorite pieces of music, since first hearing it 12 years ago. There&amp;#x27;s a vitality and a sense of energy to it that keeps me coming back. It&amp;#x27;s also large enough in scope that I&amp;#x27;ve been able to spend a long time chewing it over and digesting all of it&amp;#x27;s movements.&lt;p&gt;I think a unique quality of it is the contrast between it&amp;#x27;s simplistic harmonic content and it&amp;#x27;s constantly modulating structure. The simplicity of the tonality (one key center, very slow chord changes, non-florid counterpoint) allows the listener to focus on the modulating phrase lengths and the texture of the stacked rhythms.&lt;p&gt;This is an interesting inversion of something like, say, a classic bebop tune, which might be melodically and rhythmically complex or divergent, but keep it&amp;#x27;s structure predictable with 4 bar, 8 bar, or 32 bar chunks of time.&lt;p&gt;I think the effect in it&amp;#x27;s fast movements is like being in the middle of a massive rush of water. It&amp;#x27;s uniform in texture, but it has an intensity and sense of turbulence that is overwhelming as it passes you.</text></comment>
<story><title>Philip Glass: My problem is people don’t believe I write symphonies (2017)</title><url>https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jan/22/philip-glass-80-interview-observer-new-review</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mgr86</author><text>I first herd Einstein on the Beach after a particularly manic period in undergrad. My advisor wasn&amp;#x27;t familiar with it, and I may have spooked her a bit try to explain it. I think to this day its great background music for programming work, but to me more because it can illicit that sense of young focus and drive that I find increasingly fleeting. Perhaps not unlike how music can &amp;quot;wake up&amp;quot; dementia patients. It elicits a deep base response.&lt;p&gt;Anyhow, I didn&amp;#x27;t know that either about his life. Very fascinating.&lt;p&gt;As an aside I believe I discovered Einstein on the Beach after listening to Hydrogen Jukebox. I wonder how others come about listening to it for the first time. Especially those in their 30s like myself who were born a decade after its success.</text></item><item><author>emptyfile</author><text>&amp;gt;Yes, after Einstein on the Beach I went back to driving a New York cab. I didn’t mind that. It was interesting work. I didn’t have an agent. I ran all the business side of it and the box office myself. I enjoyed it.&lt;p&gt;Interesting, I had no idea.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>digilypse</author><text>I discovered Einstein on the Beach this year, also in my 30s, and was nearly brought to tears. I played classical piano for most of my youth and had a deep appreciation for it but stopped exploring new composers during years of depression.&lt;p&gt;It’s a wonderful experience with a nice pair of headphones. Something about the way the repetition lasts just long enough to produce a sense of anticipation and delight.</text></comment>