What cheesey phillip glass song...

[Mr Arkadin]

It's fine not to like Glass' music, or to prefer the others. You don't get to rewrite history to say Glass doesn't belong among them, though.

Perfect quote, perfectly expresed.

Let me just add that when asked what sort of music I like and mention Glass, most people have never heard of him so it's not like he's as well known as Madonna or something. By most people's standards he's still pretty obscure.

How obscure do you need to be to remain 'credible' in some people's eyes I wonder?

[annode]

- Like Charles Ives, Glass was a nonconformist compositionally.
Glass composed using what were called 'parallel fifths'. As I understood it, this was a no-no compositionally. He built his early career around it. This made him stand out in the crowd and among his peers.
- He is also well known for doing film soundtracks...so this brought him a great deal of exposure. Why anyone would want to put this man down is beyond my understanding. He earned a living driving a New York cab when I saw him live. He would rent or was offered small commercial/industrial spaces to perform his almost orchestral music. Somehow he managed to get a record out at that time and people with some influence got behind him because they knew there was something important going on there.

[jsp1979]

Glass studied under famous French teacher Nadia Boulanger known for being, well, tough.

Here's what Glass had to say about her:

In the sense that she was a relentless, unwavering example that she expected you to follow. One day I came to a harmony lesson. She saw an error in something called "hidden parallel fifths." She studied the page in silence and then turned toward me. With a look of understanding and compassion she asked how I was feeling. I said, "I'm feeling fine, Mademoiselle." She asked, "Do you have a fever? Do you have a headache?" And I didn't get what was going on. "I know of a good psychiatrist. Seeing a therapist can be very confidential, and one need not be embarrassed at all." I explained that I didn't need that kind of help.

Finally, she said, "Well I don't understand." And I said, "You don't understand what?" And she said. "This!" Then she wheeled around and pointed at the mistake I had made. "How else do you explain the state of mind that produced this error? You're so distracted, so out of touch with reality; if you were really conscious of what you were doing, this could not have happened. How can you live such a distracted, unconscious life that you would bring this in here?" That was Mademoiselle Boulanger.

Once Glass went his own way compositionally, Music in Fifths seemed an appropriate reactionary response.

[jsp1979]

Let me just add that when asked what sort of music I like and mention Glass, most people have never heard of him so it's not like he's as well known as Madonna or something. By most people's standards he's still pretty obscure.

It's all about degrees of separation. If I mention Glass and someone hasn't heard of them, then it's easy to connect it with to something they know by (but didn't know it) like the Truman Show, the Hours, or music from Grand Theft Auto 4, The Watchman, Fantastic Four, etc. Some even remember the classic Sesame Street animation with his music.



Others will remember references to him from the Simpsons, South Park, etc.



My personal favorite--Koyaanis-Scratchy:




If I mention Steve Reich and they haven't heard of him, then it's hard to think of how to connect him to anything they're likely to know. Little Fluffy Clouds by the Orb?