Photo Credit: Snap Stills
Have you ever heard any Minimal music? Today, I’m going to introduce the Maestro in Minimalism, Philip Glass.
The Guru in Film Scores
Film score composers have been of great interest to me in recent years. Especially after I took a series of lectures in film scores from talented Taiwanese composer Cincin Lee. When I accidentally heard maestro Philip Glass’s Piano Études No 6 played by accomplished Taiwanese pianist Jenny Lin, I fell head over heels for his music, like being casted a spell.
I felt a bit shamed to learn about him just now, Philip Glass is apparently an eminent musician for years. Some of his early famous film score including “The Truman Show” and “The Hours”. He also has numerous noted works including the pivotal unconventional music in the 4-acts opera “Einstein on the Beach”.
The Minimalism Maestro
Philip Glass is usually classified as a minimalism; even though according to the bio on his own website, his preferred description is
a composer of “music with repetitive structures”.
Unlike popular modern minimalist composer Hans Zimmer, whose high-profile works include the music behind Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster Inception and Interstellar; Philip Glass’s music seems to have a distinct layer, a more sentimental one. To me, Hans Zimmer is undoubtedly a master. He uses the simplest notes to create sonic waves magnifying the audience’s response toward epics scenes.
Philip Glass is composing somewhat differently. Attending Juilliard School of Music and studying Bach and Mozart at youth, his music deeply ties with classical elements. And hence distinctive in an everlasting elegant style. He composes a dreamy world full of soothing, poetic, and sometimes exotic vibes, and it’s very addictive, at least to me.
Lately I quite enjoy listening to Philip Glass’s movie scores or piano étude all afternoon, and feel my mind at peace (Recommend one favor of mine: a 2005 fantasy drama “Neverwas”, you can find a clip of highlight here).
Interpretation of Piano Études
One of the fun thing in piano étude is that as its origin was practice materials to perfecting musical skills, many études come with speedy repetitive notes in varying joints.; therefore different pianist may play his or her own little trick on the order of the measures. That’s why after I got myself the sheet music of Philip Glass’s Piano Études No 6, I notice that different musicians all have their own version in this piece. Below let me share my favorite version so far by Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson.
If you are a Philip Glass or fellow music fan, give me a shout-out below or reach me via email.
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