Opening by Philip Glass - A Performance and Short Analysis of this Significant, Polyrhythmic, Minimalist Composer.
Opening is a piece by the American Composer, Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937), who is considered by many to be one of the most influential composers of the 20th century.
Glass’ music is best described as Minimalist. He describes his own compositions as “music with repetitive structures”.
Glass often employs the use of Polyrhythms in his compositions, in fact it is rather a trademark of his, and Opening is a great example of this.
A Polyrhythm is a simultaneous combination of contrasting rhythms in a musical composition.
One of the most common Polyrhythms is 2 against 3.
This is when 2 eighth notes are played against triplet eighth notes.
In the case of Opening, the right hand (top staff) plays the triplet eight notes while the left hand (bottom staff) plays the double eighth notes, as shown below:
If you are interested in listening to some of Glass’ work, I would highly recommend Glassworks, of which Opening is the first piece.
Glass has said this about his beautiful collection of music:
“Glassworks was intended to introduce my music to a more general audience than had been familiar with it up to then.”
Two other fantastic collections are Songs from Liquid Days and Powaqqatsi.
I have links to all three collections at the end of this article.
It has been said that some of Glass’ work is difficult to listen to, but Glassworks, Songs from Liquid Days, and Powaqqatsi are the most accessible to new listeners.
I have been a huge fan of Philip Glass for many years. He has been a great influence on my own music and I have always wanted to meet him.
I had the pleasure of briefly meeting him a few years ago at the premier of the film Visitors, a 2013 documentary film, written and directed by Godfrey Reggio, and scored by Glass.
After the film ended, the director of the film was in the front of the Theatre signing autographs, but Glass wasn’t there.
I decided to wait by the back door like a crazy stalker. lol
When he finally came out with his entourage I shouted “Philip” and waived my hand.
I startled the 80 year old man, but he was gracious enough to shake my hand and I was able to thank him for all his wonderful compositions.
I’m sure he thought I was crazy.
He’s not the only one….. ;-)
Thanks for listening and reading!
Nice. It reminded me of this and I thought you might like it.
Oh very cool and a great film shot too! I could totally hear that in a Philip Glass piece! Thanks for sharing :-)
well done -something different - i love it and appreciate your post - i am following you here -David
Thank you for your kind words!
Following you as well!
Great blog to go along with some great music. Thank you
Thank you!
Wow, such a wonderfull piece, can only imagine it took allot of practice to mix those.
Thank you :-)
Another excellent post. I have mixed feelings about Philip Glass, but I suspect so does he.
Thank you!
lol yeah some of his music is....out of control lol
Lovely and enchanting. I love polyrhythm and syncopation.
Thank you so much. I do too!
Beautiful music. Thank you for exposing me to it.
Love the backstory and details too
Thank you so much! :-)
Sounds great. Please only use the openmic tag if you are entering the Steemit Open Mic contest.
I'm sorry, I didn't know. I tried to remove the tag several times but it keeps showing when I update!
The first tag cannot be changed after you publish a post. The other tags can but not the first. No worries. Just letting you know it's for the contest. Loved your playing, you should join us at Open Mic.
Ok I understand now. Sorry about that and thank you! I'll record something tomorrow specifically for the Open Mic contest!
That would be awesome! I really like the way you play.
Thank you! That means a lot. I think I saw that you posted a video in the comments section somewhere of you playing a cool looking guitar. It sounded great!
I must say i learned something here.
Thank you. This pleases me.
Ill keep updated to see whats new
Thanks :-)
That's a complex bit of music! A different timing with each hand, that must be interesting to work up to. Not being a piano player, I have no idea how you do that.