Glass, Philip, 1937–, American composer, b. Baltimore. Considered one of the most innovative of contemporary composers, he was a significant figure in the development of minimalism minimalism, schools of contemporary art and music, with their origins in the 1960s, that have emphasized simplicity and objectivity.

Minimalism in the Visual Arts

..... Click the link for more information. in music. Glass attended the Juilliard School of Music (M.A., 1962) and studied (1964–66) with Nadia Boulanger Boulanger, Nadia (nädyä` b
..... Click the link for more information. in Paris. There he also met Indian musicians Ravi Shankar Anoushka Shankar, 1981–, who studied with her father, is also a virtuoso sitarist.

Bibliography

See his autobiographies, My Music, My Life (1969) and Raga Mala (1997, repr. 1999); D. Ghosh, ed.
..... Click the link for more information. and Alla Rakha, whose music was to influence his own compositions strongly. In 1968 he formed the Philip Glass Ensemble, a small group that employs electronically amplified instruments. During the 1970s he became known for music that blended standard notation and tonality with electronics. These lengthy and highly rhythmic compositions employ a number of phrases that are repeated and slowly modified during the music's course. The purest form of this style is represented in the four-hour-long Music in 12 Parts (1971–74).

More traditional harmonies entered the opera Einstein on the Beach (1976), which Glass wrote with Robert Wilson Wilson, Robert, 1941–, dramatist, director, and designer, b. Waco, Tex. He began his arts career as a painter. A leading figure in postmodern theater since 1963, when he arrived in New York City, he has created lengthy, often controversial multimedia events
..... Click the link for more information. ; this work introduced the composer and the minimalist style to a mass audience, paving the way for a wider acceptance of contemporary opera. A landmark in recent musical history, the meditative Einstein is without narrative plot and blends light, image, and sound as well as dance, words, and music into a hypnotic whole. During the ensuing years Glass's work has become more complex and varied. He is particularly well known for his operas, which also include Satyagraha (1980); Akhnaten (1984); The Fall of the House of Usher (1988); Hydrogen Jukebox (1990), a collaboration with Allen Ginsberg Ginsberg, Allen (gĭnz`bûrg), 1926–97, American poet, b. Paterson, N.J., grad. Columbia, 1949.
..... Click the link for more information. ; The Voyage (1992); and La Belle et la Bête (1994), a work for ensemble composed for Jean Cocteau Cocteau, Jean (zhäN kôktō`), 1889–1963, French writer, visual artist, and filmmaker.
..... Click the link for more information. 's film. Three additional operas had their American debuts in 2001—The Marriages between Zones 3, 4 and 5 (1997); the epic White Raven (1998), another collaboration with Robert Wilson; and the smaller-scale In the Penal Colony (2001), based on the Franz Kafka Kafka, Franz (fränts käf`kä), 1883–1924, German-language novelist, b. Prague.
..... Click the link for more information. short story. Later operas include Galileo Galilei (2002) and Waiting for the Barbarians (2005), based on a novel by J. M. Coetzee Coetzee, J. M. (John Maxwell Coetzee) (kö`tsē), 1940–, South African novelist, b. John Michael Coetzee. Educated at the Univ.
..... Click the link for more information. . Glass has also written several symphonies, concertos, string quartets, and a variety of other orchestral and instrumental pieces. His work has been extremely influential in the development of a new generation of composers.

Bibliography

See his Music by Philip Glass (1987); R. Kostelanetz, ed., Writings on Glass (1997).

Glass, Philip

(born Jan. 31, 1937, Baltimore, Md., U.S.) U.S. composer. He studied mathematics and philosophy at the University of Chicago and then studied composition at the Juilliard School and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. His later studies with the Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar in 1966 and the tabla player Alla Rakha produced a radical shift in his compositional style. He became the leading exponent of musical “minimalism,” employing insistently repeated notes and chords, subtly shifting timbres, and blocklike harmonic progressions without contrapuntal voice leading. He achieved fame suddenly with the opera Einstein on the Beach (1975) and went on to write more than 20 operas, including Satyagraha (1980), Akhnaten (1984), and The Voyage (1992). His other works include many film scores, such as Koyaanisqatsi (1983) and The Thin Blue Line (1988), and the recordings Glassworks (1981) and Songs from Liquid Days (1986). He collaborated with a wide range of writers, artists, and musicians, including Robert Wilson, Allen Ginsberg, Doris Lessing, David Bowie, and Paul Simon. Glass's work appealed to fans of rock and popular music, and at the turn of the 21st century he was perhaps the world's most famous living composer.

Glass, Philip (1937– ) composer; born in Baltimore, Md. After composition studies at Juilliard, Glass went to Paris in 1964 to study with Nadia Boulanger and later spent time in India studying that culture's traditions. Back in New York in the late 1960s, he organized a group to play his stripped-down, relentlessly repetitive music that was dubbed (along with that of Steve Reich and others) "minimalist." With works including his opera Einstein on the Beach (1976), Glass gained a large following, many from the ranks of rock fans.