philip glass einstein on the beach album

Flute, Soprano Saxophone, Bass Clarinet.Which may just mean Glass is too spiritually enlightened to set meaningful texts to music.Knee Play 4 Bass Vocals – Sean Barker Tenor Vocals – Philip Gavin Smith Even Suzanne Vega's lyrics read better than they sound. Without passing judgment on Satyagraha's Douglas Perry, who applies his tenor to one song here, I'll insist without fear of ignorance that he's a less than apt model for the Roches and Bernard Fowler (Linda Ronstadt can do what she wants). When it comes to vocal production, though, I have my proud prejudices. After all, which is more likely to touch a rock-and-roller's heart-an opera about an Asian saint, or a multigenre piece about an American artist-gadgeteer who shoots his wife's lover and lives with the consequences? A-įrom Satyagraha to Mishima, much of Glass's recent work has invoked the mood if not the methods of nineteenth-century classical music, a realm of discourse where I'm reluctant to pass judgment, though I will mention that this hardly makes him unique among soundtrack composers. With its intrusive melodies and who-needs-a-cannon? climax, this is Glass's most obvious record, and I like it that way. In short, I'm glad to own it, but it didn't cost me twenty-five bucks, and I don't know when I'll find time to play it again now that I've done so twice. This is 'great,' all right, but without Wilson's spectacular visuals it's also, to these pop-happy ears, tedious and sometimes even pompous. I'd skip the Rolling Stones to witness this five-hour maximalization of minimalism again, but on record-condensed to four discs running about three hours-I find that its operatic conceit justifies itself all too well. Philip Glass/Robert Wilson: Einstein on the Beach What Eno fans may find hard to take-and what I find doubly admirable-is that this music refuses to fade into the background it's rich, bright, and demanding despite its austerity.

There is natural drama here, but Glass never indulges it, which is why he appeals to Eno's side of the 'progressive' spectrum rather than to Keith Emerson's. Rock ears take to this avant-garde composer because he understands electronic sound in a melodic context and loves rhythm, a rhythm achieved-like the hypnotic/mystical mood of the music as a whole-not through percussion but through mechanical repetitions cunningly modified. Philip Glass/Robert Wilson Consumer Guide Reviews:.

Philip glass einstein on the beach album