45 Years.

February 6, 2024 9:06 PM

"The composition of Opening dates back to 1979, where Glass was commissioned by the Alberta Piano Institute to write a set of varying piano pieces for educational use. It was originally published for solo piano as part of his 'Solo Piano' album in 1989, and since then has been re-recorded and re-arranged in numerous other forms. Opening was also re-contextualised in 1996 as part of the album ‘The Essential Philip Glass’ and was even re-arranged again in 2010 as an orchestral score." Phillip Glass - 'Opening' ( offical version) [slyt. 7:17]
posted by clavdivs (15 comments total)

This reminds me, I don't quite remember the context, but I was recently looking for something like a Phillip Glass greatest hits album, which lead me to "The Essential Phillip Glass", but not before I'd hallucinated the existence of the album

NOW
that's what I call
PHILLIP GLASS
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 10:04 PM on February 6 [5 favorites]

What a lovely, flowing piece. Thanks for that.
posted by Hardcore Poser at 11:30 PM on February 6 [1 favorite]

Fan? [✓]
posted by BobTheScientist at 11:53 PM on February 6 [1 favorite]

It's a wonderful piece.

That blog post gives me the unsettling sensation, like so much web copy nowadays, that it's been written by AI. Perhaps it's auto-translated from another first language, or perhaps it's AI all the way down. The blog as a whole has no hints of any human or humans who might be behind it, no About page or first post introducing the project or anything like that. It makes turns of phrase like "a truly emotionally gripping experience of this modern classic" land oddly... it feels wrong to be told what to feel about a piece of music by a predictive text algorithm. (If that's what it is. That's the trouble, you can't trust that anything on the web is actually human now.)
posted by rory at 1:21 AM on February 7 [2 favorites]

beep boop
posted by flabdablet at 1:57 AM on February 7 [1 favorite]

i've said too much
posted by flabdablet at 1:57 AM on February 7 [1 favorite]

KEEP HONKING
posted by phooky at 3:46 AM on February 7 [1 favorite]

There's something really lovely about playing this piece. When I first start, I consciously think quite hard about the 3 on 2 rhythm, trying to making sure each beat is exactly where it should be. But as the song goes on, and that rhythm continues (and continues), my hands become so accustomed to it that they do it automatically and my brain can zone out and only focus on the note changes. Occasionally, a finger might falter and come out of rhythm a little, but because the rhythm is so repetitive, it's easy enough to bring it back to rights in the next measure. There's also always a moment somewhere in there where I find my brain only hearing the rhythm from one hand. The other hand continues without conscious control as if its programmed. It's fun when I can intentionally switch the hand I'm hearing. It's a piece that almost has a life of its own and just takes you along for the ride. Both easy and enjoyable to lose yourself in.

Thanks for posting the official Glass performance.
posted by mosessis at 6:26 AM on February 7 [5 favorites]

My favourite piece from Glassworks. Sometimes I'll riff the chord progression on guitar with delay.
posted by ovvl at 6:42 AM on February 7 [1 favorite]

There's also always a moment somewhere in there where I find my brain only hearing the rhythm from one hand. The other hand continues without conscious control as if its programmed. It's fun when I can intentionally switch the hand I'm hearing.

One of my favorite things about listening to minimalist music (or electronica, or any music that has a stratified texture) is that choose-your-own-adventure aspect of it. Music with a melody, for instance, more or less tells you how to listen to it: the texture has a hierarchy, and the melody is most important, so is always foreground. But minimalism, electronica? Listen however you like, every experience can be different because you can listen to the piece differently every time.
posted by LooseFilter at 7:22 AM on February 7 [4 favorites]

"Do you every try to compose in a way that doesn't sound like Philip Glass?"

"I do it all the time, and I fail all the time."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqFGngYzOCc&t=156s
posted by cmerrill at 7:41 AM on February 7 [1 favorite]

There's also always a moment somewhere in there where I find my brain only hearing the rhythm from one hand. The other hand continues without conscious control as if its programmed. It's fun when I can intentionally switch the hand I'm hearing. It's a piece that almost has a life of its own and just takes you along for the ride.

I get that kind of experience from improvising in 4 on 3 on 2 on the drum kit. It's really fun.

On rare occasions I manage to lock in a 5 on 4 on 3 and the only analogy I can think of for that is ecstatic dancing on a tightrope. All flow and joy until I remember it's impossible and fall off.
posted by flabdablet at 10:43 AM on February 7 [1 favorite]

I have never heard of the Alberta Piano Institute and it appears to no longer exist

this is very cool, thank you for posting clavdivs
posted by elkevelvet at 11:22 AM on February 7 [1 favorite]

I suspect the “Alberta Piano Institute” may have been hallucinated by the AI that may have wrote the post - all I can find about it is that post and this one.
posted by madcaptenor at 12:52 PM on February 10 [2 favorites]

I was hoping somebody would pick up on that. I've investigated the Calgary piano institute but so far no luck.
posted by clavdivs at 2:10 PM on February 10