Symphony No. 8
39′
Music by Philip Glass
CAST:
2+pic(fl).2(ca).2(Ebcl)+bcl.2/4.3(2E Flat Trumpet).2+btbn.1/timp.4perc/hp.pf/str
COMMISSION:
Commissioned by the Bruckner Orchester Linz conducted by Dennis Russell Davies.
PREMIERE:
November 2, 2005 at Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York City (USA) by Bruckner Orchester Linz conducted by Dennis Russell Davies.
NOTES:
My recent symphonies – Symphony No. 5 “Requiem, Bardo and Nirmanakaya”, Symphony No. 6 “Plutonian Ode”, and Symphony No. 7 “A Toltec Symphony” – are all driven by text: Symphony No. 5 by Ancient, Classical, and Aboriginal writings; Symphony No. 6 by Allen Ginsberg’s poem; Symphony No. 7 by a transcription of a Native American song.
Symphony No. 8 marks a return to symphonic writing based on instrumental music alone. Dennis Russell Davies asked me think of the orchestra as a collection of virtuoso instruments as you would find in a concerto formation. Symphony No. 8 starts from this point in presenting ideas involved with timbre, density, structure, and melody.
— Philip Glass, April 2005
PUBLISHER:
Dunvagen Music Publishers
Symphony No. 8 on Orange Mountain Music