Orange Mountain Music

1. Opening (from Glassworks) 4:26
2. Floe (from Glassworks) 6:00
3. Act III (from Satyagraha) 8:17
4. Train/Spaceship (from Einstein on the Beach) 17:19
5. Movement I (from The Saxophone Concerto) 6:27
6. Overture (from La Belle et la B�te) 3:53
7. Another Look at Harmony, Part IV (edited excerpt) 18:05
8. Modern Love Waltz 4:22

Philip Glass: Up Close was originally created as an audio accompaniment to New York’s Metropolitan Museum’s exhibition Chuck Close Prints: Process and Collaboration on minimalist artist Chuck Close.

It is available for download exclusively at the iTunes music store.

Contemporaries Philip Glass and Chuck Close often build their works with repeating modules, fragments of sound or form that vary slightly. With Glass’s music, the layered melodies and rhythms yield a constantly changing soundscape, which changes as the listener focuses on particular modules or on the whole sound panorama. With Close’s art, the viewer is similarly prodded to examine the dynamic of part to whole.

Glassworks, Opening: Philip Glass Ensemble live at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London in 1982. Piano by Michael Riesman. Glassworks (1981) is Philip Glass’s first major-label record release, wherein he introduced melodic content to his rhythmic constructions. The slow piano solo in Opening is contrasted by the frenetic energy of Floe (track 2).

Glassworks, Floe: Philip Glass Ensemble live at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London in 1982.

Satyagraha, Act III: Piano by Michael Riesman. Piano transcription by Michael Riesman. Satyagraha is the second opera in Glass’s portrait trilogy. Michael Riesman’s piano arrangement captures Glass’s reintroduction of traditional form into his style.

Einstein on the Beach, Train/Spaceship: Philip Glass Ensemble live at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London in 1982 (edited excerpt). This track includes two climactic moments from Glass’s first opera.

The Saxophone Concerto, Movement I: Raschèr Saxophone Quartet. The saxophone found permanent tenure in the Philip Glass Ensemble from very early on. The Raschèr Quartet commissioned this work.

La Belle et la Bête, Overture: Piano by Michael Riesman. Piano transcription by Michael Riesman. Glass set this opera to be performed in synchrony with Jean Cocteau’s silent film of the same name.

Another Look at Harmony, Part IV: Vocals by Western Wind. Organ by Michael Riesman (edited excerpt). Highly modular melodies and rhythmic motives play prominently in the foreground of this work.

Modern Love Waltz: Piano by Philip Glass. This was originally a piano piece written for a radio reading and was later used in a dance performance entitled “The Waltz Project.”

Music Composed by Philip Glass.

The original recordings in this compilation were produced by Kurt Munkacsi and conducted by Michael Riesman.

Philip Glass: Up Close was produced by Don Christensen for Orange Mountain Music, Inc., 632 Broadway, Suite 902, New York, NY 10012.

Cover: Phil/Fingerprint. Chuck Close, American, b. 1940. Lithograph, 50 x 58 in., 1981. Photograph by Ellen Page Wilson, Courtesy of Pace Prints, New York. © Chuck Close

Philip Glass’s music is published by Dunvagen Music Publisher Inc. (ASCAP), 632 Broadway, Suite 902, New York. NY 10012.

℗ and © by Orange Mountain Music, Inc.

Amazon
Itunes

COMPOSITIONS:
Glassworks
Satyagraha
Einstein on the Beach
Concerto for Saxophone Quartet and Orchestra
La Belle et la Bête
Another Look at Harmony – Part IV
Modern Love Waltz

RECORDINGS:
Saxophone on Orange Mountain Music
Early Voice on Orange Mountain Music