The Light
24′
Music by Philip Glass
CAST:
2.pic.2.2.bcl.2/4.3.3.1/ timp. 4 perc (tgl, tamb, cym, SD, BD)/ 2hp/ pf/str, tn dm
COMMISSION:
Commissioned by the Michelson-Morely Centennial Celebration
PREMIERE:
October 29, 1987 by the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christoph von Dohnani
SYNOPSIS:
A portrait in music of the scientists Albert A. Michelson and Edward W. Morley and their studies of the velocity of light through their memorable experiments conducted at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, 1887.
NOTES:
“The Light” is the first composition of a series of symphonically conceived “portraits of nature”:
“(…) I have described this one-movement work as a portrait. In the past I have written portrait operas – Einstein, Gandhi, Akhnaten are the subjects of the first trilogy. In this case, this is a portrait not only of the two men for whom the experiments are named but also that historical moment heralding the beginning of the modem scientific period”.
— Philip Glass
PUBLISHER:
Dunvagen Music Publishers
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