In Celebration of the Human Voice - The Essential Musical Instrument

Philip Glass

Born: 1937. Living in: United States

Through his operas, his symphonies, his compositions for his own ensemble, and his wide-ranging collaborations with artists ranging from Twyla Tharp to Allen Ginsberg, Woody Allen to David Bowie, Philip Glass has had an extraordinary and unprecedented impact upon the musical and intellectual life of his times.

The operas - "Einstein on the Beach," "Satyagraha," "Akhnaten," and "The Voyage," among many others - play throughout the world's leading houses, and rarely to an empty seat. Glass has written music for experimental theater and for Academy Award-winning motion pictures such as "The Hours" and Martin Scorsese's "Kundun," while "Koyaanisqatsi," his initial filmic landscape with Godfrey Reggio and the Philip Glass Ensemble, may be the most radical and influential mating of sound and vision since "Fantasia." His associations, personal and professional, with leading rock, pop and world music artists date back to the 1960s, including the beginning of his collaborative relationship with artist Robert Wilson. Indeed, Glass is the first composer to win a wide, multi-generational audience in the opera house, the concert hall, the dance world, in film and in popular music -- simultaneously.

Arrangements | Recordings

Recordings and DVDs

Displaying 1-2 of 2 items.

Los Angeles Master Chorale : Philip Glass: Itaipu and Songs A Cappella

Itaipu is a large-scale work for chorus and orchestra set to a Guarani text. Itaipu is the world's largest dam located on the border between Paraguay and Brazil. The piece is cast in four movements: Mato Grosso, The Lake, The Dam, To the Sea. The piece is part of the composer's interest Brazil, but also in indigenous cultures of the Americas which continues to this day. Commissioned and written for the Quebec Festival 1534-1984, Three Songs for Chorus a Cappella presents three pieces set to poems by three different North American poets. The first song, There are Some Men, is by singer-songwriter and poet Leonard Cohen (whose poetry was later the basis of an evening length song-cycle by Glass titled Book of Longing.) The second song, Quand les Hommes vivront d'Amour, by singer-songwriter/poet/artist Raymond Levesque is a wish for peace and happiness through love. The third song, Pierre de Soleil, by poet Octavio Paz is mediation on existential selflessness ("les autres qui me donnent l'existence.")

Songlist: Mato Grosso, The Lake, The Dam, To The Sea, There Are Some Men, Quand Les Hommes Vivront d'Amour, Pieere de Soleil

Los Angeles Master Chorale : Glass / Salonen

The acclaimed Los Angeles Master Chorale, conducted by Grant Gershon, brings us the music of Phillip Glass and Esa-Pekka Salonen. Featured is Itaipu by Glass, an ecstatic piece framing the ancient folklore of South America's Guarani Indians against a massive hydroelectric dam at Itaipu on the Brazil/Paraguay border. "Itaipu" is divided into four parts, "Mato Grosso," "The Lake," "The Dam" and "To The Sea." Also featured is the world premiere recording of Salonen's "Two Songs to Poems of Ann Jaderlund." The composer's vision of love as described in these poems is dynamic, richly romantic and enthralling - a tour de force of the sonic capabilities of the 111-strong chorus. Cutting-edge choral music, orchestrally accompanied, stunning and magnificent.

Songlist: Itaipu (1989):, Mato Grosso, The Lake, The Dam, To the Sea, Two Songs to Poems of Ann Jaderlund (2000), -Djupt i rummet, -Kyss min mun

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