Glass - 5 Metamorphosis [Glass]
Here's one of my early ventures into contemporary Classical music, it was late 1992, at the time i decided to try out some people who were still alive, it turned out to not be a great success, and i guess has put me off ever since, now contemporary Composers make up hardly any of my music collection, which maybe i should rectify, this one stuck, not least of all because the first time i played it i had a profoundly good experience, i've actually only played it four times ever! [1992 / 1998 / 2008 / 2015], all of those dates have huge gaps between them, and yet crazily i enjoy it when i get round to playing it, this disc is like a modern day Satie, repetitive, yet somehow hypnotic and haunting too, i see just lately there's a whole plethora of new recordings of Glass's piano solo music [Lisitsa / Whitwell / Brubaker], all worth getting, and it would be nice to hear someone else's take on his music.
Philip Glass is an American, he's now 78, this disc came out in 1989, and Metamorphosis was only composed the year before, the front cover photo [by Steve Prezant], is a portrait of Glass at the piano, a black & white study, with the face lit up by a shaft of light.
The five pieces in Metamorphosis start with simplicity, and get more complex, each new piece adds layers to the one before, however, the music reaches its apex in number three, and then returns back to simplicity again at the end, there's also a symmetry to the whole work, so 1 corresponds with 5, and 2 corresponds with 4, and it's this apex of 3 which is quite original, the closest musical comparison is probably Satie's Gnossiennes, on this listen it was numbers 3 & 4 that really affected me the most, here's a short synopsis of both,
3 Metamorphosis Three [5:30] - Here's the 'apex' of the work, it must be remembered that even though each piece can stand up on its own, also each piece is 'primed' by the piece before, this is the most complex of the five pieces, a repetitive intro quickly branches out into some fairly hard hitting chords [0:21-1:00], odd bass punctuations seem to close each mini section, those same chords come back, but this time slightly more complex and brighter [1:21-1:59], the whole piece carries on in this vein, with hard hitting chords returning again and again [2:22-3:01 / 3:23-4:01 / 4:25-5:04], and you can see even within number three there's a symmetry, plus the timings indicate to me that maybe Glass is changes tack by the clock, everything is so precise!.
4 Metamorphosis Four [7:00] - Number Four corresponds with Two, the architecture between all of each pieces is really quite identical, it rocks back and forth between these stamping rhythms and the hypnotic preludes, here Glass also has a central section which is really bright and up in the treble strongly [2:37-4:13], and towards the end of each episode the intensity of each treble excursion seems stronger and aching, this little section only comes around once, each piece has its own 'apex' as it were, i really like this central section, the whole work is so repetitive, but instead of making it boring, it makes it hypnotically addictive!.
Here's Glass playing and talking about this work on YouTube, the piece he plays after the short interview is Metamorphosis 3.
Philip Glass is an American, he's now 78, this disc came out in 1989, and Metamorphosis was only composed the year before, the front cover photo [by Steve Prezant], is a portrait of Glass at the piano, a black & white study, with the face lit up by a shaft of light.
The five pieces in Metamorphosis start with simplicity, and get more complex, each new piece adds layers to the one before, however, the music reaches its apex in number three, and then returns back to simplicity again at the end, there's also a symmetry to the whole work, so 1 corresponds with 5, and 2 corresponds with 4, and it's this apex of 3 which is quite original, the closest musical comparison is probably Satie's Gnossiennes, on this listen it was numbers 3 & 4 that really affected me the most, here's a short synopsis of both,
3 Metamorphosis Three [5:30] - Here's the 'apex' of the work, it must be remembered that even though each piece can stand up on its own, also each piece is 'primed' by the piece before, this is the most complex of the five pieces, a repetitive intro quickly branches out into some fairly hard hitting chords [0:21-1:00], odd bass punctuations seem to close each mini section, those same chords come back, but this time slightly more complex and brighter [1:21-1:59], the whole piece carries on in this vein, with hard hitting chords returning again and again [2:22-3:01 / 3:23-4:01 / 4:25-5:04], and you can see even within number three there's a symmetry, plus the timings indicate to me that maybe Glass is changes tack by the clock, everything is so precise!.
4 Metamorphosis Four [7:00] - Number Four corresponds with Two, the architecture between all of each pieces is really quite identical, it rocks back and forth between these stamping rhythms and the hypnotic preludes, here Glass also has a central section which is really bright and up in the treble strongly [2:37-4:13], and towards the end of each episode the intensity of each treble excursion seems stronger and aching, this little section only comes around once, each piece has its own 'apex' as it were, i really like this central section, the whole work is so repetitive, but instead of making it boring, it makes it hypnotically addictive!.
Here's Glass playing and talking about this work on YouTube, the piece he plays after the short interview is Metamorphosis 3.
