Glass' music parallels radical Beat movement

Courtesy of Nonesuch Philip Glass helped create classical music's minimalistic sound with his 1976 opera, "Einstein on the Beach."

When you hear the words "classical music," you often think of a large orchestra being led by a short little man waving a stick. Sometimes, certain melodies will spring from your mind's ear, recalling some of the more famous classical tunes, such as Mozart's "Eine Klein Nachtmusik" or the four dark chords of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5. Unless you are a classical music enthusiast, you've probably never heard of Philip Glass.

As an introduction to this avant garde composer: Glass is to classical music what Bob Dylan was to rock music, he brought life to a dying artform. Much like the shockwaves that Allen Ginsberg brought to American literature, Glass has affected a similar tremor in the music world. His movement, now often called the minimalist movement, can be defined as being a sound which mirrors the technology age and beyond. He often uses short, repetitive chords throughout each of his pieces, minimalizing the boundaries of the work. In short, less is more.

Glass's best field, by far, is contemporary opera. Within the past 20 years, opera lovers have been thirsty for new opera. His first operatic work, "Einstein on the Beach," premiered to an enthusiastic audience. Music critic Michael Walsh once described the ending of the piece as "heartrendingly gorgeous." "When one of the speakers intones Samuel M. Johnson's 'Two Lovers' text, an epiphany (is) made all the more concentrated by its position at the end of a very long and challenging work," he wrote.

The composer has gone on to write many more and different operas, including "Satyagraha," probably the only Western opera sung entirely in Sanskrit. Walsh deemed the piece "the single most important work in the revival of new operas in the United States, and maybe worldwide."

Walsh recalled the opening of "Satyagraha" as an introduction into a real rock n' roll opera, nothing like the pop opera that Andrew Lloyd Webber spews. "The opening of Satyagraha may have seemed unusual to the fogies, but every kid in the audience heard a standard rock chord progression - albeit played by the string section of a symphony orchestra. And it said: don't be afraid, you're going to like this," Walsh stated. No, this is not your father's opera.

Most recently, Glass collaborated with Martin Scorsese in the production of "Kundun," a film about the life of the most recent Dali Lama. Possibly provoking an interest in Tibetan Buddhism, Glass has come to support the cause of a free Tibet. His score, although highly minimalist, invokes the presence and sound of Eastern music. He lost the Academy Award, of course, to James Horner's "Titanic" score.

Engaging in a solo performance tonight, Glass will join Patti Smith and Michael Stipe in honoring the legacy of Allen Ginsberg. Look for another Glass appearance in April when he returns to town for the University Musical Society to present his newest opera, "Monsters of Grace," a multimedia three-dimensional extravaganza.

10-02-98