Carnegie Hall/Medici.tv Webcast: Philip Glass Ensemble

On Friday evening, Carnegie Hall, in conjunction with Medici.tv, webcast an early Philip Glass masterpiece, Music with Changing Parts (1970) as performed by the Philip Glass Ensemble.  Joining them were Michael Riesman, conductor, the San Francisco Girls Chorus led by Valérie Sainte-Agathe, and students from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

It's difficult to believe that Glass, once serious music's enfant terrible, is now 80 years old and a respected establishment figure.  This season he holds Carnegie Hall's Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair, and the Hall will be hosting performances of a number of his works in what amounts to a retrospective even if it is not labeled as such.  It's fascinating then to hear the artist return to such a seminal early work at this and be reminded of the excitement among music lovers when he first appeared on the scene decades ago.

Music with Changing Parts was one of music's earliest "minimalist" works even if Glass himself rejected the term (because "it doesn't describe anything").  At the heart of it is the steady pulse of the electric keyboard that provides a base over which the other performers provide accompaniment that at times is almost mystical and strongly reminiscent of liturgical music; in that sense it could be said to anticipate Arvo Pärt's tintinnabulation, itself still another miminalist style. It's the interplay between the electronic and the ethereal that makes Glass's piece so compelling over a length of time that would otherwise be inordinate.

Glass himself apparently had second thoughts concerning Music with Changing Parts.  According to the Wikipedia article, he never attempted a similar piece because he found it too "psychedelic."  But this is no more than to say that the work is, at least to an extent, a reflection of the times in which it was created.  One could argue that this aspect is actually an integral part of the work's identity and essential to its understanding.

Courtesy of Medici.tv, the archived webcast will be available for viewing for a limited time.