Philip Glass is one of the most important and pioneering composers of our time, whose influence can’t be understated. He is an icon for minimalism, a compositional practice that uses limited (or minimal) musical materials to maximum effect. It uses repetitive patterns and consonant harmony to evoke complex feelings.
The general public may recognize his achingly beautiful soundtracks to films like “The Hours” and “The Truman Show,” but they might not realize his impact on everything else they hear. Far Out Magazine explains that he’s made an impact on opera house, rave, rock festival, and film music, noting that even Hans Zimmer paid homage to Glass’s work on “Koyaanisqatsi” in the soundtrack for “Interstellar.”
He’s also left his mark on the world of piano with incredible etudes and solo pieces. His 1982 album, “Glassworks,” marked the beginning of a new era that opened his work up to new listeners.
“Glassworks was my debut record on CBS. This music was written for the recording studio, though a number of the pieces soon found their way into the Ensemble repertory,” Glass writes on his website. “A six-‘movement’ work, Glassworks was intended to introduce my music to a more general audience than had been familiar with it up to then.”
Each movement has varied ensembles including flutes, saxophones, horns, strings, and synthesizers. The aptly titled first track, “Opening,” is written for solo piano and encapsulates so much of what makes Glass’s work so special. The piece has been a staple of modern piano music.
If you’ve never heard it, watch the composer himself perform “Opening” from his latest album, “Philip Glass Solo,” recorded on his 87th birthday in 2021.
From the very beginning, we’re thrust into a surge of flowing rhythms. Glass pits the left hand against the right by playing straight eighth notes underneath a constant triplet. The opposing rhythms make the piece sound as if it were played by multiple pianos. Although it can be somewhat disorienting, a simple harmony gives us some grounding. “Opening” relies almost entirely on roots, thirds, and fifths of each chord in the progression.
The harmony also unfolds slowly, almost entirely by step. Each bass note played by the pinky is held for a whole note, often even as a tied whole note.
As Kirsten Lodal from Brown University explains, the piece “has an unwavering rhythm, but certain notes contain added drag as if longing to stay attached to their surrounding notes.” She concluded that the symmetry replays the image of a tragic love story, but Glass doesn’t see his music that way.
In a Q&A for Red Bull Music Academy, one fan asked about the writing process of “Glassworks” by describing it as emotionally complex. Glass replied that the way we feel about music says more about ourselves than the music itself.
“When you say that it’s emotionally dense, I’m thinking, ‘Oh! This guy experiences the world in an emotionally dense way,'” he said. “The music and the artwork is an occasion for us to be moved by something. But the way we’re moved has to do with ourselves. You’re telling me about you. And that’s important. It’s not unimportant. It’s not trivial. It’s actually the most important part of the sentence.”
Follow along with the sheet music for “Opening” by Philip Glass:
