About Philip Glass...

Several years ago a friend called me and asked if I had heard of the composer Philip Glass. When I said no, he said: "You are in for a real adventure. It seems that our century has a Bach, too."

What he meant was that this modern composer's works are innovative enough to represent or even define composition in this century, as Johann Sebastian Bach had done earlier. I agree, and my adventure with this music continues. I am particularly drawn to the way Philip Glass describes time as it relates to music...

"In Western music we divide time -- as if you were to take a length of time and slice it the way you slice a loaf of bread. In Indian music (and all the non-Western music with which I'm familiar) you take small units, or beats, and string them together to make up larger time values." -- Philip Glass

I certainly do not want to suggest that Music Composer is more than a simple experiment in my seminar about computers. Any similarity to serious compositions probably exists in my ears only. But it is certainly true that I write from my experience, and the influence of many composers is present in the ways I listen, in everything I hear, and in whatever I create.

The computer gives me an opportunity to explore and experiment with music in ways that are not otherwise possible. If both computers and music interest you as well, I suggest that you turn to some of the compositions that have inspired me. The CDs listed below are currently available.

The first recording includes the composition Two Pages, which was written in 1967 or 1968. In this work Glass explores the expansion and contraction of a simple musical line with a technique he calls "additive process." It was this concept that has inspired my experimentation with computer-based composition and eventually led to the writing of Music Composer.

Philip Glass - Two Pages, Contrary Motion, Music in Fifths, Music in Similar Motion
Kronos Quartet performs Philip Glass
Glassworks
The Photographer
Einstein on the Beach
Koyaanisquatsi