Through the looking Glass

[MrGongGong]

I can quite understand someone labelling some of it "unrelenting".

When I went to see his ensemble in the 1980's this was what was so brilliant about it
totally unrelenting , high energy and LOUD
sadly he seems to have mellowed so that the music seems a bit of a shadow of it's former self

Also on the "melodic" aspect , to my ears what is so great about pieces like Music in 12 partsis that there is NO foreground/background , so that the idea that some things are "accompaniments" is only a result of the psychoacoustic effects and not something that is "written" , each time you can hear different "melodies" (this is more obvious in pieces by his compatriot Steve Music for Mallet Instruments , Voices and Organ being one of the greatest examples).

No one did arpeggios like glass (well, maybe Tangerine Dream ? ) but the intensity seems a little lost these days........

[Serial_Apologist]

Also on the "melodic" aspect , to my ears what is so great about pieces like Music in 12 partsis that there is NO foreground/background , so that the idea that some things are "accompaniments" is only a result of the psychoacoustic effects and not something that is "written" , each time you can hear different "melodies" (this is more obvious in pieces by his compatriot Steve Music for Mallet Instruments , Voices and Organ being one of the greatest examples).

No one did arpeggios like glass (well, maybe Tangerine Dream ? ) but the intensity seems a little lost these days........

Interesting that, because I have a tape somewhere in which Elisabeth Lutyens says much the same sort of thing about wanting to get away from contrapuntal hierarchies, citing a wish to return to the great 14th and 15th century polyphonists.

I'm just thinking - maybe, just maybe the impression of diminishing intensity in music of this kind - and I'd add Reich's, which I find myself unable to listen to any more - has something to do with the law of diminishing returns applying to simplified means: they eventually become "outworn"?

[MrGongGong]

I'm just thinking - maybe, just maybe the impression of diminishing intensity in music of this kind - and I'd add Reich's, which I find myself unable to listen to any more - has something to do with the law of diminishing returns applying to simplified means: they eventually become "outworn"?

Possibly
though i'm more inclined to think that its to do with the amount of time the performers have to prepare and what they do the rest of the time !
Having heard various groups play Reich and to a lesser extent Glass I have found that ensembles that would easily stroll through a bit of Xenakis are unable to deliver in this music. When I was a student Jon Gibson came to use the college to rehearse some pieces, he was at it day and night for days...... the best you will get out of most professional groups these days is 2 x 3 hours (and often less than that !).

[Boilk]

When I went to see his ensemble in the 1980's this was what was so brilliant about it
totally unrelenting , high energy and LOUD

I had the same feeling back in 1982 (Philip Glass Ensemble at Sadlers Wells) but, in hindsight, wasn't the real thrill that it was all so NEW back then, that is...a 'respectable' bunch of score-reading, amplified musicians, when usually those who played with amps were hairy, bearded axe-playing rock stars.

The perception of nearly everything changes with time.

[MrGongGong]

I think we must have been at the same gig

[Bryn]

I think we must have been at the same gig

That makes three of us, (plus Michael Nyman).