Phillip+Glass+-+Gawain,+Mackenzie,+Cassidy

=**Philip Glass**= Philip Glass has written music for many famous operas such as, “Einstein on the Beach,” “Satyagraha,” “Akhnaten,” and “The Voyage”. He has also composed music for some well known motion pictures such as “The Hours” and Martin Scorsese’s “Kundun”. Glass is the first composer to win a wide, multi-generational audience in the opera house, the concert hall, the dance world, in film and in popular music. Philip Glass was born in 1937 and he grew up in Baltimore. He studied at the University of Chicago, the Juilliard school and slide in Aspen. The new musical style that Glass was evolving was eventually dubbed “minimalism.” Glass himself never liked the term and preferred to speak of himself as a composer of “music with repetitive structures.” Much of his early work was based on the extended reiteration of brief, elegant melodic fragments that wove in and out of an aural tapestry. Or, to put it another way, it immersed a listener in a sort of sonic weather that twists, turns, surrounds, develops. In the last 25 years Philip Glass has composed for over 20 operas both large and small. He has composed for 8 symphonies, two piano concertos for violin, timpani, piano and saxophone quartet and also orchestra soundtracks. He presents lectures, workshops, and solo keyboard performances around the world, and continues to appear regularly with the Philip Glass Ensemble.
 * Overview **

The key factors are melody, harmony, and rhythm. Philip Glass uses cyclic rhythm, harmony and modulation, additive process as well as minimalism throughout his music. These concepts make his music unique, and recognisable. Philip Glass’s music is very repetitive. His music is also heavily non-western influenced.
 * Overview Of Philip Glass's Music **

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 * Minimalism **
 * A movement in sculpture and painting which arose in the 1950s, characterised by the use of simple, massive forms.
 * An avant-garde movement in music characterised by the repetition of very short phrases which change gradually, producing a hypnotic effect.


 * Minimalism In Music **

The use of electronic instruments is common in minimalist music, as are influences from Asia and Africa.

** Cyclic Rhythm **

Cyclic rhythm is used throughout Glass’ music to organise his pieces. Cyclic rhythm is when a rhythm is a constant throughout the piece. It’s the rhythm that never stops throughout the piece but is repeated on a cycle.


 * Modulation **

Harmony and modulation are seen within Glass’ pieces through a few static chords. In music, modulation is most commonly the act or process of changing from one key to another. Modulations articulate or create the structure or form of many pieces, as well as add interest. Glass uses modulation to add interest to his pieces along with the base of cyclic rhythm.


 * Harmony **

In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches, tones, or chords. Philip Glass uses harmony to add toward his pieces that already consist of cyclic rhythm, modulation and harmony that are all concepts of minimalism.


 * Additive process **

Additive process is where different styles of music are added to the piece gradually to add texture and dimension to the music. Additive process adds depth to the piece of music and gives the piece greater expressive techniques. Philip Glass adds cyclic rhythm, harmony and modulation to his pieces through additive process to enhance the overall sound of his music.

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This piece of music is from The Hours soundtrack made in 2002. There are 14 pieces of music in this soundtrack album and The Hours being the 14th piece.
 * Analysis of Philip Glass’s Song: ‘Hours’ **

**Structure:** This song doesn’t really have a set structure to it but the song is broken into different sections where the piece becomes louder and softer, as well as becoming more full due to the instruments being added to it throughout the song. The different instruments in this song mainly play the same riff all the way through the song.

**Instrumentation:** Piano, cello, violins (strings), harp, celesta, percussion (glockenspiel & triangle, one player)

This song is rather soft and calm and features the piano as it plays the melody or riffs that are in this piece. The whole piece is very smooth as it has the many riffs throughout. The cello is playing a riff that is really low but the glockenspiel plays a riff that is rather high and the piano plays the melody that is spread out across the keyboard. The overall feel of the song is that it is very dark and mysterious.
 * Tone colour: **

The dynamics in this piece is mainly soft but at some parts there are more instruments that come in the song becomes stronger and fuller. The cello is kept fairly soft in the background as well as the glockenspiel but the piano is a bit louder than the others as it has the melody.
 * Dynamics: **

There is a large range in the pitch of this song. There are riffs that are played very smoothly and also, the phrases are very repetitive. There is also a climax near the end of the piece as all the instruments come in and they build up to a point but after the build up and the climax, the song starts to fade out as the there are less instruments and they are playing softer.
 * Pitch: **

This piece of music sounds very light but the density of the sound is very full and it doesn’t feel like anything is empty at all. The layers of sound are from the very low cellos to the high glockenspiel. The cello is also in the background for most of the song along with the other instruments except the piano.
 * Texture: **