Philip Glass - Two Pages

full early works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZMJcrVIHCU&list=PLTUlTwlsdlFRKCAzRTEEFj6Iwou3LUHqA

Two Pages/Contrary Motion/In Fifths/In Similar Motion (1994 issue)

'Two Pages' (Glass believes it was written in 1967 or 1968) It is the earliest, and the most spartan, of the four. In this study in the elongation and subsequent contraction of a simple musical line, Glass explored what he called his technique of "additive process," derived from his work with Shankar, in its most skeletal manifestation.

'Contrary Motion', composed in 1969 for solo organ, is not quite so austere; pedal points add a functional harmony (A minor) and there is something faintly Bach-ian about its stern, rigorous counterpoint. Contrary Motion was written in what Glass calls "open form" - it never really ends, it just stops. The expanding figures upon which it is constructed could, theoretically, continue augmenting forever. Should an interpreter care to take it that far, a performance lasting hours, even days, would be possible.

'In Fifths' (1969), on the other hand, is in "closed form" - a predetermined structure that ends when the accumulation of repetitions fill it out completely. Glass has always considered Music in Fifths a sort of teasing homage to Boulanger; it is written entirely in parallel fifths, a cardinal sin in the traditional counterpoint his teacher so carefully instructed.

'In Similar Motion' (1969). The most appealing of these works - and the only one that the Philip Glass Ensemble still keeps in its active repertory. "The real innovation in Similar Motion is its sense of drama," Glass said in 1993. "The earlier pieces were meditative, steady-state pieces that established a mood and stayed there. But Similar Motion starts with one voice, then adds another playing a fourth above the original line, and then another playing a fourth below the original line, and finally a bass line kicks in to complete the sound. As each new voice enters, there is a dramatic change in the music."

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Composed by Philip Glass.
Reissue of original LP; 'In Similar Motion' and 'In Fifths' (1973) and 'Solo Music' (1975).
Produced by Kurt Munkacsi and Michael Riesman for Euphorbia Productions, Ltd.
Digitally remastered at The Looking Glass Studios, NYC.
Design by James Victore Design Works. Cover Photograph © 1973 Peter Moore.
© Dunvagen Music Publishers, Inc. (ASCAP). © 1994 Nonesuch Records.