ARTS the Michigan Daily Friday, October 31, 1986 Page 9 Seeing through the facets of Glass By Rebecca Chung Musician Philip Glass is an enigma, and he prefers to stay that way. One of the few composers of "serious" music who is able to make a living from his compositions, he made it clear in a recent phone interview that he does not let the controversy over classifying his music touch him. "I think writers are the ones who have to call it something...I've heard it called everything from electronic music to New Age to avant-garde ...f just call it my music." As a matter of fact, he finds many problems with the labeling of twentieth-century music. "Avant garde represents a particular type of music that most people don't understand. As a matter of fact, most people still don't understand it... This does not always happen, for instance, Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra was inserted into the repetoire immediately...once it's taught, it isn't new anymore, think about it. I realized that when I was in Juilliard...Can you call something your great-grandfather wrote modern?" Glass should know. Born in Baltimore, he began composing at the age of fifteen. He was accepted to Juilliard, and later studied with Nadia Boulanger. Always drawn to non-mainstream composers like figures. As Glass once explained, "It all comes down to addition and division. In the West, we take time and divide it-whole notes into half-notes, half-notes into quarter- notes, and so on. In the East, they use an additive process, taking two notes and adding a third, taking four notes and adding two more...Then there are cycles, where one line of, say, 32 beats keeps repeating while another cycle of maybe 24 beats does the same thing. Like wheels turning inside wheels." Glass says that this idea "is evident in all my works," but recommends Einstein on the Beach (a full-length opera composed in 1976) as"a good place to start." Glass' most recent recording is a song cycle entitled Songs From Liquid Days, which is made up of six songs sung by such diverse talents as Laurie Anderson, David Byrne, Paul Simon, Suzanne Vega, Bernard Fowler, Douglas Perry, The Roches, and Linda Ronstadt. While in the preface to the recording, Glass makes the creative process sound somewhat cut and dried-"I began by asking David Byrne to write words that I could then set to music...After the music was written, I, along with producer Kurt Munkacsi and conductor Michael Riesman, began the long and difficult proceess of 'casting' singers for the individual songs"-on the phone it became obvious that there was more collabration than it appeared, although the amount varied with the artist. "With Paul I worked very closely...[with] Suzanne I just made a few suggestions...with Laurie I played pretty much what she handed to me." Glass is a busy man these days. He is currently working on a flim with Godfrey Reggio called North/South, to be released in 1987. One way he keeps his creative energies moving by varying the length, instrumentation, and ensemble of his pieces. "After composing a four-hour opera, I find I want to, write an eight-minute string quar - tet...I find it very refreshing." But he is glad to be one of the few living composers able to support himself solely on his works. In response to a query about his supposed former job as a taxi driver, he replied "Well, I've done all kinds of things...I didn't start making a living as a composer until I was about forty, which is prettty good actually...most people aren't that lucky." WEEKEND MAGAZINE Fridays in The Daily 763-0379 ( e g .4 - apparel - jewelry - accessories Philip Glass will perform this Saturday night at the Michigan Theatre. Satie, Virgil Thomson, Charles Ives, and Moondog, he discovered Indian music in Paris while working on a film by the Indian musician Ravi Shankar. Indian music differs from Western music both in its treatment of time and its use of repeated - "-325 e. liberty - ann arbor, michigan - 995.4222 Liz Story discusses her own By Rebecca Chung " Liz Story is unquestionsbly the most successful female New Age artist performing. Formerly with Windham Hill, she now records with RCA, and her latest album, PARTS OF FORTUNE,, will, be out shortly. She will be perf - orming Sunday night at the Cork Theatre, on the campus of Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti. 5 Daily Arts writer Rebecca Chung spoke with her over the phone last week. Daily: Can you tell us about Parts of Fortune ? Story: Well, the album itself is not out yet...the album has five piano solos on it, one piece with percussion, one with string en - k semble, large string ensemble, like twenty-eight strings, and harp, and bright bass. Then there's a piece that has cello, and also a motet, sung a cappella by a thirty-five. voice choir, and I sing in it. D: How do you write pieces? What inspires you? S: Well, I always write at the piano, and it's kind of like a process of discovery at the piano...I don't just write away from the piano, like on the bus or some - thing...I really need to be in touch with the keys...sbmetimes I have to pretend I don't 'even know what I sound like? D: What makes you creative? Waht sort of enviornment do you need in order to sit down and wtrite something? S: Well, I'll say this. Stravinsky said there is probably no more bogus word than inspiration. It's a lot of work. It's just like writing for you. You sit down and you work every day, no matter how you feel, because you're going to feel a hundred different ways. You can't count on feeling a certain way before you sit dwon and start working. So you start to work, and inspiration comes as a result of doing a lot of work, not as a cause. Now after you sit for several hours, you find something, and it may be a real struggle on some days. But to sit around to wait for inspiration or "when I feel like it"...Duke Ellington even said he wouldn't have written 90% of the pieces he wrote if it weren't for deadlines. D: What about classical music? S: I am performing some classical music. I'm working on classical music now mainly because of the way that it widens my palate, and what I mean by that is when you play Bach, it's very very different from playing Chopin, and playing Debussy...all these people are different techniques. So if you play them, you widen your own sense of color and touch. Plus, I love the repetoire. D: How important is the audience in determining how you feel? Seniors Don't Panic! There are four more days of Senior Pictures Nov. 3-6 8:30-5:15 Call 761-1520 for appointments ENSIAN S: A a very+ hundred percent, and that's difficult thing to explain, See LIZ, Page 11 T ;..__ I ___ . ^- 1 _ __ __ k _ 4 _ ? I 1 1 ,.___ __ i } E i r t VA * IffAY - . 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