music in similar motion/music in fifths PHILIP GLASS

this past Christmas, the wife and I decided to take a little trip to New Orleans. and every time I'm in New Orleans I always have to make a trip to Domino Sound Record Shack with my friend Trey. this is THE record store in New Orleans, all kinds of great new and used LP's, plus they have their own label which they have co-released a couple LP's by The Ex and put out all kinds of great cassette compilations (I picked up two this last time, one of early electronic music and another of West African music, both killer. will try to upload them at some point soonish).

but more to the point, I've never really listened to much early Philip Glass so I was quite excited to find an original copy of this LP at Domino! after watching the Philip Glass documentary, "Glass: A Portrait of Philip in 12 parts" i was quite blown away by some of the early video footage of him playing at small NYC loft spaces in the late 60's/early 70's. stylistically it doesn't sound all that much different from what we've all come to expect from Glass, but the multiple analog keyboards, saxophones and all sound fresh and exciting as opposed to some of his digital works.

this LP has two pieces recorded in '69 and '70 respectively and still sound fresh and exciting to me. Music in Similar Motion is still in rotation in the Glass Ensemble touring repertoire. Music in Fifths is an early example of Glass going against the grain of traditional and even some supposed "experimental" classical composers of the time.

his attempt at an humanistic, non-virtuoso approach is refreshing and anti-authority. i mean sorta...for example "Music in Fifths" is dedicated to Nadia Boulanger whom Glass studied harmony and counterpoint under in Paris in the 60's. the piece is written entirely in parallel 5ths, which is a cardinal sin in traditional counterpoint pedagogy.

"Music in Similar Motion" though is the real treat here. according to Philip himself:

"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."

two great early pieces from Glass. Enjoy them here!