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Philip Glass turns 70

Sonikmatter salutes a (still) living legend on his 70th birthday.

Philip Glass, one of the front figures of contemporary minimalism as we know it today, turned 70 on january 31st.
Since his beginning in the 1960es, where he performed on the art loft scene of avantgarde New York, Glass has been counted as one of the prime composers of minimalist music, together with names such as Steve Reich, Terry Riley and La Monte Young.

From his humble beginning, he has worked his way up to being one of the main current composers, aided by his own ensemble, but also by his collaborations with the foremost musicians and ensembles within the contemporary art scene. Musicians such as Ravi Shankar and the Kronos Quartet have all been working with Philip Glass. Today, he is also in demand for scoring big Hollywood movies.

Glass' main works include operas such as "Einstein on the Beach", and film scores such as the one making up the entire audio soundtrack for Godfrey Reggios "Koyaanisqatsi".

Minimalism, or serialism, a la Glass includes repetitions, non-thematic scores and music with no counterpoint. As such, this way of thinking music has had a huge impact on the mindset that also paved the way for a lot of modern loopbased electronic music, contemporary or not. So bring out the arpeggios and toast to the maestro; Philip Glass, happy birthday, and thank you for your contributions.

Philip Glass' website