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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
This one sneaks up on you!, February 4, 2003
This review is from: Philip Glass: Two Pages; Contrary Motion; Music in Fifths; Music in Similar Motion (Audio CD)
I'm a going-on-four-year Glass fan. At the risk of sounding snobbish, I wouldn't reccomend this disc to anyone who's spent less time than that as a Glass fan. Not that this music is not delicious; in fact - if you are a fan of the his early electronic pieces, this CD is a godsend (if you believe in that sort of thing.) For those who are new to Glass, let me try and put it delicately but realistically. Have you ever heard the caricatures or jokes about Glass's minimalism, endlessly repeating? The infamous South Park episode where the character Glass writes a piece consisting of one note? Well, if you aren't familiar with his music, this will sound like that. Rest assured, it grows on you, but you will need tons of patience to become an addict like me! For the rest of us, don't hesitate. For the "early" fans, there IS NO alternative!!! Here's a brief description: Two Pages: Michael Riesman on piano, Glass on organ. Very sparse piece starting with repeating chromatic 5 note sequence in minor key, gradually adding notes on the end of the prhase, taking notes away from the beginning of the phrase. This one will suprise you how fast it grows on you!! Music in Contrary Motion: Suprising use of intricate counterpoint for early Glass. Minor key solo organ alternating between I and V chord with counterpoint overtop. Phrases get longer according to a planned sequence that (according to Glass) can be added ad infinitum and go on for days. This one's a little too tense for me. Music in fifths (and) Music in Similar Motion: I put these together as the concept (except for the intervals involved) is similar. Again, repeated phrases with expanding and contrasting sequences but both of these are for full ensemble (back in the Dickie Landry days). Music in fifths is a joke as it is written entirely in fifths, the cardinal sin of counterpoint. All in all, a good disc. The recordings are old but remastered so the quality is good and like I mentioned before, despite the EXTREME sparsity of these pieces, they will grow on you quicker than you think!
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22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wow., June 13, 2000
This review is from: Philip Glass: Two Pages; Contrary Motion; Music in Fifths; Music in Similar Motion (Audio CD)
Okay, first off, this is only my second Glass CD (the first being Koyaanisqatsi), so I'm probably not the best person to be reviewing this. Oh well. The first time I listened to it, it nearly drove me insane. This isn't anything like his later pieces; gimmie a second to think of a way to explain how this thing sounds. Take four sets of an infinite number of toothpicks, each set having a different color. Now, lay them out in order, from end to end (red, blue, green, yellow, red, blue, green, yellow etc.). Every few cycles, sneak in a new toothpick or take one out. Eventually, you might end up with about twenty blue toothpicks lined up in a row, so of course you've got to start taking them out, one by one. This type of music isn't like Glass' later works because it doesn't conform to anything like a constant tempo or a constant number of notes in a measure. His later stuff uses a kind of "layering" technique, which actually obeys some rules of traditional composition. Music that acts like this shouldn't be entertaining... but it is anyways. I find myself putting this thing in my CD player at least once or twice a week. I love it. It's addictive. I can't stop listening. Someone, please help me.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Difficult, but well worth it, February 8, 2003
This review is from: Philip Glass: Two Pages; Contrary Motion; Music in Fifths; Music in Similar Motion (Audio CD)
I first heard "Music in Similar Motion" (track 4) when I was around six or seven years old. It grabbed me straightaway with its arrangement of rhythmic patterns and harmony, and kept my attention for the full seventeen minutes. That piece fuelled my interest to date in experimental music. For those who do not know these pieces, they are organ-based works which are based on rhythmic and harmonic systems, repeating themselves again and again. These systems get progressively longer as the pieces carry on, but how much longer they get is difficult to judge on listening, as they are not purely mathematical progressions. These pieces are all intense and unrelenting; you may very well be driven up the wall before you finish listening, but when you do get to the end, the sense of relief you get makes the whole experience well worth it. I found this was especially true of the original LP versions (whicb I still have).
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