The hardworking genius of Philip Glass
Glenn Gould Prize winner’s personal flame burns brightly
For Philip Glass, being awarded this year’s Glenn Gould Prize is a big deal.
“It’s an important prize, in part because it’s named for one of the great musical personalities of my day.
“He had a great gift … an enormous talent. Also he was extremely intelligent and he had a tremendous commitment to quality in music, whether it was in terms of performing or recording.”
The $100,000 prize recognizes a lifetime of work that “has enriched the human condition through the arts.”
There is little doubt that Glass meets that standard. He has written works for dance, opera, chamber ensemble, orchestra, experimental theatre and film, including an Oscar nomination for his score for The Hours.
“I’m going to be 80 in January. (Gould), died young. It’s like a candle. It burns until it’s burned out. There is a vital energy that we have and once it’s gone, it’s gone.”
Glass maintains a demanding schedule. When he is not travelling or pulled away for other commitments, he rises early (“I won’t tell you how early”), each morning and writes steadily. He has just finished Symphony No. 11, which will premiere next year. After that, “I have a piano concerto to do, a string quartet after that, and a small opera after that. That’s all this year.”
In the early 1960s, Glass connected with Ravi Shankar, whose collaboration with the Beatles was still in the future. The insights Glass gained into Indian music helped shape his own musical thinking. Along the way, he has opened other musical doors to African, Central and South American, Australian and Chinese music. He has connections and collaborations all over the world.
“I knew very early that my gifts might have been a little bit better than average, but there were many more gifted people than me, but no one worked harder than me. That was important. It was a realization (for me). I became an overachiever actually.”
This dedication started early, “so I have had plenty of time to think about the work. I have no answer for where the good stuff comes from. It seems to be a combination of dedication, determination and energy and a real love and deep and profound connection to music. Most musicians will tell you that.”
For many years, Glass was a plumber or a cab driver by day to support his music career at night. And to get his work played, he formed his own group, the Philip Glass Ensemble, which often appeared in art galleries and small venues to very few people.
And “luck plays a certain role in all of this. I don’t know how exactly.
“How did Bob Wilson and I get to the (Metropolitan Opera), in 1976. Neither of us had ever been above 14th Street, for God’s sake. And then we sell it out.”
He is referring to two nights of the opera Einstein On The Beach, a signature event in the course of his career.
Glass believes luck helped him get the job scoring the cult film Koyaanisqatsi.
“I met this very gifted, wonderful filmmaker (Godfrey Reggio). He had a film that needed a score. He had studied a lot of music and decided that I was going to be the composer. It could easily not have happened.”
Glass, always adventurous, has worked with and inspired many prominent artists including Twyla Tharp, Woody Allen, David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Paul Simon, Kronos Quartet and Yo-Yo Ma.
“I grew up in Baltimore. It was more cultural than you might think, but basically it’s a border state and port city. It was a completely segregated city. I had my eye on New York when I was 12 or 13. If you want to get hit by a bus you have to go out on the street.”
When Glass arrived at The Juilliard School in the 1950s, New York was vibrating with artistic ferment. It was also a politically tempestuous time.
“In the late 1950s we had terrible politics in our country. We had McCarthy, communist witch hunts and all kinds of things that were the opposite of the kind of progressive democracy which we thought we lived in.
“But at that time, we also had Allen Ginsberg and we had Bob Dylan and all kinds of people.
“Something like that is happening right now. You can see it on TV. The destructive character of the electoral process thanks to one completely unhinged person has almost brought the country to its knees, but at the same time, there are young artists, musicians, painters and theatre people.
“I think young people today are looking for something positive to hitch their wagon to. That’s what we did in the 1950s and 1960s.”
Glass is a firm believer in the enduring power of culture and art.
“The power of culture is terrific. If I go to Amsterdam, I look at the Rembrandts and the Van Goghs; the cultural legacy of a people is the most powerful thing that is left behind.
“It’s not the politicians. They come and go, the things that remain are the works of writers and the painters, the historians and the musicians...”