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Definition: Glass, Philip from Philip's Encyclopedia

US composer. Glass studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, where he met Ravi Shankar and became interested in non-Western music. Glass was a pioneer of minimalism, his style characterized by hypnotic repetition of short motifs within a simple harmonic idiom. He has written operas, notably Einstein on the Beach (1976) and Akhnaten (1984), and instrumental works including the first symphony (1992) and the second symphony (1994).


Glass, Philip

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
1937–, American composer, b. Baltimore. Considered one of the most innovative of contemporary composers, he was a significant figure in the development of minimalism in music. Glass attended the Univ. of Chicago, Juilliard (M.A., 1962) and studied (1964–66) with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. There he also met Indian musicians Ravi Shankar and Alla Rakha, whose music was to influence his own compositions strongly. In 1968 he formed the Philip Glass Ensemble, a small group that employs electronically amplified instruments. During the 1970s he became known for music that blended standard notation and tonality with electronics. These lengthy and highly rhythmic compositions employ a number of phrases that are repeated and slowly modified during the music's course. The purest form of this style is represented in the four-hour-long Music in 12 Parts (1971–74). More traditional harmonies entered his music with the opera Einstein on the Beach (1976), a work written with Robert Wilson that…
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Full text Article Glass, Philip

From Philip's Encyclopedia
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Full text Article Glass, Philip (1937– )

From The Oxford Companion to Theatre and Performance
American composer. His encounter with non-Western *music in Paris led him to renounce his previous efforts in favour of minimalist composition. In 1970 Glass co-founded *Mabou Mines , an *avant-garde performance *collective that included *Akalaitis and *Breuer , sparking a series of collaborations…
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Full text Article Glass, Philip (1937–)

From The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales
American composer whose La Belle et la Bête: An Opera for Ensemble and Film (première, 1994) is an innovative operatic adaptation of Jean *Cocteau 's film La Belle et la Bête ( *Beauty and the Beast , 1946). Glass transforms Cocteau's film into a live production of music-theatre by eliminating the…
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Full text Article Glass, Philip (31 Jan. 1937, Baltimore)

From The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music
Studied flute as a child; attended the Univ. of Chicago (B.A. in music, 1956); then studied composition at Juilliard (Bergsma, Persichetti; M.A., 1961); other composition teachers included Milhaud (Aspen Music Festival, 1960) and Boulanger (Paris, 1963–65); before going to France he was…
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Full text Article Glass

From Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary Full text Article Biographical Names
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Full text Article Minimalism

From Brewer's Dictionary of Modern Phrase and Fable
A trend in abstract art, and especially sculpture, of the 1960s, involving an emphasis on simple geometric shapes, the use of primary colours and a minimum of meaning, emotion or illusion. In the next decade minimalism emerged as an avantgarde movement in music, where it is characterized by the…
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Full text Article Minimalism

From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
A trend in abstract art, and especially sculpture, of the 1960s, involving an emphasis on simple geometric shapes, the use of primary colours and a minimum of meaning, emotion or illusion. In the next decade minimalism emerged as an avant-garde movement in music, where it is characterized by the…
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Full text Article Avant-Garde

From Encyclopedia of Diversity and Social Justice
The phrase avant-garde derives from the French “advance guard,” “vanguard,” or, literally, “fore-guard,” and is intended to refer to experimental and innovative people or works, such as works of art, and people involved in culture production, the arts, and political theory. There are avant-garde…
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Full text Article Glass, Philip

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
(born Jan. 31, 1937, Baltimore, Md., U.S.) U.S. composer. He studied mathematics and philosophy at the University of Chicago and then studied composition at the Juilliard School and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. His later studies with the Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar in 1966 and the tabla player…
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Full text Article Music: great composers

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Composer Dates Nationality Main types of composition Giovanni Palestrina c. 1525–1594 Italian motets, masses Claudio Monteverdi 1567–1643 Italian operas, vocal music Henry Purcell c. 1659–1695 English vocal music, operas Antonio Vivaldi 1678–1741 Italian concertos, chamber music Georg Friedrich…
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