While browsing some websites on contemporary classical composers, I noticed someone mention a 1982 film called Koyaanisqatsi, the music scored by Philip Glass. I looked up the premise of the film, which turned out to be slow-motion and time-lapse footage, without narration, of various cities and landscapes in the USA. It is described as a visual 'tone poem', which resonated with my experience of musical tone poems I had heard.
My previous attempts at listening to Glass's music have been less than successful, and I hadn't found it as accessible as Steve Reich's. My philosophy while undertaking this course has been to go outside of my comfort zone and push my musical boundaries, and I thought that watching this film would be a great opportunity to tackle Glass's music head-on.
As there is no spoken content in the film, the music was bound to play a huge part, and in this respect it didn't disappoint. After a brooding introduction, Glass's relentless minimalist style pushes forward at an incredible pace, perfectly matching the style of the video footage and is often synchronized with it. This was the most enjoyable aspect for me; the unison of time-lapse footage with the quick tempo repetitive music, which together told a story (which is open for personal interpretation). Glass uses a large ensemble of orchestral instruments, the Western Wind Vocal Ensemble providing the vocals, and also an array of electronic instruments including synthesizers.
After watching the film I set out to acquire a recording of the film's soundtrack. It transpired that there are multiple re-recordings, and a complete film-length version wasn't released until 2009. I did manage to find a copy of this, and have enjoyed listening to it as a separate entity to the film. I'm sure I will dip into the recording regularly into the future, and also explore more of Philip Glass's music. The film is actually part of a trilogy, Glass having scored the music for all three, so I'll be checking these out as well.
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