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Listening Report- Philip Glass “Part 10 of Music in twelve parts”

 

For this listening Report I chose to analyze one of the most famous works of Philip Glass, that is a piece of the album “Music in twelve parts”. This album was written between the 1971 and 1974 and it is largely considered a masterpiece of the minimalist movement, which is characterized by repetitive patterns or pulses, steady drones and reiteration of smaller units.

This particular piece lasts 17 minutes and I find it very challenging for the listener: it seems like it’s always the same, but if you listen carefully there are little variations within the song. It deals with an illusion, since patterns actually change almost continuously, though nearly imperceptibly.

The first impression that I had is strictly linked to the process of creating a techno piece: a musician put a base and then pushes a button in the console in different times in order to create the perfect rhythm. Once the several rhythms have been tested, the musician will choose the best one and create the song. My first impression though can be summed up in a sentence, that is “ a record in the making”: something that is about to come alive, to come together, but unfinished and not well defined.

As regard the emotions linked to those images that the piece evokes, when I first listened to this work by Glass I pictured myself in a underground passage, trying to figure out how to escape or trying to solve a riddle, on the solution of which my salvation depends. I strongly think that these emotions are linked to the discovering process that I have already described: as the musician is trying to find the right rhythm for his song, in the same way I am trying to find a solution to escape from the tunnel. The discovering process is not always easy or pleasant, but at least it is always interesting and stimulating.

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