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Philip Glass – Metamorphosis 1-5

 

Minimal Music is, as the name implies, characterized by repetitive, chiefly consonant harmonic and melodic patterns that, depending on the piece, can be repeated ad nauseam. One would think this would render the genre rather boring and bland, but to me, it often has a markedly soothing, almost meditative effect – as is definitely the case for Philip Glass's Metamorphosis series.

            The pieces are all but void of sudden, hectic twists and turns, instead opting for a more subtle dramatism (via the occasional alteration of pitch and volume) and unobtrusive minor mode melancholy. This made them excellent to have on in the background while writing this paper! Their repetitive composition and lack of thematic disruptions also efficiently not only prevented disruptions of my concentration, but seemingly slightly increased it. The music blended into the background so well that it honestly felt as though it made me lose track of time.

            All in all, listening to Glass's Metamorphosis felt to me like a pleasant change of pace, especially since I tend to prefer listening to more energetic, one might even say aggressive genres of music, such as Rock and Electronica, which is not to say that these genres cannot also have a soothing and meditative effects (one need only mention the more ambient strand of Post-Rock), but there is something about the melancholy repetition of Glass's Metamorphosis that seems to provide an extra layer of emotional security – perhaps the genre of Minimal Music seeing its heyday after America was fresh out of the paranoid and uncertain McCarthy era may have something to do with its frequent embodying of consistency and relaxation; a clear countercultural response to the hectic times.

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