Re: CHAT: Philip Glass Knockin'

On Fri, 13 Oct 2000, Terrence Donnelly wrote:

> I went to a Phillip Glass concert several years ago.  Repetitive, yes,
> but what got me was that it was so LOUD.  Painfully so.  I understand
> this is a regular feature of his concerts. Any trancelike or hypnotic
> effect the music was supposed to have was lost on me, since I could barely
> endure staying in my seat.
I don't think that Glass is going for the trance-like state, but I
could be wrong. I know that Reich explicitly disavows any such
intention; he wants the listener to be "hyper" aware, and to attend to
the minute and subtle changes in texture and rhythm. I listen to Glass
the same way, which probably explains why I don't care much for his
later stuff; there's too much going on!

As for the volume; well, I don't know. When I went to 1000 Airplanes
on the Roof I remember that the music was loud, but that wasn't a
distraction *for me*. I do understand that it can be uncomfortable for
others. Later performances I attended didn't strike me as being
unusually loud.

Dirk

--
Dirk Elzinga
dirk.elzinga@m.cc.utah.edu