- Fri May 15, 2015 1:54 pm
#65104
@disco - Excellent, it was a very enjoyable and enlightening evening. The director of the local opera house sat down with Glass onstage and gently prodded him with questions. Glass spoke for almost two hours on all manner of music-related topics from his long history in the stage and screen realms, as well as more ethereal topics (even venturing into the effect of time on humans on a tangent!).
He spoke at length regarding Jean Cocteau's films, which he said have spellbound him for over a half-century, as well Godfrey Reggio's "-qatsi" films, which are some of my favorite Glass scores. I am not as familiar with his many operatic works, and he was also describing an experimental project where he had opera singers performing in perfect lip-sync to a projected film (one of Cocteau's, I believe). He touched on his earlier days studying abroad at Juilliard or with Ravi Shankar in India, but I believe the book dives a bit deeper into those topics. His descriptions of seeing some of the monumental American jazz musicians performing live in the 50's was incredible, and that their sound was "beyond human -- yet utterly human" really struck me, and he said it was a big influence on his earlier works.
His advice for young, aspiring composers or musicians was that we "must have drive, stamina, and total commitment", and that just raw talent is no guarantee of success. The final question was a perfect one, as Glass was asked "What is music?" His answer, "Music is a place. A musician lives with one foot in each world, and can enter the place of music whenever they wish".
Feeling really inspired since last night. Will be reading the book straightaway. Here is the picture from the title page: