I love the fact that the opening to glassworks is not that difficult to play. When composers write beautiful and interesting pieces that are not technically challenging it's a great gift to beginners.
I've only recently begun to actually listen to Philip Glass, Terry Riley, LaMonte Young, etc. There's a great documentary about minimalism on UA-cam called, "Tones Drones and Arpeggios - The Magic of Minimalism." I've been trying to incorporate minimal concepts into heavier music, and I think it works well. The repetition creates an "epic" feel, with the only changes happening are the dynamics in the music, building and falling, etc.
@@ShadeCandle Yep - I'm a big fan. There's a grat series of recording on Bandcamp called "A Cheery Wave From Stranded Youngsters" that features a lot of up-and-coming bands in the "Post" genre.
You got to "A Major, C-sharp minor!" and then the whole world opened up, and you stopped! That was getting so good! I'm going to have to try this for myself in different keys. The modulation is where this gains real traction and has the capacity to unfold into something extraordinary. Thank you for the inspiration!!!
I saw the Philip Glass Ensemble in 1982 when he was using a lot of electronic keyboards - he had a massive PA, and wow, he rocked the house! It was loud, exciting, and intense - unlike anything I'd ever seen. Then a few years later I saw him and the ensemble performing the music to Koyaanisqatsi live while the movie played behind them - I wore an awesome dark purple velvet cape, and brought some smokable opium with me; I pulled out a pipe and lit it, and the woman next to me (who was dressed awesome as well) was like, "is that opium"? She asked if I'd share it with her - which of course I did. A short time later into the performance she and I were like, "OMG that is so awesome"! And it was - even without the opium it was amazing. With the opium it was a transformative experience... I then went to several lectures and live interviews with Philip Glass, and then saw him live again where I managed to get him to give me one of the mint promo posters from that show, and he signed it for me too!
That was the Glassworks tour. Glassworks came out in '82. I caught them in Texarkana, Texas of all places. Some of the concert goers were totally unprepared for the onslaught, especially from the bass synth parts, as the performance was at the concert hall, these people were expecting Haydn I suppose. It was an awe-inspiring concert.
That’s about the clearest explanation of this that I’ve seen yet, and has me thinking. I’ve done minimalism and polyrhythms in the past (coming at the latter from an orchestral percussionist point of view) but I can see ways to expand on what I’ve done, past the solo organ pieces.
i stumbled upon philip glass with the koyaanisqatsi movie, which is also a superb piece of music, but the most iconic work of glass is definitely the opening of glassworks. it sounds complex, but is actually surprisingly simple, once you get your hands to play two different things simultaneously. first you think your head explodes, but suddenly it’s quite easy, just like riding a bike.
Hey Chris! Harry LeBlanc here. We were in I group together in the Bay Area, almost 20 years ago. I really dug this video -- I love the Philip Glass polyrhythm thing. Keep on keeping on!
I didn't know that Phillip Glass studied in France with Nadia Boulange, or that he was a master of counterpoint. Maybe that shouldn't change the way I regard his music - but it does. It makes him a lot more interesting knowing that he would have been immersed in the classics.
It's kind of disturbing when I've been tinkering with ideas. And one of your videos pops up, out of the blue, clearly defining and instructing me on it. Thank you for doing these!
This is wonderful and useful. I'm a devoted amateur percussionist. My real musical mission is in facilitating drum circles. There is no more powerful musical tool for me than polyrhythm. People hear and understand it intuitively, and it enriches their experience of the simple, joyful drum music, helping them imagine more details to add. A lot of music theory is "above my pay grade" but this is exactly "in my lane". Respect and gratitude, Implied Music!
Just come across your channel. This is an elegant and succinct video. Thank you. I love that piece of Glass'. Once, about 15 years ago, I played it on CD and my flatmate on the other side of the wall from me, asked me shortly after if that was one of my compositions. I wish!
Mostly interested in learning the techniques for my own wiriting skills, so that was really great! As much as I love and admire PG's work, I rarely find myslef actually putting on one of his albums, but I do want to learn from his amazing approach and techniques. Thank you!
“Glassworks” was released in 1982, the same year as the “Koyaanisqatsi” soundtrack. In fact, some pieces from the soundtrack were used in “Glassworks”.
not a composer but love philip glass. have been a huge fan of ambient music for a few years now and have noticed this technique quite a bit. thank you for the beautiful and simple explanation so even an electric bassist can understand it. there's an elegance that only simplicity can provide sometimes and i believe this is one of those times. looking forward to exploring your channel! all the best to you!!!
Very nice! I am an EDM producer and i picked up some ideas during this video. I was already doing similar things but i think i can be more methodic now. Thanks!
Thanks. I am dabbling with sequencers and live coding software and this video has been realty inspirational. By starting from your input i realized an algorithmic sequence rhat really works abd has been appreciated by the people that listened to it. Achievement unlocked. You have a new follower.
I'm really glad that you're making these videos. Incidentally, 'Glassworks' isn't "very early" for Glass, nor is it from the mid seventies. The album is from 1982 and the music was composed in 1981. 'Music In Contrary Motion', by way of contrast, is from 1969, and that isn't really a "very early" piece for Glass, either. He began composing seriously in the 1950s and won a BMI Student Composer Award in 1959, and taught music while composing in the 1960s, but later destroyed his earliest, pre-minimalist work, and didn't begin writing in the style that he is known for until 1967.
I'm a guitar player specifically in the Progressive Metal genre. This is a topic I am very interested in. I want my music to be complex sounding but simplistic when played.
I remember trying to teach myself this and just having a heck of a time getting the left and right hands to keep to their own beat. It was only when I just thought about that “clippity-clop” rhythm of the piece as Glass plays that I could get it, sort of. Funny to hear Glassworks described as “early Glass.” I think it’s from the early 80s, when Glass signed with CBS and started to do shorter pieces to appeal to a broader audience than the “Einstein on the Beach” crowd.
Very interesting. I've been trying to get do some minimalist music on my modular synthesizers using their sequencers. I'm going to have a go at this simple polyrythmn trick.
I am familiar with many minimalist works, Reich being my favorite, and Glass of course, but when that 'resultant rhythm' part was playing, before you even mentioned it, I all of a sudden pictured an acoustic guitar playing flamenco style, because I knew I've heard that exact kind of strumming before, outside of the world of minimalism, and then you immediately pointed out _exactly_ the rhythm pattern I had heard and pictured being played on a guitar - it's like you read my mind so perfectly it kinda freaked me out for a second. But of course that's exactly the point of the listening exercise, hearing that pattern, so I just wanted to say well done, you've covered some really interesting topics in a very concise and useful way with this and some of your other minimalist videos. Subscribed, and I've only done that for about 5 other channels throughout the many years I've been watching YT vids. Would actually like to see this kind of stuff covered in more detail in the future, if that's possible.
Interesting analysis and a beautiful demonstration. Your explanation has helped me to understand more deeply why I enjoy the music of Philip Glass so much, thankyou.
Very simple, elegant and beautiful. There's nothing complicated about this and it works very well, and yet I probably would not intuitively compose something like this. Thanks for this video, it's very useful!
Wow, this is so awesome, started playing about with this idea and was immediately blown away! I have never listened to Philip Glass so now I need to go find his music, thank you !
Love this video! I used to listen to Glass a lot, but you nudged me right back to him. He is still just great. Can't wait to start practicing and fiddling with own compositions. :)
An enlightening analysis. Thank you! l will check out the rest of your channel. (I wear a scarf too here in Northern California..50° mornings in July .)
Great video, I've used this technique in parts of my songs with out knowing the music theory behind it, was just experimenting. You can really hear it on one of my upcoming new tracks Jan 2024 - Cheers!
Your videos are great. Vague / E la nave va by Anour Brahem gives another beautiful example of the technique you describe here. Their album Le voyage de Sahar is such a gem.
It was such a joy to watch your video! I've never seen such a descriptive, simple explanation. I'd really like to see more, especially with the analysis of his pieces with more complex chord progressions, arpeggio polyrhythms and confusing harmonies like in his 11th, 15th, and 20th etudes. I enjoy playing his pieces, but to be honest, it always feels like he intentionally puts some off-key notes in his music, I guess there's some academic explanation of the choices he makes.
there's a lot to unpack with Glass, particularly the way he handles dissonance. i'll do more on him. the score to "the hours" is great to study, and is available as a piano reduction.
Hey Chris, just found your channel but I’m really enjoying it so far. If you haven’t already heard it I highly recommend the album dysnomia by dawn of midi for some great minimalist/shifting rhythm music. Cheers
Not sure it's exactly the same thing but I've been getting some quite interesting rhythms and melodies by sampling the audio of a simple musical phrase or an evolving tone, and then playing the sample back at different pitches (playing notes C, F, G is quite effective). I'm pretty sure it's been done before by people like Terry Riley, but I discovered it myself by experimenting. You get the pitch shift, but the melody also speeds up by approximately 1.25 and 1.3 times with these notes. If you repeat over octaves then you get the melodies for each note at half or double the speed. It's not exact in an equal tempered scale so you also get slight sync variations. I might try it using a pythagorean scale to get the ratios exact.
that's a very cool technique. for a very tight example of this, Steve Reich's "Come Out" is great listening. His early tape work focussed on slight speed changes that threw things gradually out of phase, creating new sonic landscapes and rhythms.
Fun fact, when the metronome started to play you started to automatically sync your words to the tempo. I don't know if this phenomenon is called anything because sometimes I do the same without realizing it, not only with words but movements as well and I see others do it as well
Beauty is essentially the revealing of simplicity. And here you have it.
I love the fact that the opening to glassworks is not that difficult to play. When composers write beautiful and interesting pieces that are not technically challenging it's a great gift to beginners.
I've only recently begun to actually listen to Philip Glass, Terry Riley, LaMonte Young, etc. There's a great documentary about minimalism on UA-cam called, "Tones Drones and Arpeggios - The Magic of Minimalism." I've been trying to incorporate minimal concepts into heavier music, and I think it works well. The repetition creates an "epic" feel, with the only changes happening are the dynamics in the music, building and falling, etc.
wow great stuff, thanks for the recommendation
You should look into post-rock, if you haven't already. That's basically what it is.
@@ShadeCandle Yep - I'm a big fan. There's a grat series of recording on Bandcamp called "A Cheery Wave From Stranded Youngsters" that features a lot of up-and-coming bands in the "Post" genre.
thank you for the documentary pointer.....I will be watching later!
Mirror Reaper by Bell Witch
Love zhat you did DAW visualisation fotr Glass, his music was kind of made for this! ❤
You got to "A Major, C-sharp minor!" and then the whole world opened up, and you stopped! That was getting so good! I'm going to have to try this for myself in different keys. The modulation is where this gains real traction and has the capacity to unfold into something extraordinary. Thank you for the inspiration!!!
I agree
Yes!!!
Very beatiful, thnk u very much! 😊
I saw the Philip Glass Ensemble in 1982 when he was using a lot of electronic keyboards - he had a massive PA, and wow, he rocked the house! It was loud, exciting, and intense - unlike anything I'd ever seen. Then a few years later I saw him and the ensemble performing the music to Koyaanisqatsi live while the movie played behind them - I wore an awesome dark purple velvet cape, and brought some smokable opium with me; I pulled out a pipe and lit it, and the woman next to me (who was dressed awesome as well) was like, "is that opium"? She asked if I'd share it with her - which of course I did. A short time later into the performance she and I were like, "OMG that is so awesome"! And it was - even without the opium it was amazing. With the opium it was a transformative experience... I then went to several lectures and live interviews with Philip Glass, and then saw him live again where I managed to get him to give me one of the mint promo posters from that show, and he signed it for me too!
while i find it difficult to condone opioids, that's an awesome story.
🎶🎶💜🎶🎶
That was the Glassworks tour. Glassworks came out in '82. I caught them in Texarkana, Texas of all places. Some of the concert goers were totally unprepared for the onslaught, especially from the bass synth parts, as the performance was at the concert hall, these people were expecting Haydn I suppose. It was an awe-inspiring concert.
That’s about the clearest explanation of this that I’ve seen yet, and has me thinking. I’ve done minimalism and polyrhythms in the past (coming at the latter from an orchestral percussionist point of view) but I can see ways to expand on what I’ve done, past the solo organ pieces.
I love this metronome-sound. Its an athmospheric instrument for itself.
I like that term, "Resulted rhythm". Very nice!
Great stuff. Keep the Phillip glass breakdowns coming. Subscribed 🍷
i stumbled upon philip glass with the koyaanisqatsi movie, which is also a superb piece of music, but the most iconic work of glass is definitely the opening of glassworks. it sounds complex, but is actually surprisingly simple, once you get your hands to play two different things simultaneously. first you think your head explodes, but suddenly it’s quite easy, just like riding a bike.
That is beautiful..... VERY beautiful.....🥲
Wow Great!!! Thank you!! 👏🏻👏🏻
Hey Chris! Harry LeBlanc here. We were in I group together in the Bay Area, almost 20 years ago. I really dug this video -- I love the Philip Glass polyrhythm thing. Keep on keeping on!
Harry! great to see you!
It is so lovely to be in your company. Also, you explain things so very well.
I didn't know that Phillip Glass studied in France with Nadia Boulange, or that he was a master of counterpoint. Maybe that shouldn't change the way I regard his music - but it does. It makes him a lot more interesting knowing that he would have been immersed in the classics.
It's kind of disturbing when I've been tinkering with ideas. And one of your videos pops up, out of the blue, clearly defining and instructing me on it. Thank you for doing these!
The algorithm has its eyes on you…(and me). Hope it was useful.
Immensely!@@ImpliedMusic
This is wonderful and useful. I'm a devoted amateur percussionist. My real musical mission is in facilitating drum circles. There is no more powerful musical tool for me than polyrhythm. People hear and understand it intuitively, and it enriches their experience of the simple, joyful drum music, helping them imagine more details to add.
A lot of music theory is "above my pay grade" but this is exactly "in my lane".
Respect and gratitude, Implied Music!
Sweet
Excelente. La zamba y la chacarera son formas del folklore argentino que rítmicamente trabajan así. 3/4 sobre 6/8
Just come across your channel. This is an elegant and succinct video. Thank you. I love that piece of Glass'. Once, about 15 years ago, I played it on CD and my flatmate on the other side of the wall from me, asked me shortly after if that was one of my compositions. I wish!
Pneumonic device for that rhythm..."Not Difficult" Really nice explanation. Clean and useful. Thank you!
Great mnemonic
Fantastic , thanks
This channel is absolute gold! :)
Mostly interested in learning the techniques for my own wiriting skills, so that was really great! As much as I love and admire PG's work, I rarely find myslef actually putting on one of his albums, but I do want to learn from his amazing approach and techniques. Thank you!
This is an incredible video. Taking a while to play the two at the same time.
Challenge accepted. I'm totally amateur, but I'm going to try to hit you with something that will make you smile or laugh. Either is good. Game on
I really liked this video. It's sparked some new interesting ideas for my music.
“Glassworks” was released in 1982, the same year as the “Koyaanisqatsi” soundtrack. In fact, some pieces from the soundtrack were used in “Glassworks”.
I love Philip Glass
You almost played " While my guitar gently weeps " with that switch to A Major :p very instructive video !
Beautiful! I just discovered your channel and I look forward to working through your videos 😀
@@abtextiles912 thanks. Good luck, I just noticed the video count went up to 1500. That seems excessive. 😄
not a composer but love philip glass. have been a huge fan of ambient music for a few years now and have noticed this technique quite a bit. thank you for the beautiful and simple explanation so even an electric bassist can understand it. there's an elegance that only simplicity can provide sometimes and i believe this is one of those times. looking forward to exploring your channel! all the best to you!!!
Mind blowing, thank you, absolutely love your channel!
Thank you Aaron!
Very nice! I am an EDM producer and i picked up some ideas during this video. I was already doing similar things but i think i can be more methodic now. Thanks!
Videos like this brought me to your channel, thank you so much my friend. Another Masterclass in only 8 minutes!
Fantastic! Have heard this effect alot in film scores as you pointed out but never figured out how to replicate it, so simple yet elegant- thanks!
Thanks. I am dabbling with sequencers and live coding software and this video has been realty inspirational. By starting from your input i realized an algorithmic sequence rhat really works abd has been appreciated by the people that listened to it.
Achievement unlocked. You have a new follower.
Great to hear!
THANK YOU! I was hoping Glassworks would be your archetype for this video! Amazing to fire up the video and hear exactly that!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I learned something. Thank you!
Thanks for the very clear explanation. I think the best parts of music occur when it's doing two different things at the same time.
Totally agree!
I'm really glad that you're making these videos. Incidentally, 'Glassworks' isn't "very early" for Glass, nor is it from the mid seventies. The album is from 1982 and the music was composed in 1981. 'Music In Contrary Motion', by way of contrast, is from 1969, and that isn't really a "very early" piece for Glass, either. He began composing seriously in the 1950s and won a BMI Student Composer Award in 1959, and taught music while composing in the 1960s, but later destroyed his earliest, pre-minimalist work, and didn't begin writing in the style that he is known for until 1967.
Yes, thanks for that.
Interesting technique
I'm about to try what you just taught me with a song I'm writing for my 12 string guitar 🎸 crossing fingers
I'm a guitar player specifically in the Progressive Metal genre. This is a topic I am very interested in. I want my music to be complex sounding but simplistic when played.
Wonderful stuff. Thanks.
Very informative and well presented video cheers
I remember trying to teach myself this and just having a heck of a time getting the left and right hands to keep to their own beat. It was only when I just thought about that “clippity-clop” rhythm of the piece as Glass plays that I could get it, sort of.
Funny to hear Glassworks described as “early Glass.” I think it’s from the early 80s, when Glass signed with CBS and started to do shorter pieces to appeal to a broader audience than the “Einstein on the Beach” crowd.
Thank you for your video! Very informative. I did some DAW-less modular synth Glass covers on my channel, including Openings.
Excellent. I’ll check them out!
Very interesting. I've been trying to get do some minimalist music on my modular synthesizers using their sequencers. I'm going to have a go at this simple polyrythmn trick.
Very cool!
I've just discovered your channel, and love this!
thanks, that means a lot coming from you.
@@ImpliedMusic Thank you! Not sure why, but that is a really kind thing to say!
I am familiar with many minimalist works, Reich being my favorite, and Glass of course, but when that 'resultant rhythm' part was playing, before you even mentioned it, I all of a sudden pictured an acoustic guitar playing flamenco style, because I knew I've heard that exact kind of strumming before, outside of the world of minimalism, and then you immediately pointed out _exactly_ the rhythm pattern I had heard and pictured being played on a guitar - it's like you read my mind so perfectly it kinda freaked me out for a second. But of course that's exactly the point of the listening exercise, hearing that pattern, so I just wanted to say well done, you've covered some really interesting topics in a very concise and useful way with this and some of your other minimalist videos. Subscribed, and I've only done that for about 5 other channels throughout the many years I've been watching YT vids. Would actually like to see this kind of stuff covered in more detail in the future, if that's possible.
Excellent. Not everyone has the ears for that, as I’m sure you know.
This is so gorgeous
Thank you too!
Interesting analysis and a beautiful demonstration. Your explanation has helped me to understand more deeply why I enjoy the music of Philip Glass so much, thankyou.
Thank you. will try this effect and try and add a third rhythm to it (using the pinky). 🙏
very nice thank you !
Thanks I love this
Marvellous. Thank you for this.
Absolutely Great.
Brilliant
The opening of the music he made for the documentary La Sierra pelada has this poly rhythm all over the place
Wow, sounds amazing. We'll described
Very simple, elegant and beautiful. There's nothing complicated about this and it works very well, and yet I probably would not intuitively compose something like this.
Thanks for this video, it's very useful!
excellent
Wow, this is so awesome, started playing about with this idea and was immediately blown away! I have never listened to Philip Glass so now I need to go find his music, thank you !
Awesome! Thank you!
Love this video! I used to listen to Glass a lot, but you nudged me right back to him. He is still just great. Can't wait to start practicing and fiddling with own compositions. :)
Wonderful!
Brilliant!!! Thanks much for the awesome breakdown - I'm a big fan of Philip Glass.
An enlightening analysis. Thank you! l will check out the rest of your channel. (I wear a scarf too here in Northern California..50° mornings in July .)
Nice breakdown of one of his techniques. Well presented. Thanks for sharing
My pleasure!
this is useful advice for music I'm writing that sounds nothing like this experientially. funny how that is
SO damn cool!!
Wow! Absolutely fantastic. Thanks so much.
Great breakdown! Thank you! I just subscribed.
Welcome!
So concise, very interesting thanks. Subscribed to find more of this......
Wow thank you for that enlighting information. Loved it
This is very beautiful indeed. Very instructive as well
¡Gracias!!!
Excellent, thank you
Wow this is brilliant thanks for the break down of how this works.👍
Very welcome!
just found you.... what a find!
welcome!
Really love this. And you explain really well and calmly. Subbed 👍
Beautiful and open minding❤
Thank you for this. ❤ game changer.
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks this is exciting !!
Great video, I've used this technique in parts of my songs with out knowing the music theory behind it, was just experimenting. You can really hear it on one of my upcoming new tracks Jan 2024 - Cheers!
Fantastic!
Excellent video, many thanks. Could you do a tutorial on how to play both hands?
great idea.
Your videos are great. Vague / E la nave va by Anour Brahem gives another beautiful example of the technique you describe here. Their album Le voyage de Sahar is such a gem.
Cool, thanks!
❤❤❤❤love your channel great job
thanks!
So inspiring!
Thanks!
Helpful
It was such a joy to watch your video! I've never seen such a descriptive, simple explanation. I'd really like to see more, especially with the analysis of his pieces with more complex chord progressions, arpeggio polyrhythms and confusing harmonies like in his 11th, 15th, and 20th etudes. I enjoy playing his pieces, but to be honest, it always feels like he intentionally puts some off-key notes in his music, I guess there's some academic explanation of the choices he makes.
there's a lot to unpack with Glass, particularly the way he handles dissonance. i'll do more on him. the score to "the hours" is great to study, and is available as a piano reduction.
Fantastic video, thank
You
Thanks!
This was very cool thank u
Thank you
Ah I missed this challenge of yours but incidentally came up with a fun arrangement of silent night last year
Hope to join the next one!
Please do!
Hey Chris, just found your channel but I’m really enjoying it so far. If you haven’t already heard it I highly recommend the album dysnomia by dawn of midi for some great minimalist/shifting rhythm music. Cheers
Dysnomia... amazing. i saw them do it live years ago. literally transformative experience. thanks.
Cool video
Not sure it's exactly the same thing but I've been getting some quite interesting rhythms and melodies by sampling the audio of a simple musical phrase or an evolving tone, and then playing the sample back at different pitches (playing notes C, F, G is quite effective). I'm pretty sure it's been done before by people like Terry Riley, but I discovered it myself by experimenting. You get the pitch shift, but the melody also speeds up by approximately 1.25 and 1.3 times with these notes. If you repeat over octaves then you get the melodies for each note at half or double the speed. It's not exact in an equal tempered scale so you also get slight sync variations. I might try it using a pythagorean scale to get the ratios exact.
that's a very cool technique. for a very tight example of this, Steve Reich's "Come Out" is great listening. His early tape work focussed on slight speed changes that threw things gradually out of phase, creating new sonic landscapes and rhythms.
Learning a lot from you. ❤
Thanks 😊
I practice guitar but this is so interesting ❤
Fun fact, when the metronome started to play you started to automatically sync your words to the tempo. I don't know if this phenomenon is called anything because sometimes I do the same without realizing it, not only with words but movements as well and I see others do it as well
so cool. i've heard this phenomenon called "entrainment.'