Album: Music in the Shape of a Square
Track: "Piece in the Shape of a Square" (Track #3)
Composer: Philip Glass
Instruments: 2 flutes
Year: 1967
The purpose of my Hopeless Journey is not just to collect listenable tracks from ancient composers, but also to connect the music of days gone by with that of the present -- to help me better understand the music of my own time. Therefore, I will occasionally include blog entries on contemporary music (framed in blue, like this one), making explicit reference to the connections between these modern works and their humble predecessors.
In one of my first posts, Sederunt Principes and Rhythmic Modes, I mentioned how the repetitive structures in Pérotin's work had been an influence on modern minimalist composers. Philip Glass, perhaps the most famous minimalist composer of them all, takes a page from the works of the Notre Dame School of Polyphony with, "Piece in the Shape of a Square." Although not restricted to the simplistic rhythmic modes that dominated Pérotin's work, the slow and subtle shifts in Glass' repeated structures are reminiscent of the undulating patterns of "Sederunt Principes." Almost as striking is the harmonizing of the two flutes, which remain in unison or an octave apart for most of the piece, much like the early Notre Dame polyphony.
Track: "Piece in the Shape of a Square" (Track #3)
Composer: Philip Glass
Instruments: 2 flutes
Year: 1967
The purpose of my Hopeless Journey is not just to collect listenable tracks from ancient composers, but also to connect the music of days gone by with that of the present -- to help me better understand the music of my own time. Therefore, I will occasionally include blog entries on contemporary music (framed in blue, like this one), making explicit reference to the connections between these modern works and their humble predecessors.
In one of my first posts, Sederunt Principes and Rhythmic Modes, I mentioned how the repetitive structures in Pérotin's work had been an influence on modern minimalist composers. Philip Glass, perhaps the most famous minimalist composer of them all, takes a page from the works of the Notre Dame School of Polyphony with, "Piece in the Shape of a Square." Although not restricted to the simplistic rhythmic modes that dominated Pérotin's work, the slow and subtle shifts in Glass' repeated structures are reminiscent of the undulating patterns of "Sederunt Principes." Almost as striking is the harmonizing of the two flutes, which remain in unison or an octave apart for most of the piece, much like the early Notre Dame polyphony.
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