Philip Glass, in Conversation February 18, 2009
Philip Glass © Saturday Matinee http://www.saturdaymatineeblog.com
What a treat! I went to an informal conversation with Philip Glass (led by Tim Page) and got to ask him a question. I told him that my first experience with his music was with Twyla Tharp’s “In the Upper Room”, and was wondering what he thought of seeing his music in dance form. He then started talking about his experience with dance in his lifetime for a while, starting with his days in Juilliard. His thinking was rather economical, as he thought, who will always need my music? And his answer was, dancers and theaters will always need music. And so he wrote for dancers. He mentioned Jose Limon and Martha Graham at Juilliard, but he said he didn’t write for them, but for their students. He also mentioned that he would have liked to have been a dancer himself; he was in awe of using your body as the ultimate physical art form. The closest he got was he was touring with Lucinda Childs’ dance company and they allowed him to take ballet class with the dancers, at age 42. He jumped at the chance, much to the entertainment of the dancers. He said he was fine except for the combinations because his specialty was music memory, not muscle memory. This made everyone laugh.
It’s funny how sometimes we think artists do things to serve their art, but often the reasons are economical. He said he controls who accesses his scores because he makes his living performing his own music and doesn’t want others to rob him of his livelihood.
There were other questions on his movie music, and lots of other talk on minimalism, classical music, and “ideology” in music but I need to get ready for the concert tonight.
How fun! That’s so cool you not only got to see him speak, but to ask him a question yourself
Yeah, I think a lot of what artists do is for economical reasons, but interestingly, it ends up serving the art form anyway. I can’t wait to hear about the rest of the interview!
Tonya, you’re totally right – it’s like the chicken and the egg. Do they serve the art form b/c they’re forced to shape their art in the economic direction, or do they end up serving the art form as these artists are redefining the art to be whatever they want it to be? Sort of a metaphysical/confusing/interesting thought.
Hi to all the Philip Glass fans who are stumbling onto this entry. I’ll post another entry about the concert and the rest of the discussion – I’m pleasantly surprised by the popularity of this entry. Welcome! Please feel free to leave your thoughts.
He probably said Lucinda Childs, who was involved with Einstein on the Beach.
Yes, that was it! I thought it was Lucinda Chase, but when I googled it, nothing came up. I’ll change my entry. Thanks!!