One day I walked into the doctor’s office and noticed the receptionist wearing an unusual necklace, a thick chain with a large, gold llama hanging at the end. I complimented her llama. Her eyes lit up behind glasses as she explained that she and her family raised llamas and showed them at the New York State Fair. They had even won prizes, she said.
I said, “That’s nice! I know someone who runs an alpaca farm.”
She shrugged dismissively and said, “I just don’t get the whole alpaca thing.”
I thought of her the other day when I heard the news that composer Philip Glass will receive the 2015 National Medal of Arts on Thursday morning, September 22, from President Obama in a ceremony at the White House.
Okay. I know it’s a silly comparison, but let’s consider Philip Glass a llama and Steve Reich an alpaca in the stable of composers called “minimalists.” Both co-founded an avant-garde movement marked by the repetition of very short phrases that change gradually, producing a hypnotic effect. Both were misunderstood. Both are now superstars in the classical music world.
So how is their music different?
Earlier this year, Steve Reich stopped by the WXXI studios to talk about his life and work in advance of a concert at the Eastman School of Music. I was thrilled to interview him and conductor and composer Brad Lubman.
After the interview, I heard from another contemporary composer, whom I respect and admire and who’s NOT in the minimalist stable. His music, in my opinion, is as fresh, untamed, and theatrical as Leonard Bernstein’s. He told me that he didn’t really get the whole Philip Glass thing. But that he DID like Steve Reich’s music, especially this Psalm setting:
Or this. You can see how repetitive the patterns are in this student performance from McGill University:
For contrast (or not?), here’s the Catalyst quartet playing “Closing” from Philip Glass’s String Quartet No. 3 "Mishima."
Watch the composer himself playing “Mad Rush” with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal.
Again, how are they different?
New York Yorker critic Russell Platt compared them to Handel and Bach, two composers working in roughly the same style at the same time. Like J.S. Bach, Steve Reich offers a shimmering clarity that never gets booged down. Philip Glass, on the other hand, can feel heavy and theatrical, like G.F. Handel's operas and oratorios.
Back to the farm analogy, Glass is our big, heavy llama and Steve Reich is the lighter alpaca with much finer fleece and more color.
I, for one, prefer the softer creature.
(Watch Philip Glass receive the nation’s highest artistic honor from President Obama live on Thursday morning, September 22.)
