Philip Glass - Two Pages (for Steve Reich), 1968

[ANTIORDE]

sounds great!

[codebreaker2001]

I know a lot of people dislike this because they feel there isn't anything but just repeating notes. But when Philip Glass composed this for Steve Reich in 1968, Steve Reich was experimenting with phasing music and sounds (the best example of this is "It's Gonna Rain", who took a recording of a human voice and actually made it phase, which made him realize that it would work best in music, which he ended up composing "Piano Phase"). Like it or not, it was important to music in our society.

[DIEGO7CUERDAS]

This is SICK...I like it!!

[mickyoneil1]

this almost gave me a seizure.

[nondor13]

it's like the sound equivalent of op art; the human mind infers the appearance ov cadence.

[alexnordh]

The paradox of this kind of music is that you have to listen to it in a both passive and active way. It´s like the words of Klaus Schultze :" My music is best appreciated when NOT listened to" In my opionion, Schultze is much a heritage of this.

[paulinaluc]

Wow, I love it! If only I was good enough to play such for my diploma..!

[Arachnidius]

I like to be open-minded and non-discriminatory in my appreciation of music, but I can't find anything tasteful in this (I realise that this may partly be the point in it). I can't see how anyone can justify this, I mean the emphasis seems to be on rhythmic complexity, or repetition and minimalism. There are hundreds of artists who do this (in my opinion) with far more finesse, complexity, technicality and approachability. Can someone explain how this is more than just pretentious noise? Thanks.

[peahix]

@Arachnidius hi, start by reading thru the comments here, and also my general description. be sure to understand the historical context of the piece. also, read what glass himself has written (extensively) about this early phase in his compositional career. here's a hint: you probably won't "get" this music if my little video here is your only exposure to it. this video is more useful for folks who want to understand how this music was scored and structured.

[MrCroset]

@Arachnidius .yes

[mikrokosmik]

If this were my ringtone I would have to be the hippest guy ever.

[SpringInTheSchool]

@mikrokosmik Let's share the ringtone. :D

[kurtilein3]

i dont think this is the best one, its not even close to the best work Glass has done.

Even if you stay in exactly this style, there are better examples, like "knee 3" or "knee 5" from the opera "Einstein on the beach". Check it out, these are truly awesome, and very similar in style.

[peahix]

@kurtilein3 well... the knee plays are actually a later style than this (about 8 years later), after glass had re-incorporated harmonic structures into his music. even glass himself, when pressed to use the word "minimalist" to describe his own music, has used that term in reference to pieces like "two pages," but has rejected that term in reference to "einstein on the beach." other pieces similar to "two pages" are "music in fifths," "strung out," "music with changing parts," etc.

[theswinger]

play it loud, like really loud, don't try to understand it on an emotional level, just a physical one. let the music do the work. (lots of bass)

[karoloandria]

this is what is like to be a machine

[almazmol]

would love to hear this on an acoustic piano in a large room, played maybe as slowly as one of Brian Eno's ambients in Music for Airports...

[emesehollandi]

Thanks for sharing this.Do you have the notes in pdf or the midi format of this song?I will appreciate if you could share.

[DrCoolZic]

I can understand that some people just do not like this music but personnaly I just love it. As mentioned in a comment above Glass and others were not trying to get people in trance but, as Terry Riley explains very well, one of the goal was to give the listener the opportunity to go deeply into the structure of the sequence presented many times with minor modifications ... Although called repetitive in Europe the minimalism music is obviously only repetitive in appearance ...

[anchorman182]

yes.

[psynapsurfa]

i would like to hear what phillip glass could do with reaktor, alchemy, or razor, in ableton live...

[massimiliano123123]

Mi piacerebbe capire questa composizione assolutamente originale!

[melosuav]

Najlepsza część zaczyna się od 10:00. Normalnie miód dla uszu...Honey from the ears... From tenth minute...

[haupper]

My favorite part: blip blip blip bleep blip blip blip bleep blip blip bleep bleep blip bleep blip bleep bleep bleep blip blip bleep blip.

[chrismuscaroler]

the G, am i the only one who's hearing the octave up overtone instead? I hear overtones like that a lot in his music, does anyone know if it's coincidence, or just me, or does he actually use them on purpose?

[justaddcorn]

@chrismuscaroler i think the overtonal effect is somewhat accentuated by this version being electronic (as well as reverbed)

[nondor13]

some music increases your intelligence by knowing of it.

this music increases your intelligence by listening to it.

pattern recog.

[cr1msonking93]

AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGG­GGGGGGH MYYYYYYYYYY FFFUUUUUUCKKKKKKKKIIIIIIIINGGG­GGGG BRAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNN­NNNNNNNNNNN...no seriously this is awesome

[iant88888888]

This is amazing its like being in a spectrum 128k

[adokintheness]

I love all of Philip Glass' music -- I find it hypnotic and meditative. Much of his music is far from being minimalistic in the literal sense of the word (e.g. Powaqqatsi), but I still like the mathematical precision of this piece, perhaps especially evident in this computer-generated version. Thanks for posting.

[pierolivier111]

This is hypnotic

[solieusflame]

this piece is particularly boring, mainly because it's one timbre one texture: just one instrument. Reich's best works (and most minimalist works including techno) are about the phasing/pulsing in between multiple instruments.. that's where the true magic of repetition happens: interactions with other instruments.

[bandusa]

I too "hated" this sort of music when I was a young undergraduate student. As a composer I thought, "How absurd" Life teaches so much more and this music is true art, now at 40 years old.

[pierolivier111]

@bandusa I loved it since I discoreved it.

[swordmaster373]

My fingers hurt just thinking about trying to play this

[BenMcCormack91]

Glass is entertaining. I'll leave my own opinion of his music unspoken.

Unspoken.

Glass entertaining.

My opinion. Opinion. Unspoken. Entertaining.

Glass is opinion. Opinion. Opinion.

Entertaining.

[theshitaIker]

video game music... defeating the final level boss on Super Mario bros. 

[olivemypikachuu]

I'm currently a music student... and this honestly doesn't move or excite me at all. Is there something I'm not getting? I've grown to love atonal, twelve tone, and even quarter tone work to the point where such music can move me, but, no disrespect to the composer or people who love his music intended, I just don't understand this. I'm afraid it's giving me a headache. xD

[peahix]

@olivemypikachuu you might try listening to Glass' original *live* recording to see if it does anything for you. my version here is more of a technical demonstration of the piece, which arguably is not as interesting from a purely musical standpoint as a live performance.

[loodwig]

@peahix Very good point. I remember analyzing Gorecki's third symphony in a similar fashion. The materials are interesting to discover without the distraction of beautiful orchestration. I find with all minimalism that the goal must be to absorb the materials over time, as opposed to a quick understanding you must find with serialism. Overall, I feel the two paradigms are reactionary and Glass does a better job with accessibility in other works (Koyaanisqatsi for example).

[anisuthideyakoindu]

@olivemypikachuu there is a wide though! Listen to Philip Glass Seventy, by Wouter Joseph Smekens - tell me if you like it more than ths one. All the best!

[phrexbass]

@olivemypikachuu

try understandig it's concept of repetition.

it's basically same as the concept of techno music - extreme repetition but a movement inside this repetition - the movement needs time - because of that steve reich and also many technotracks last 10, sometimes 15 minutes (or even longer)...

monotony is beauty

[DerangedRanger1]

@olivemypikachuu When I was preparing my masters degree recital I was working on a duet for bass and violin in a contemporary style. A month before the date, my violinist had an emergence that would cause a conflict. I started to look for another violinist, but my teacher said that it was unlikely I would find someone that had the same curiosity for sound that I did. So I rescheduled the recital. I think it is sad that musicians lack this willingness to engage with sounds. Good luck.

[Whiteshirtloosetie]

@olivemypikachuu Shame you're not getting it. Have you tried "Music in 12 parts". It's long so starting about Pt 5 might be worth a try if you so wish. I soon forget the written notes & just go with it. When the brain catches hold of a loop then throws your mind in a reverse loop then that's when it's found. I then pick out abstract sound shapes watching them develop listening to the changes. The music becomes 3 dimensional. Before anyone asks, nope don't need drugs! Good luck:-)

[ProgWill91]

The constant, repetitive nature of the music makes the listener hear the same notes "differently" over the course of time, much like when you repeat a word over and over until your mind breaks it up into its individual sounds as opposed to its intended meaning.

[ProgWill91]

@olivemypikachuu The music's intent is not necessarily to "move" the listener. Many of minimalism's roots are within Eastern tradition which includes obvious tonal centers, repeated patterns, and static harmony that, when paired together, have been meant to induce a state of meditation and a sense of timelessness.

[ad5os]

@olivemypikachuu get stonned then listen while thinking and try to figure out what is going on... try to see if you hear the patterns or just zone out and enjoy. :)

[PsychotikPandora]

@olivemypikachuu Ces musiques là sont rarement émouvantes, mais cela ne remet nullement en cause le travail de l'artiste.

[guytyler2]

@olivemypikachuu

Patterns. this is an embryonic work. listen to later minimalist pieces as well

[willzigg]

@olivemypikachuu I'm currently a music student too, and I love minimalist music.

To me, the point of this piece is to make a link between a (very) basic melody and a rhythm. Indeed, the more you listen to this piece the more your ears naturally isolate the lowest notes, creating an asymetric rhythm. Plus, the rapidity of the execution makes your brain confused and unable to differenciate all the notes. Then you just hear a sort of waves...

[willzigg]

@olivemypikachuu ...I love this feeling, but I can easily understand that you don't! And I can understand your headache too. lol But the process is interesting. At least it is to me. :)

Oh and I'm French by the way, so sorry if I made some mistakes in my sentences!

[speier]

@olivemypikachuu you're just spoiled. back in the 70s, this shit was brand new and no one had even thought about this kind of mathematical infusion into musical composition. history. context. stop being a baby.

[hunkyphil]

@olivemypikachuu I'm in the same position as you. However my thoughts on most avante garde stuff is that it is designed to cause academic anxiety, that is make people think that they must be thick if they don't get it; in actually fact it is just a load of bollocks or as I like to call it, academic masturbation.

[peahix]

@hunkyphil keep in mind that glass himself, and the minimalists in general, were "revolting" against academic music for what they felt were very much the reasons you cite. "two pages" is a decidedly non-academic piece- glass wrote and performed this music outside of the academic establishment, and he was certainly not embraced by anyone within academia at that time. he had much more in common with, say, gigging rock musicians of the era, and supported his musical endeavors by driving a cab, etc.

[sectorjeat]

@peahix well... as a composer i think is some sort of sad that the objective of a piece is to get in trance just by the pleasure of being in trance. The minimalist were (as you said) against academic music, but its a fact that their music is academic too, that's the american academy. And i'm not telling that Europe is good and USA is wrong, its a matter of likes and dislikes. And I am personally agree with @olivemypikachuu i think many of the minimalist chose the easy way

[peahix]

@sectorjeat not that there's anything at all wrong with writing music designed to put people into "trances," but in fact neither glass nor reich ever intended their music for such purposes. quite the opposite, actually- their hope was that their listeners would pay close attention to the subtle changes that occur in their music over time. you can read all about the ideas behind their music in the various books they've written or have been written about them.

[josiahlalala]

@olivemypikachuu Not all music is meant to move someone.

[jesemus33]

@olivemypikachuu Hello Olive, this is a rhythm cpmposition mor than anything, this is a performance art, is like playing a videogame with the sounds. I love Bach, Mahler, Beethoven , Mozart, Strauss ,K.Barberian, and any great master of the past, but this is great also, from other point of view of course.

Best

[falstocat]

@olivemypikachuu You don't have to understand it, it's just music with a completely different objective than classical music. However, If you really want to learn to enjoy it -if that is your objective- I would suggest trying to play or sing it.

[mightyafrowhitey]

@olivemypikachuu Try listening to Steve Reich.  I like him a little better than glass and he's got some pretty cool stuff. It does seem to get king of old and repetitious after a while though. His triple quartet is probably the most harmonically varied of his pieces. There are a few good versions of that one on youtube.

[BagelBites48]

Never seen that key signature before

[koulos82]

Excellent upload. Thank you, and thank Philip Glass!!!

[lamorve]

Hello,

Would it be possible to send me the score ? I have worked on this piece by hear for a month up to the second part but without the score it's becoming hard... By the way, do you think that the number of repeats of each bar has to be strictly respected ?

Best regards,

Gildas

[flammesombres]

Give me Ferneyhough's 'Cassandra's Dream Song' any day. 

[KostyaCreepY]

Those rhythmic changes, achieved through adding or removing just one note each time, are so interesting! Such little actions, such significant changes!

[woodros]

i really like this better than the original speed, sounds mental

[amusicianinparis]

No rythm, no harmony but incredible mantra effect. Another piece of the great genius Glass.

[337336324317313306]

At least a computer doesn't get carpal tunnel.

[bafflerzX]

i think im gettin my first headache ever...

[Orlymusicboy]

... don't know what to write. may be because of this piece... :'(

[mikecado007]

Where is the emotion ?

[goingfortheone1]

@mikecado007 Really, You can't hear it?

Your bad.

[4444matthew4444]

I despise Glass, but this is actually hypnotic (he has to find a way to convince people to like his music lol)

[KBMKBMKBMKBM]

wow this music is so distracting. Homework +Philip Glass= Failure

[Raffzeee]

This is good music. Takes time to understand it.

[RonansRecordingShow]

Wonderful. Helped me better understand a piece if I really love.

[DevoutPatriot]

LOL

[haru1ove]

lol. I was expecting a modulation... In Glass' Train/Spaceship, it modulates about halfway through the piece.....

[coasterman16]

Train/Spaceship isn't a piece. Train 1, Night Train, and Spaceship are three different movements from Einstein on the Beach. There is very little to no harmonic modulation in Glass's early music, as he was solely interested in working in rhythmic structures.

[poptarts47]

minimalism is so awesome!!!!! and i love Phillip glass

[cyanastropyre]

I close my eyes and listen to this....

Sounds like the pulsations of my brain's synapses firing...

I love Philip Glass!

[PanoramicInvestor]

god

[BiNate82]

Best insight into Glass's music I've ever seen. Thank you.

[ladySEGOVIA]

I like it. It makes sense to me somehow. There's order to it. JMO.  :)

[softasbabystool]

WOW. thanks for this

[bsaxagent]

Philip Glass (January January January 31 January 31 31 31, 1937 1937 1937 31 January 1937 31 31 1937 ) is a composer; Philip Glass is a composer of minimalist music, who once worked as a taxi driver. Philip Glass is a composer of minimalist music, who once worked as a taxi driver; Philip Glass is a composer of minimalist music, who once worked as a taxi.

Philip Glass Philip Glass Glass Glass Philip Philip Glasssssssss

[taumibaubo]

@bsaxagent Channeling Gertude Stein! xo



[dirtystick]

well done sir

[joestaff621]

that really hurts your temples if you listen to it all non stop. i feel dizzy now, seriously i need to rest for a minute cos that was brutal. cool piece of music though

[justmatt2020]

.e . Uyor kno ditndg  .'

[lewars1912]

This causes serious damage to the brain.

Brain the to damage serious causes this.

[almazmol]

@lewars1912 trinucleotide repeat disorder ;-)

[IpkisStanley]

what's the idea behind this piece?

[MuzikJunkyAES]

Additive and subtractive rhythms, à la Indian classical music. Peace.

[anxiousnightingale]

i have a turkish guitar version, see my channel.

[proman84]

"Or better yet, catch a live performance sometime- you really can't truly appreciate this music unless you hear it performed live, as it was originally intended to be heard. "

Very well said. By the way, there are guitar versions of this piece and they sound amazing.

[humildemarcelo]

i wanna hear the guitar versions

where i can find them?

[anxiousnightingale]

i have a turkish guitar version, see my channel.

[amazinero]

Dominic Frasca has a guitar version. You can find it on his cd, "Deviations". It's the no. 7 piece. It makes a lot more sense than this piece. I don't know if this is intended to be heard at this speed or what, but the Frasca/Glass version for guitar is a medium tempo arpeggio.

[ManWithBigStick]

yeah i can imagine it being tapped and sounding amazing

[datemiretta]

L'origine dell'universo youtube:Stefano Ottomano

[holymadgod]

Reich music is so amazing for being half a page. Its really humorous to me but at the same time, intriguing and awe inspiring.

[peahix]

well, actually, this piece is by philip glass, and it takes up two pages. :)

[SFuga7777777]

its the same 12 note line played over and over, as the 1st player stays at the same tempo the whole time the 2nd speeds slightly, once they play at the same time again (1st player on 1st note 2nd player on the 2nd) they pause and play the same tempo. they do this over and over all the way through the 12 notes until they make it all the way around, that is a full phase.

in most cases the notes are E4 F#4 B4 C#5 D5 F#4 E4 C#5 B4 F#4 D5 C#5, i guess they could modulate them up or down for a dif key

[peahix]

hi, you're mistaking this piece for a piece by steve reich called "piano phase."

[ajwiebe]

@SFuga7777777 How could you possibly have mistaken this for Piano Phase?

[EJConrad]

Aaahhhhh!

My heads gonna pop.

[Schecter725]

cool video

[beatsiz]

As the DESCRIPTION SAYS:

IT IS SPED UP SO IT FITS TO 10 MINUTES

This is not the actual speed...

Note to the uploader: You can upload longer videos now... you always could actually... you just had to try a couple times

[PussyTumor]

still sounds cool at this speed.

[MeisterQualle]

wtf jesus my brain!!

[JanaFaukner]

What metronome speed does this performance use? Thanks for the answers.

[peahix]

i don't remember exactly, but it's kind of a moot point with this piece- the "quarter notes" aren't supposed to be played as quarter notes per se- they're really just notated that way because it's easier to write them out that way. even at the tempo of the original recording, they're played as fast 8th notes. i'm playing them as fast 16th notes.

[JanaFaukner]

What is the metronome speed used here? Thanks for the answer.

[MuzikJunkyAES]

I like this version better! If you take out the attacks and leave just the reverb, you got something resembling Charlemagne Palestine's unbelievable music. Peace.

[MuzikJunkyAES]

Much better than your previous version, that is. I would like to hear this on a gigantic pipe organ. Peace.

[thebozz1988]

epic.

[CypriotVibez08]

Lsd Music :)

[rosenpwn0rt]

This is sublime, thanks for the post!

[irr1sss]

excellent to go on a trip with. :)

love it... listen to superputa- me duele la cabeza

they use similar notes i guess... trips you out.

[mery5184]

WTF aaaahhhhh

[chucholuchocucho]

this is so great!!!

[charliejsanders]

very enjoyable. thank you

[Gantafistor]

Plz send us a video of you playing it when you'll be ready!

[ploopymops]

I enjoyed that, thanks very much.

[BeQuietPeter]

I DID see this live, and I nearly lost my fucking mind.

[thejoebobaggins]

I'm not surprised!

[Erebnerung]

i am now only waiting for the Large Hadron Collider to take us as far into the universe as this music does!

[vomitproject]

check out 'soundscapes' -John Cage

[orchestron]

thanks for posting

[FabiusAM]

Impresionante. Matemática pura. Pura maravilla. Pura música. Glass, el más grande de los compositores vivos.

[theogore]

Xlnt work. I like speed, too.