01 Einstein on the Beach- Knee 1

Unabridged "Einstein on the Beach" by Philip Glass, movement 1

"Einstein on the Beach" was an opera written and conducted by the minimalist composer Philip Glass, and directed by Robert Wilson. The opera in its complete form is 5 hours long, and has only been performed three times by the Philip Glass Ensemble. The opera portrays Albert Einstein, but was planned from the start to have no actual story line so that people watching could make their own personal connections with Einstein.
The opera consists of four acts, which are separated by "Knees". These "knees" gave the stagehands the opportunity to change scenery between acts, as well as providing a connecting point between the acts, just as a human knee connects your upper and lower legs. They also served the music purpose of creating a recurring theme throughout the opera.

Please Enjoy

Category:

Music

Tags:

• philip
• glass
• einstein
• on
• the
• beach
• minimalism
• knee
• movement
• Albert
• Einstein
• opera

[wormword]

This is one of those things, where it looks good on paper, but doesn't sound very good when actually played.

[MountGoth]

@wormword well, keep in mind that this music is meant to go with an opera, so we're sort of missing a whole half of the picture here. I can't imagine how amazing seeing this performed on stage would be.

[ThomasCBrannan]

whoa

[MountGoth]

that's pretty much what i was thinking

[Dance247Sing]

You Can'tHear The Background Voices.

[MountGoth]

I can hear it just fine... are you sure your speakers/ headphones are working correctly? i'm pretty sure the voices just play on one side so that they don't get overrun by the rest of the music, so maybe one side of your headphones isn't working?

[ThomasCBrannan]

This just made me realize that I should go into pure physics and not engineering. Fuck making money I'm going to use my skills to do what I really want to do.

[BumLegionair]

this is as good as drugs!

[rexregi]

I just saw it twice this weekend. first time its been performed in a very long time. to say it was amazing is a vast understatement.

[voluptamors1]

Nico Muhly's Mothertongue anyone? Glass's influence is pretty obvious now!

[wanderingnome]

I just saw the "preshow" at the University of Michigan for what might be the final tour of this fantastic show. Anyone who can, definitely go see this show. It's phenomenal.

[KapStuf]

There were about half a dozen pieces of music which, when I first heard them, suddenly made a new world musical possibilities open. This was one.

[xForeverThinspox]

my favorite song to trip out on.

except i started tweaking from something said.

i'm good again.

this is the shit.

[SamuelKGB]

@BumLegionair This is BETTER than drugs.

[vootie99]

Saw Einstein On The Beach when it was at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1986... wonderful, insane and elegant and... well about 10% of the people walked out but that was their loss

[DrGarlic500]

@ThomasCBrannan Hell yes...

[passionistic1]

@ThomasCBrannan godspeed :)

[kolumb21]

excellent