>>PREVIEW
KOYAANISQATSI PHILIP GLASS
Saturday, February 25
Jack Singer
This isn’t the first time that modern composer Philip Glass has visited Calgary, but his upcoming performance will be something that few western audiences have experienced.
Taking us more than two decades into his prolific and extraordinary past, Glass is planning to present Koyaanisqatsi, a film that he collaborated on with director Godfrey Reggio way back in 1983.
"I’ve been to Calgary before. I think I performed a solo piece. It was the dead of winter and I was wandering around in those elevated streets you have," recalls Glass. "I’m glad to be able to do the Canadian West, and Koyaanisqatsi is our first choice when we have to perform one of the Qatsi Trilogy on its own. It addresses issues that are familiar to most audiences. Don’t forget that it’s 25 years later. What’s interesting is how timeless the subject matter and dialogues are. The issues of environment, technology and quality of life engendered in that film are more urgent than ever."
Known for stepping outside the box, Glass and his ensemble seek to breathe new life into each of their performances. And that is exactly what Glass envisioned when he originally conceived the idea of adding a live soundtrack to the Qatsi Trilogy. Employing some 10 players and two vocalists the Philip Glass Ensemble endeavours not to re-create the Koyaanisqatsi movie experience, but to revitalize the original score through a fluid and experiential method that pairs living art with inert physical media.
"Performing live music with film does two things," Glass says. "It adds a dimension of revelation, by pairing a pre-recorded medium with a hugely creative improvisational element. The live soundtrack exhumes new meaning from the recording. Truly live performances have a freshness that is of tremendous benefit to the film. Then, you have the quality of sound produced which is far superior to any movie theatre. The whole encounter is so vibrant and intense, even to going down to your local arthouse theatre and watch Koyaanisqatsi cannot compare to it."
In a largely unprecedented move, Reggio and Glass laboured side-by-side during the film’s construction. Glass composed his groundbreaking soundtrack for the film on a daily basis, reviewing each day’s footage with Reggio until the perfect music had been found to crystallize every moment on film. Sometimes Reggio went out to shoot footage already knowing what the musical accompaniment to his images would be. The result is a unique and compelling blend of sight and sound unlike anything that had been attempted previously. Eventually their successful collaboration led them to produce two more such epics, 1988’s Powaqqatsi and 2002’s Naqoyqatsi, becoming what Reggio and Glass have come to dub the "Qatsi Trilogy." Glass explains his choice to isolate the first of the trilogy for screenings with select audiences.
"Working a reel at a time, 15 minute loops, sometimes he knew what the music was going to be while he has shooting and at other times he would shoot and we’d do the music before editing," Glass explains. "(We) managed to rediscover a less conventional relationship between filmmaker and composer. We’ve travelled with the trilogy from San Francisco to New York to Paris to Poland to Japan. It’s interesting because Godfrey and I had always intended to create a trilogy of films to be presented as a single unified body. But we find that most people don’t attend all three nights. Devotees will come to two, most people come to one. However, the people who attend all three will be the ones to receive the best experience."
Born in Baltimore, Maryland on January 31, 1937, Glass excelled in many subjects, leaving high school to pursue greater challenges. He graduated from the University of Chicago at 19 years of age with degrees in math and philosophy. Already a skilled flautist and composer, Glass eventually collaborated with Robert Wilson to create the opera Einstein on the Beach, an unparalleled five-hour epic that would become a modern classic that, also, eventually morphed into a trilogy, including the subsequent operas Akhnaten and Satyagraha. Later the two would go on to collaborate for the Civil Wars (Rome) multi-composer epic for the 1984 Olympics, White Raven for Expo ’98 in Lisbon, and Monster of Grace, a groundbreaking 3-D digital opera. Glass’s passion for things that come in threes was again echoed when he composed a trilogy of theatre pieces arranged around the films of Jean Cocteau – Orphee, La Belle et la Bete, and Les Enfants Terribles.
"I have composed some 20 operas, numerous ballets and theatre pieces. So, naturally, over the years I have learned to work with designers, and directors, and costume designers of all kinds," Glass says.
In addition to creating large-scale works for chorus and orchestra, Glass has also produced a bevy of unclassifiable works, such as 1000 Airplanes on the Roof, The Photographer, The Mysteries and What’s So Funny. Making forays into pop culture he has also worked with numerous contemporary musicians such as David Byrne, Paul Simon, Laurie Anderson and Suzanne Vega, who wrote lyrics for Glass’s Songs from Liquid Days. Glass has also created the Low Symphony, based on the works of David Bowie and Brian Eno.
Of course, Glass has a long history of seeking out alternative sources of musical inspiration and instruction. When living in Paris in his 20s, a much younger Glass was hired by a filmmaker to transcribe traditional Indian instrumentation into notation that could be read by western musicians. This eventually led Glass to the Himalayas, North Africa and India where he studied with the legendary master of the sitar, Ravi Shankar. Glass later teamed up with his mentor on Shankar’s album Passages.
"Ravi Shankar and his daughter (Anoushka) are just wonderful," says Glass, beaming with admiration. "Anytime that I spent with Ravi was always important. The first time I studied with him was in 1964. He helped me to understand that the rhythmic dimension of a song can become its structure. I learned to transform rhythms in a way that was not part of the western tradition." |
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