In the world of experimental music, composer Philip Glass has been a standard- bearer for the better part of three decades.
“In the ’60s, it was relatively easy to stand apart from the hierarchical, nontonal music of Pierre Boulez and others like him,” said Glass, 69, who performs a solo piano concert at the Boulder Theater on Tuesday. “But being radical isn’t a birthright in itself.
“People once thought Mozart operas were radical. But now we think of Mozart as being the quintessential classical composer in the most classical sense.”
Glass’ compositional style is most often categorized as “minimalist.” It is a term that Glass rebuffs but that is nonetheless loosely applied to describe postmodern, post-World War II art forms like his in which the subject is stripped down to its most basic form and presented in an unembellished manner.
Like the word, Glass has enjoyed a similar staying power worldwide.
Indeed, at the world premiere of his latest opera in Germany last year, Glass received a 15-minute ovation for his intentionally disconcerting allegory of war. Specifically, the two-act opera – “Waiting for the Barbarians,” based on J.M. Coetzee’s novel of the same title – critiques the Bush administration and its war against Iraq.
“My musical language has come to be unmistakable, but not by choice,” said Glass of his compositional technique, which is marked by repetitions, a steady pulse and stasis. “Sometimes, though, I’ll do something new. Some new inspiration takes me along a different path, and people will say, ‘That doesn’t sound like you.’
“When that happens, it’s such a compliment. I feel tremendous achievement.”
Glass describes the culture and evolution of musical thought as a means to fulfilling the human need to push boundaries, and the desire and willingness to upset musical traditionalists and the status quo.
“The appearance of new forms of music in the late ’60s by myself and composers like John Gibson was born out of a need to create a new direction for music,” he said. “There were many of us who thought serialism was ugly and that new music shouldn’t have to be an intellectual exercise only understood by musical academics.
“But different composers approached this need in different ways.”
For Glass, that meant replacing the established narrative progression of his predecessors with a structurally sparse framework that could still accommodate extended rhythmic and melodic motifs. And it meant taking his show on the road, tirelessly performing and championing his music in nontraditional venues.
“I’ve been doing solo concerts for over 25 years,” he said. “The programs change, but the essential thing about performing solo is that it’s the most intimate encounter that I can have with the general public.
“It’s just myself, I’m totally responsible for what goes on. That’s exhilarating in itself … for me, music is about what happens between two people. It’s not abstract.”
Glass’ crossover audience covers the age spectrum.
“I’ve always been open to reflecting broad musical influences,” he said. “There’s the modernist music I listened to as a young man, there’s traditional Indian music and jazz music, although I don’t improvise.
“So my audiences are demographically really different. I find that to be true wherever I go because, in a certain way, I think my musical voice is hitched to international subject matter and world cultural events that affect everyone.”
That’s no accident. After his studies at the Juilliard School in New York, he studied with legendary pedagogue Nadia Boulanger in Paris while exploring less conventional musical forms under the tutelage of Ravi Shankar. His fascination with Indian music led to his assimilation of Eastern music principles and further research in India and North Africa.
Upon his return to New York in 1967, Glass’ music was roundly rejected. He worked as a cabbie and plumber while honing the hypnotic patterns of his distinctive compositional voice in his spare time.
His persistence paid off in a big way. In 1985, the organization Musical America named him “Musician of the Year,” a rare honor bestowed on only three other composers – Stravinsky, Britten and Menotti.
The musical polymath has composed for a multitude of media beyond the concert stage, the recital hall and opera. Literary and visual stimuli also have inspired his prolific output for theater, dance and film. He scored the 2004 Academy Award-winning documentary “The Fog of War,” and penned award-winning scores for Martin Scorsese’s “Kundun,” Peter Weir’s “The Truman Show” and Stephen Daldry’s “The Hours,” among others.
“I think experimental music implies a willingness to be inclusive,” Glass said. “My guess is that the biggest challenge for today’s young composers is how to find your own voice in a world of diversity.
“How do you stand apart? How do you create truly unique and personal contemporary musical language? It’s too early to tell what that will look like.”
Philip Glass
CLASSICAL MUSIC|Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St., Boulder; 8 p.m. Tuesday|$34-$44|303-786-7030 or bouldertheater.com
