20th Centry Music history Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

20th Centry Music history - Essay Example g seems concluded at the end of the piece (which is not to say it is in any way bad.) During much of his life Glass has collaborated with other artists: some of them actors and playwrights, some of them movie directors, and others comedians or painters. Certainly this cross-pollination has effected and improved his music immeasurably. Many people consider his masterpiece to be an opera called Einstein on the Beach, which is about five hours long and without an intermission. In this very interesting piece, the music is like a repeating cycle that does not resolve the existential anxiety at the centre. It is both an exhilarating and saddening piece of music. But Philip Glass is most famous for introducing art music to the general public and expanding the range and modes in which it can be communicated to people. This can especially be seen in his collaboration with the director Godfrey Reggio in the movie Koyaanisqatsi, a Hopi word meaning â€Å"life out of balance.† The purpose behind the film is to show how the world of human beings and their machines is very different than the natural world and may even be a blight on the natural world. In this magical film, the contemporary world’s technologies and mechanisms are filmed at various speeds and set to a strange and repetitive music that seems in some way to inspire and provide a counterpoint to the endless motion. The camera takes a wide-angle so as to capture as much life as possible. Some scenes show rockets taking off, others depict factory workers, others show huge parking lots full of cars, still other endless sunrises and sunsets. The effect, when combined with Glas s’s music is overwhelming, but somehow neither euphoric nor depressive. As the New Yorker critic Alex Ross wrote in 2005: Composers usually enter the filmmaking process late in the game. They’re given a few weeks to add music to the mix, often under strict instructions as to mood and style; they’re essentially applying a finishing coat of