3.6.10 Philip Glass

My theoretical take on minimalist music is that it is music geared to the psycho-epistemology of an adding machine.

Speaking personally, I can’t abide it at all, ever, under any circumstances. Even decent music that happens to use motives similar to those Glass uses (and uses and uses) irritates me. It has nothing to do with whether it was written last year or last millennium. Boring is boring. This is coming from someone who on any given day might listen to Xenakis, Beethoven, Bjork, Stravinsky, and Thelonius Monk for his own pleasure.

It’s true that there is some music written in the last 100 years that crosses the line from complex to not-possible-to-follow. But speaking personally, I prefer a composer to err on that side, rather than on the side of the implied insult of minimalism.

And speaking as a some-time composer, I’ve always said that if I ever meet Phillip Glass, I’d punch him.

2007.5.25
Based on a post to objectivismonline.net