Glass: Satyagraha
Soloists
New York City Opera
Christopher Keene
You couldn’t have a much greater contrast between this and the previous operas in this part of the project. This is an example of minimalism - although the composer seems to have resisted using that term. What it means is that the score is made up of small ever-repeating fragments based on simply melodic patterns. Some of the patterns last for minutes on end without any contrast. I think that the effect is supposed to be hypnotic but in fact boredom is the better adjective. There were times that I wanted to throw something at the CD player and I am sure that had I not be listening to it for this project I would have abandoned the effort.
Of course there is a musical imagination here at play - Glass was a pupil of Nadia Boulanger and had a thorough musical training. There are moments where Glass introduces rhythmic sudden displacement to great effect and some of the longer melodic phrases were quite distinctive. But the idiom is so foreign to me that I can’t really find a way into the score. And I pity the musicians who have to play this score - it must be mind numbing.
