Salt Lake Electric Ensemble — Phil Glass: Music With Changing Parts
Glass wrote Music With Changing Parts in 1971, and it’s seen as both one of his important early compositions, and a major work in the progression of minimalism. The piece was written for a large group of players, and has over the years been by a selection of ensemble- utilizing different instrumental set-ups. The work normal runs around an hour, or just under.
The version to hand sees ten main players involved, with two additional players bringing on board long tones from guitar & voice. The ten pieces play a mix of laptops, keyboards, synths, tenor saxophone, bass guitars, flugelhorn, trumpet & guitar. The runtime of this version comes in at 45.38, so is on the shorter side- but I think this really gives the whole thing such a shifting & pulsing feel of urgency about it.
As the works title suggests the structure of this track is all about changing layers of sound- with most of the pieces sonic setting been extremely dense mesh of instrumental textures weaved together into repetitive-yet- subtle shifting mass of sound. As a compositional form minimalism is often thick & locked down in it’s feel, and this rendition really takes those tendencies to new head-spinning & entrancing heights.
Over the tracks runtime the layers of both electronic & acoustic instrumentation, move from cascading corridors, onto pulsing waves, through spiralling & splitting weaves of sound. As the minutes tick by new subtly different instrumental tones appear, then depart- but pretty much constantly, save for a few minutes, the whole thing just seems to grow & grow in both it’s depth & urgency.
All told this is a truly invigorating & exhilarating playing of one of the cornerstone works by Mr Glass. And due to both the use of electionic elements, and the whole cascading urgency of the whole thing I can see this appealing equally to fans of minimalism, drone, and general electronic composition.