Music With Changing Parts (Reissue)
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Years before Einstein on the Beach would carry to a wider audience, Philip Glass’s Music With Changing Parts was among the earliest defining a new musical language. Written in 1970 and originally self‑released in 1971 on his Chatham Square imprint, the work captures Glass blending Farfisa organs, woodwinds, electric violin and voices into a decisive turning point in minimalist composition. Performed by the original Philip Glass Ensemble, the recordings are now seeing a new light with this reissue courtesy of Superior Viaduct. - Flying Out
Philip Glass, the great American composer, was already in his mid-30s before his first album appeared, and then only because he produced the double LP himself. Music With Changing Parts was the inaugural release on his own Chatham Square imprint in 1971.
At this point, Einstein on the Beach, Glass’ first opera, was still five years away. Yet in Changing Parts, one can already hear much of his vocabulary in full bloom: the buoyant arpeggios, the melding of electronic and acoustic instruments, the elongated drones of human voice, the primary emphasis on pulse (an interest he shared with fellow composer Steve Reich) and the ecstatic potential inherent in repetition.
The album features the original Philip Glass Ensemble—the composer himself, along with Jon Gibson, Dickie Landry, Art Murphy, Steve Chambers and Robert Prado—playing Farfisa organs and woodwinds as well as Barbara Benary on electric violin.