Two Philip Glass Interviews

John Eyles

since 2001

Doing a dance about architecture...

Recent articles (325 total)

Published: October 15, 2003

PG: Of course it works, because the mind of the listener will arrange that for himself. We don't need to do it. We'd be working much too hard if we did it that way. With practice, Michael has become extremely good at that. We began with Koyaanisqatsi and the pieces we are doing this week are all results of this experimentation. There could be more; I don't think we're done with it at all. Naqoy will certainly be the next one. There may be others as well. This whole synchronisation of live music to image is actually quite different to the mechanical linking. It opens up a completely different range of experience. I think that when we see these movies live, we are seeing them in a dimension which - if you saw them as they were originally done, if you have a video or DVD - is a special opportunity to experience them.

RW: For you Godfrey, when you come to an event like this evening, you must know these movies inside out. You made them. It is a unique experience every time.

GR: For me, as well. It raises the sensorial ante, as it were. You can feel it in your solar plexus. You can feel the percussion in your body. No matter how good the room might be in a theatre, it is not going to be the same as having these real instruments up here. Since these films are themselves experiential, as opposed to experimental, since they offer, rather than a story or information, an experience of the subject, this raises the possibility of what that experience can be tremendously. It is a real privilege to be able to be here and to hear this myself. It is different each time.

RW: I'd jut like to ask you gentlemen one last question. It has taken you twenty-five years to make this trilogy. Are you planning another one?

GR: Well, Philip announced it in October [2002], I think. So, yes, we are thinking about something.

PG: I said that by the time we get done we'll both be 90. But we're hoping to live to complete it. I don't know what we're going to do. I'm waiting to hear from Godfrey. He says he doesn't know what we'll do. The odd thing is that Godfrey didn't begin as a filmmaker and he has become a consummate filmmaker. I don't imagine he'll be resting long between films. We always have to wait because we have to find the resources but the project will appear very soon.

RW: A very good note on which to end, I think. (Applause.)

Forthcoming attraction
November 10th at the Royal Albert Hall.
Ennio Morricone's 75th Birthday Concert, featuring Morricone conducting the Rome Symphony Orchestra in a programme of his film music. Mouth watering!

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