Glass founded the Philip Glass Ensemble, with which he still performs on keyboards. He has written numerous operas and musical theatre works, twelve symphonies, eleven concertos, eight string quartets and various other chamber music, and film scores. Three of his film scores have been nominated for Academy Awards.
Glass was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Ida (née Gouline) and Benjamin Charles Glass. His family were Jewish emigrants from Lithuania. His father owned a record store and his mother was a librarian. In his memoir, Glass recalls that at the end of World War II his mother aided Jewish Holocaust survivors, inviting recent arrivals to America to stay at their home until they could find a job and a place to live. She developed a plan to help them learn English and develop skills so they could find work. His sister, Sheppie, would later do similar work as an active member of the International Rescue Committee.
Glass developed his appreciation of music from his father, discovering later his father's side of the family had many musicians. His cousin Cevia was a classical pianist, while others had been in vaudeville.
Glass has composed many film scores, starting with the orchestral score for Koyaanisqatsi (1982), and continuing with two biopics, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985, resulting in the String Quartet No. 3) and Kundun (1997) about the Dalai Lama, for which he received his first Academy Award nomination. In 1968 he composed and conducted the score for director Harrison Engle's minimalist comedy short, Railroaded, played by the Philip Glass Ensemble. This was one of his earliest film efforts.
The year after scoring Hamburger Hill (1987), Glass began a long collaboration with the filmmaker Errol Morris with his music for Morris's celebrated documentaries, including The Thin Blue Line (1988) and A Brief History of Time (1991). He continued composing for the Qatsi trilogy with the scores for Powaqqatsi (1988) and Naqoyqatsi (2002). In 1995 he composed the theme for Reggio's short independent film Evidence. He made a cameo appearance—briefly visible performing at the piano—in Peter Weir's The Truman Show (1998), which uses music from Powaqqatsi, Anima Mundi and Mishima, as well as three original tracks by Glass. In the 1990s, he also composed scores for Bent (1997) and the thriller Candyman (1992) and its sequel, Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995), plus a film adaptation of Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent (1996).
In 1999, he finished a new soundtrack for the 1931 film Dracula. The Hours (2002) earned him a second Academy Award nomination, and was followed by another Morris documentary, The Fog of War (2003). In the mid-2000s Glass provided the scores to films such as Secret Window (2004), Neverwas (2005), The Illusionist and Notes on a Scandal, garnering his third Academy Award nomination for the latter. Glass's most recent film scores include No Reservations (Glass makes a brief cameo in the film sitting at an outdoor café), Cassandra's Dream (2007), Les Regrets (2009), Mr Nice (2010), the Brazilian film Nosso Lar (2010) and Fantastic Four (2015, in collaboration with Marco Beltrami). In 2009, Glass composed original theme music for Transcendent Man, about the life and ideas of Ray Kurzweil by filmmaker Barry Ptolemy.
In the 2000s Glass's work from the 1980s again became known to wider public through various media. In 2005 his Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (1987) was featured in the surreal French thriller, La Moustache, providing a tone intentionally incongruous to the banality of the movie's plot. Metamorphosis: Metamorphosis One from Solo Piano (1989) was featured in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica in the episode "Valley of Darkness" and also in the final episode ("return 0") of Person of Interest. In 2008, Rockstar Games released Grand Theft Auto IV featuring Glass's "Pruit Igoe" (from Koyaanisqatsi). "Pruit Igoe" and "Prophecies" (also from Koyaanisqatsi) were used both in a trailer for Watchmen and in the film itself. Watchmen also included two other Glass pieces in the score: "Something She Has To Do" from The Hours and "Protest" from Satyagraha, act 2, scene 3. In 2013 Glass contributed a piano piece "Duet" to the Park Chan-wook film Stoker. In 2017 Glass scored the National Geographic Films documentary Jane (a documentary on the life of renowned British primatologist Jane Goodall).
Glass's music was featured in two award-winning films by Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev, Elena (2011) and Leviathan (2014).
For television, Glass composed the theme for Night Stalker (2005).
Let the Letter Read You
Philip Glass Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And doing no good. I've sent a letter a day
For a hundred days. Either you don't read the mail,
Or you've forgotten how to leave.
Let the letter read you. Come back.
No one understands who you are in that prison
For the stonefaced. You've escaped,
On the window ledge. You are both water
And stream, but you think you need something
To drink like a lion or a deer.
How far is it? How far is the light of the moon
From the moon? How far is the taste of the candy
From the lips? Every second you give away light.
We accept. We like this market.
Your love is a sweet poison we ear from your hand
To dissolve and drain away the ego life
Now spraying this fountain from us.
The lyrics of Philip Glass's song Let the Letter Read You present a message of hope and encouragement to someone who seems to be lost in a state of isolation and detachment from the rest of the world. The opening line of the song asks why the person has stayed in a place where their words are scattered and not doing any good. It seems like the person is not communicating effectively, and as a result, the people around them are unable to understand who they are or what they need. The singer has been sending them letters every day for a hundred days, but there is no response. Either the person is not reading the mail or has forgotten how to leave.
In the chorus, the singer implores the person to "let the letter read you" and come back. They remind them that they are not alone, and there are people who understand them and want to help. The singer compares the person to a falcon sitting on a window ledge. They have escaped, but they are still unable to fly away. The person is both water and stream, but they think they need something else to drink, like a lion or a deer. The singer reminds them that every second they give away light, and they are accepted and loved for who they are.
Overall, the song is about finding hope and connection in the world. It speaks to the power of communication and the need for human connection in our lives. The singer is urging the person to let go of their isolation and reach out to the people who care about them.
Line by Line Meaning
Why stay so long where your words are scattered
Why continue to dwell in a place full of chaos and confusion, where your words have no real impact?
And doing no good. I've sent a letter a day
For a hundred days.
Despite my best efforts to communicate with you, you seem to be beyond reach, ignoring my numerous attempts to connect.
Either you don't read the mail,
Or you've forgotten how to leave.
There could be multiple reasons for your silence - it could be that you are simply not reading the letters, or perhaps, you are choosing to stay put and not engage.
Let the letter read you. Come back.
Maybe it's time to approach things differently and let the words of the letter resonate with you, allowing them to truly pierce your soul and inspire you to return.
No one understands who you are in that prison
For the stonefaced.
It may feel like nobody truly knows what you're going through, like you are trapped in a place devoid of warmth and empathy.
You've escaped,
But still you sit there like a falcon
On the window ledge.
Even though you've managed to break free from your confines, you still feel stuck, almost like a bird perched atop a ledge, unwilling to take flight and soar to new heights.
You are both water
And stream, but you think you need something
To drink like a lion or a deer.
You possess such great potential and talent, but your focus seems to be centered on the want for something else - something that may, in fact, be unnecessary.
How far is it? How far is the light of the moon
From the moon?
These questions speak to a deeper sense of existentialism, a yearning to understand life and its mysteries, even those questions that may never truly have an answer.
How far is the taste of the candy
From the lips?
This line may represent a longing for simplicity and the simple pleasures of life, signifying that sometimes the answers to life's biggest questions can be found in the smallest details.
Every second you give away light.
We accept. We like this market.
Your potential is immense and radiant, even if you may not realize it. We all appreciate your gifts and talents, and want to cultivate them in a positive way.
Your love is a sweet poison we ear from your hand
To dissolve and drain away the ego life
Now spraying this fountain from us.
Your love is so powerful and intoxicating, we can't help but be drawn to it. It has the ability to dissolve our egos and transform us into a better version of ourselves, like a beautiful fountain whose waters are life-giving and transformative.
Contributed by Maria B. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Violins in the Void
The only bad thing about Philip Glass is that one day he will leave us. May that not be for a very long time!! He is America’s finest composer. Up there with Arvo Part as the world’s greatest alive today.
Eric T
His music is perfect to listen to while painting or drawing. This interview was a good find.
Gloria Mota
Yes. I agree. I paid and draw, I work always with Philip Glass's music.
A1-3K
Pure gold, all of this. The kind of youtube video you want to download and save on a hard drive in case it ever disappears.
Coolkat
This interview is a work in itself haha it is so surreal, they don't even really talk about important stuff
Daniel Rivera
Interesting... Philip Glass is a very prolific artist. This interview is very valuable to enter the mindset of someone who has devoted themselves to Music Composition. There is so much to learn from these rare individuals! How is a Composer born into life? Are they born? Are they made? How does one decide to write ten symphonies for the next 10 or 20 years of one's life?
How does one approach the art, the living art of Music, and gradually develop their own craft for years and years, for an entire lifetime? What makes an artist? And how did the people receive Phillip Glass's work? Was he always well-received? Or did he face adversity? Did he challenge his audience? How does someone like Phillip Glass gain prominence as a composer?
J. H. Paree
Sometimes I work to silence because I must focus. But there are times when I like to play something, and often it’s difficult to focus. Philip Glass takes that difficulty away.
dialecticalspectacle
What’s there not to love about every element of this interview. I was blessed enough to catch Glass twice in Stockholm in 2019.
Bilge Nur Yilmaz
Kudos to the lovely audio mix of this - Philip on the left ear, interviewer on the right
D_Otec
I love the long format of this, this is a podcast before podcasts existed.