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 (nΓ©e 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 appearanceβbriefly visible performing at the pianoβin 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 cafΓ©), 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).
Lightning
Philip Glass Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Lyrics by Suzanne Vega
Lightning struck a while ago
And itβs blazing much too fast
But give it rain of waiting time
And it will surely pass
Blow over
And itβs happening so quickly
As I feel the flaming time
And I grope about the embers
To relieve my stormy mind
Blow over
Shaken this has left me
And laughing and undone
With a blinding bolt of sleeplessness
Thatβs just begun
And a windy crazy running
Through the nights and through the days
And a crackling
Of the time burned away
Burned away
Now I feel it in my blood
All hot and sharp and white
With a whipcrack and a thunder
And a flash of flooding light
But thereβll be a thick and smoky
Silence in the air
When the fire finally dies
And Iβm wondering whoβll be left there
In the ashes of time
Burned away
Burned away
The lyrics to Philip Glass's song "Lightning" tell a story of a powerful and overwhelming emotional experience similar to a lightning strike. The singer of the song initially describes the lightning as "blazing much too fast," indicating that the experience is happening too quickly and is difficult to process. However, the singer suggests that with time and patience, the intense emotions will "blow over" and eventually fade away.
Despite the singer's initial hope that the intensity of the emotions will pass, they are quickly engulfed in the "flaming time" and "stormy mind" that the lightning has brought about. The language used throughout the song is evocative of chaos and turbulence, with the singer feeling "shaken," "laughing and undone," and experiencing "a crackling of the time burned away." The experience seems to be all-consuming, with the singer feeling it in their blood and describing it as a "whipcrack and a thunder and a flash of flooding light."
Towards the end of the song, the singer hints at a sense of loss and sadness that may accompany the end of such an intense emotional experience. The image of "thick and smoky silence" after the fire has died suggests a void or emptiness that may be felt once the chaos and excitement of the experience have dissipated. The final lines of the song, "I'm wondering who'll be left there / In the ashes of time burned away," seem to reflect a sense of uncertainty and introspection as the singer contemplates what remains after the intense emotional storm has subsided.
Line by Line Meaning
Lightning struck a while ago
Something impactful happened in the past
And itβs blazing much too fast
The impact is overwhelming
But give it rain of waiting time
If we wait patiently, time will dilute the impact
And it will surely pass
The overwhelming feeling will eventually go away
Blow over
Let the storm pass
And itβs happening so quickly
The impact is sudden
As I feel the flaming time
The intense feeling is burning within me
And I grope about the embers
I try to find meaning in the aftermath
To relieve my stormy mind
To calm my agitated state
Shaken this has left me
The experience has left me disturbed
And laughing and undone
It's a mix of emotions
With a blinding bolt of sleeplessness
The experience has made it hard for me to sleep
Thatβs just begun
The lasting effects might only be starting now
And a windy crazy running
The emotions are erratic and intense
Through the nights and through the days
The emotions persist throughout the whole day
And a crackling
There's a sense of tension in the air
Of the time burned away
The experience is something that cannot be undone
Burned away
Lost forever
Now I feel it in my blood
The impact is now a part of me
All hot and sharp and white
The emotion is intense and blinding
With a whipcrack and a thunder
There's a sense of urgency in the air
And a flash of flooding light
The impact is all-encompassing
But thereβll be a thick and smoky
The aftermath will be murky and unclear
Silence in the air
There might be ambiguity or confusion after the impact fades
When the fire finally dies
When the impact subsides
And Iβm wondering whoβll be left there
The experience might change me or those around me
In the ashes of time
In the enduring aftermath
Burned away
Lost forever
Contributed by John J. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Calvin Mead
If I was buried alive this is the song I would climb out of my grave to
Ano Nony
To rule the world once more?
h9ooo
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Ano Nony
I remember hearing this when I was twelve or so and it excited me so much. I'd jump around and dance like crazy. What a cool song
RIXRADvidz
Experience the entire album, ''Songs from Liquid Days'' Great Voices, amazing stars, and music like no other. ''Freezing'' is an excellent compliment to ''Lightning''
Calvin Baxter
Just fun idea to throw around. I was reading somewhere that PG had a goal of his music being ever-changing without anyone able to tell. The weaving of a story. I also just listened to an old trey anastasio interview with almost the exact sentiment! Cool music is cool and cool musicians do things to us that make us want to really live! Thank you all
Bekah
I feel like Etude No. 2 is a perfect example of him putting those subtle changes into practice. That song is a masterpiece..
Jean Gheno
MAKE. THIS. ONE. SUFFER!!
Daniel Smith
We are perhaps the only two people in this comments section that understand that reference.
viciousKev
Thick black smoke covered the screams