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).
My Worst Habit
Philip Glass Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I became a torture to those I'm with.
If you're not here, nothing grows.
I lack clarity.
My words wrangle and knot up.
How to cure bad water?
How to cure bad habits?
Send me back to you.
When water gets caught in habitual whirlpools,
Dig a way out through the bottom of the ocean.
There is a secret medicine given only to those
Who hurt so hard they can't hope.
The hopers would feel slighted if they knew.
Look as long as you can at the friend you love,
No matter whether that friend is moving away from you
Or coming back towards you.
Philip Glass's song My Worst Habit is a song that explores the psyche of someone who is grappling with depression and addiction. This person is consumed by their worst habit, which is the depression that makes them feel tired and hopeless, particularly during the winter months. They admit that their behavior negatively impacts those around them and that they lack clarity when trying to communicate. The person seems to be seeking a solution to cure their bad habits, much like how bad water needs to be sent back to the river for purification. In this person's case, they believe that the cure for their bad habits lies in being reunited with a loved one.
The lyrics continue by suggesting that when someone becomes trapped in a vicious cycle of depression and addiction, it can feel like being caught in a whirlpool. To escape this cycle, one must dig deep, like digging a way out through the bottom of the ocean. This suggests that the solution is not an easy one, and it requires significant effort and determination. However, the person reassures the listener that there is a secret medicine that can heal those who hurt so hard they can't hope. This medicine is reserved only for those who have hit rock bottom and are desperately seeking a way out.
The final lines of the song urge the listener to look long and hard at the friend they love, regardless of whether that friend is moving away or coming closer. This line suggests that in the face of depression and addiction, the love and support of a friend can mean the difference between sinking into a despairing cycle and finding a way out.
Line by Line Meaning
My worst habit I get so tired of winter.
I have a habit of complaining about winter and it affects my mood negatively.
I became a torture to those I'm with.
My negative attitude is causing discomfort and pain to the people I am with.
If you're not here, nothing grows.
Your presence is essential in my life, without you everything seems dull and lifeless.
I lack clarity.
I am not able to think clearly and organize my thoughts.
My words wrangle and knot up.
I struggle to express myself clearly and my words become jumbled and tangled.
How to cure bad water?
How can we purify contaminated water?
Send it back to the river.
One way to purify water is to let it return to its natural source.
How to cure bad habits?
What is the solution for breaking bad habits?
Send me back to you.
Being with you can help me overcome my bad habits.
When water gets caught in habitual whirlpools,
Sometimes we get stuck in negative patterns of behavior, like a vortex or whirlpool.
Dig a way out through the bottom of the ocean.
We need to go to the depths of our being to find a way out of these negative patterns.
There is a secret medicine given only to those
There is a remedy that is only available to people who have experienced deep pain and suffering.
Who hurt so hard they can't hope.
This medicine is for those who are in such a state of despair that they cannot see a way out of their pain.
The hopers would feel slighted if they knew.
People who have not experienced intense pain and suffering may not understand the profound healing power of this secret medicine.
Look as long as you can at the friend you love,
We should cherish and appreciate the people we love while we have them in our lives.
No matter whether that friend is moving away from you
Even if our loved ones are physically distant or drifting away from us, we should still hold them close in our hearts.
Or coming back towards you.
And when they return, we should welcome them with open arms and a grateful heart.
Contributed by Caleb K. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Alan Bleier
on Kuru Field of Justice
I couldn't find them anywhere on the internet, so I'm posting them here:
(they are simply passages of the bhagavad-gita)
GHANDI:
yotsyamanan avekse 'ham ya ete 'tra samagatah
dhartarastrasya durbuddher yuddhe priya-cikirsavah
evam ukto hrsikeso gudakesena bharata
senayor ubhayor madhye sthapayitva rathottamam
(kirpaya parayavisto visidann idam abravit)
ARJUNA:
karpanya-dosopahata-svabhavah
prcchami tvam dharma-sammudha-ceta
yac chreyah syan niscitam bruhi tan me
sisyas te 'ham sadhi mam tvam prapannam
(kirpaya parayavisto visidann idam abravit)
KRISHNA:
atha cet tvam imam dharmyam sangramam na karisyasi
tatah sva-dharmam kirtim ca hitva papam avapsyasi
hato va prapsyasi svargam jitva va bhosyase mahim
tasmad uttistha kaunteya yuddhaya krta-niscayah
sukha-duhkhe same krtva labhalabhau jayajayau
tato yuddhaya yujyasva naivam papam avapsyasi
CHORUS:
tam tatha krpayavistam asru-purnakuleksanam
visidantam idam vakyam uvaca madhusudanah
kutas tva kasmalam idam visame samupasthitam
anarya-justam asvargyam ¡akirti-karam arjuna!
GHANDI:
sukha-duhkhe same krtva labhalabhau jayajayau
tato yuddhaya yujyasva naivam papam avapsyasi