"On the Off-Beat"
by Conrad Susa
(taken as a exerpt from a larger article)
...By far the most striking concert was the
second, at which a group of pieces by the young New
York composer Philip Glass were presented. Glass is one
of a small group (Steve Reich, who also participated
in this concert, is another) who have been making some
extraordinary effects out of music that consists
largely of drones, into which alien events intrude
slowly, imperceptibly and compellingly. Thus, for
example, some of his musicians will hold a drone on a
small, simple melodic pattern around C major; an
eternity or so later, someone else will enter with
something as slightly foreign as a B flat, and it
almost knocks you out of your seat. (The popular "In C"
by Terry Riley, which was a huge best-seller among
young record buyers a couple of years ago, is yet
another example of this strange, isolater, but
overwhelming kind of composition.) I am not sure
exactly where this stuff is going, nor do I need to
know; but the effect of these extraordinary, slow sonic
pile-ups in a huge church structure left me somewhat
stoned, and that's good enough....
(
geocities.com/vienna)