Cosmic classic: a new symphony by Philip Glass celebrates the world's major religions

Insight on the News, Dec 17, 2001 by Ann Geracimos

Composer Philip Glass doesn't tackle modest themes. The latest effort by the prolific musician, "Symphony No. 5 -- Requiem, Bardo and Nirmanakaya," encompasses the history of the world in a little more than 90 minutes.

"Cosmic grand," is how Glass describes it, talking exuberantly on the telephone at the end of a national tour performing scores he has written for the movies during the last 20 years. "It goes from before creation to paradise, with nothing left out as far as I can tell."

Glass' friend, the Very Rev. James Parks Morton, retired dean of New York City's Cathedral of John the Divine, compiled the libretto, taken from the major religious texts. "We had talked for years about doing a big interfaith thing at the cathedral, and I suggested a requiem in which we would bring in the religions of the world," Morton recalls.

The libretto drives the music, which Glass imagined as a bridge between past and future, going from death (the Requiem) to an in-between state (the Buddhist Bardo) and, finally, a rebirth (Nirmanakaya). He and Morton worked on the 12-movement piece section by section, assembling three or four texts for each. A third collaborator, Kusumita Priscilla Pedersen, head of the religion department at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, also worked on the project, commissioned by Gerard Mortier, artistic director of the Salzburg Festival, to celebrate the new millennium.

The first performance of the symphony took place two years ago with a full orchestra, a four-part chorus, children's choir and soloists. It subsequently was put on at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and venues in Orange County, Calif.; Belgium, Australia, Tokyo and Washington. It will be performed next in Copenhagen, Denmark. "I didn't imagine it would be done so much," the composer admits. "I really thought a piece of that scale would be done once and never again."

Doubtless the success of the symphony, available on a Nonesuch Records recording with conductor Dante Anazolini, is due in some measure to its positive assessment of humanity. Glass also gives credit to the "wonderful ensembles" around that willingly embrace new work. "They just get tired of doing the requiems, and then a new work comes along that is different in terms of what they normally do," he says.

Glass, praised by many as one of the most eloquent and original musical voices of the 20th century, was born in Baltimore and educated at the University of Chicago and the Juilliard School. He is a practicing Buddhist who lists "former taxicab driver" among his education and attainment credits in Who's Who in America. According to his official biography, he discovered music in his father's radio-repair shop, which doubled as a small record store. The family took home the records that didn't sell, mostly great chamber works. Even today, Glass names Bach's "Goldberg Variations" as among his favorite pieces of music, along with Verdi's "Requiem," Stravinsky's Sixth Symphony ("The Palms") and others.

Now 64 years old, Glass has spent much of his professional life in collaborative efforts, including a role as a cofounder of the New York-based Mabou Mines theater company. His movie work includes music for films such as The Thin Blue Line, Kundun and The Truman Show. One of his best-known compositions is the four-and-a-half-hour performance piece "Einstein on the Beach," done 25 years ago with Robert Wilson.

Forthcoming projects include "Symphony No. 6," which Glass describes as "a commission by Carnegie Hall for my birthday early next year."

ANN GERACIMOS WRITES FOR Insight's SISTER PUBLICATION, THE WASHINGTON TIMES.