Tom McKinney presents an all-night celebration of the music of Philip Glass, focusing on his epic early masterpiece Music In Twelve Parts, which lasts some three and a half hours. Philip Glass is recognised as one of the greatest of the so-called Minimalist composers who developed their radical new style of music in the bohemian atmosphere of the New York City downtown loft scene of the 1960s.

Glass had studied classical composition but was looking for a new kind of musical language. He formed the Philip Glass Ensemble, an amplified group including several electric keyboards, wind instruments (saxophones, flutes), and soprano voices. The group played loud and rhythmic music that had the attack and excitement of rock music, very different from the refined sounds of the classical concert hall, and they tended to perform in unorthodox venues such as loft spaces.

Glass's music for his ensemble culminated in Music in Twelve Parts (1971-1974), which began as a single piece with twelve instrumental parts but developed into a cycle of twelve substantial pieces. This broadcast will also include shorter works by Glass written for his ensemble from this period: Music with Changing Parts, Music in Similar Motion, Music in Contrary Motion and Music in Fifths. All in all, a blockbuster six hours of hypnotic minimalism.

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