Symphony No. 5 (Glass)

The Symphony No. 5 "Requiem, Bardo, Nirmanakaya" is a symphony for chorus and orchestra by the American composer Philip Glass. It was commissioned by the Salzburg Festival, Austria and premiered August 28, 1999 and was conducted by Dennis Russell Davies.^[1]

Structure

The symphony has a duration of roughly an hour and forty minutes is divided into twelve movements:

Before the Creation
The Creation of the Cosmos
The Creation of Sentient Beings
The Creation of Human Beings
Joy and Love
Evil and Ignorance
Suffering
Compassion
Death
Judgement and Apocalypse
Paradise
Dedication

Instrumentation

The symphony is scored for solo soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone, and bass-baritone, a children's chorus, SATB choir, and a large orchestra consisting of piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, E-flat clarinet, bass clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, two trombones, bass trombone, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, piano, and strings.^[1]

Reception

Reviewing the United States premiere, Paul Griffiths of The New York Times criticized the work's repetition, writing, "Given that the symphony, in 12 movements, summarized the entirety of creation and human life, the homogeneity that was also found in the musical invention was perplexing. 'Dedication of Merit' -- the last movement, a Buddhist prayer for peace to emanate from virtue -- did not sound so different from 'The Creation of Sentient Beings' (the fourth movement) or, indeed, from most of the rest." He nevertheless added, "But none of these was the moment that counted. What mattered was that right at the end, with an emphatic conclusion in sight, Mr. Glass drew back, took his music into darker, more chromatic territory, had his choir re-enter in moaning disconsolateness, and only then moved toward his close. Irony is not his strong point, but here it seemed that he was, within his own work, undercutting its preposterous pretensions."^[2]

References

1 2 Glass, Philip (1999). "Symphony No. 5 "Requiem, Bardo, Nirmanakaya"". G. Schirmer Inc. Retrieved June 1, 2016.
↑ Griffiths, Paul (October 9, 2000). "MUSIC REVIEW; Philip Glass Takes on a History of the Cosmos". The New York Times. Retrieved June 1, 2016.

Philip Glass

Compositions	Music in Twelve Parts Glassworks String Quartet No. 2 The Light Passages Itaipu Songs from Liquid Days Aguas da Amazonia

Operas	Einstein on the Beach Satyagraha The Photographer Akhnaten The Civil Wars The Juniper Tree The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 1000 Airplanes on the Roof Hydrogen Jukebox The Voyage Monsters of Grace White Raven In the Penal Colony Galileo Galilei The Sound of a Voice Waiting for the Barbarians Appomattox Kepler The Perfect American

Symphonies	Symphony No. 1 (Low) Symphony No. 2 Symphony No. 3 Symphony No. 4 (Heroes) Symphony No. 5 (Choral) Symphony No. 6 (Plutonian Ode) Symphony No. 7 (A Toltec Symphony) Symphony No. 8 Symphony No. 9 Symphony No. 10

Concertos	Piano Concerto No. 1 (Tirol) Piano Concerto No. 2 (After Lewis and Clark) Harpsichord Concerto Violin Concerto (withdrawn) Violin Concerto No. 1 Violin Concerto No. 2 (American Four Seasons) Cello Concerto No. 1 Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra

Related articles	List of compositions by Philip Glass Philip Glass Ensemble Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts Minimal music Robert Wilson Dennis Russell Davies David Henry Hwang Errol Morris La Monte Young Steve Reich Terry Riley Kronos Quartet Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread

Symphonies by Philip Glass

No. 1 (Low) No. 2 No. 3 No. 4 (Heroes) No. 5 (Choral) No. 6 (Plutonian Ode) No. 7 (A Toltec Symphony) No. 8 No. 9 No. 10

List of compositions by Philip Glass

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