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Passages

(1990)

Music by Philip Glass and Ravi Shankar

CATALOG:Private Music 2074-2-P

TRACKS:

NOTES:Offering. After a slow introduction saxophoneplays the Shankar raga melody, subsequentlyenriched by the two other saxes. A longmiddle section in quicker tempo treats thematerial more freely in several parts,concluded with a shorter recapitulation of theopening theme.

Sadhanipa. The title based on the solfegenotes (svaras): "SA DHA NI PA" from theIndian octave (saptaka) based on the first fourtones of the Glass melody: "Do La Ti So" (D-B-C-A). An opening "ad lib" trumpetstatement, echoed in the bass bamboo flute.Then the chamber orchestra develops thetheme in 4/8-6/8-7/8. The Finale recapitulatesthe original Glass theme.

Channels and Winds. is an intrumental workwith vocalists in A-B-A-B-A-B form which wasconceived as a bridge between the twoShankar compositions based on the Glassmelodies.

Ragas in Minor Scale. The Glass theme isintroduced, after the veena introduction, bythe cello. The opening section is in 6/8,middle section 4/8, closing in 4/8.

Meetings Along the Edge. A fast-paced workbased on: 1) a "Middle Eastern" soundingShankar theme in 7; 2) a seconf theme alsoby Ravi and also in 7 but of a somewhatdifferent lenght; 3) A Glass theme in 4. Glassalso added an Introduction and other rhythmicideas. The themes are stated, blended andcombined in the Finale.

1. Offering 9:40

2. Sadhanipa 8:31

3. Channels and Winds 7:56

4. Ragas in Minor Scale 7:32

5. Meetings Along theEdge

8:05

6. Prashanti 13:37

Page 1 of 5Philip Glass: Music: Passages

8-5-2007http://www.philipglass.com/music/recordings/passages.php

Prashanti (Peacefulness). An extendedorchestral work in two parts: Musical depictionof joyful people living in harmony. Slowly,greed, envy, hatred and violence creep intotheir contented lives. Out of this chaos a voicesings out in Vedic prayer:

"Hey Nath, hama para kripa kijiye. Door karaandhakar, gyan ka aloka dijiye, hinsa dweshlobha bamese chhin lijiye, manamey premshanti bhar dijiye."

(Oh, Lord. Be benevolent to us. Drive thedarkness away. Shed upon us the light ofwisdom. Take the jealousy, envy, greed andanger from us, and fill our hearts with loveand peace.)

... and a feeling of spiritual awakening, peaceand tranquillity descends upon people'sminds.

This historic collaboration brings full circle aprocess which began when promising youngAmerican musician Philip Glass met Indianmaster Ravi Shankar in Paris in 1965. Thatweek Glass, studying with the great NadiaBulanger, was earning pocket money doingnotation and conducting a recording sessionfor the soundtrack of Conrad Rook's film"Chappacqua." The score's composer, RaviShankar, was directing his ensemble from thesitar.

Ravi recalls, "From the very first moment Isaw such interest from him -he was a youngman then and he started asking mequestions about ragas and talas and startedwriting down the whole score, and for theseven days he asked me so many questions.And seeing how interested he was I told himeverything I could in that short time."

"It was possible to graduate from a majorWestern conservatory, in my case Juilliard, "remembers Glass, "without exposure to musicfrom outside the Western tradition. Worldmusic was completely unknown in the mid-60's."

"What the young Glass heard which laybeyond his conservatory hermeticity wasRHYTHM, long out of fashion in the world ofAmerican academic post-Webernism, with itsalmost exclusive concern for harmonicorganization. Indian music is based onmelody, which would get you laughed atPrinceton or Columbia, and rhythm, which,despite Stravinsky's efforts in works like "LeSacre du Printemps" or "Les Noces" wasconsidered "incidental" to constructing 12-tone rows and other serious contrapuntalmatters.

So for someone to play for the buddingcomposer an expressive, vital, respect-worthymusic based on 4,000 years of refining theinteraction between the two forgottenelements of Western music must havebeen mildly astonishing at the very least. He



realized that one could construct music on arhythmic, as opposed to a harmonic, base.

Also, unlike most of the composers Glass hadmet up till that time, Ravi Shankar was aplayer, a composer/performer, whoseauthority arose from intimate hands-oncontact with the music itself, and the othermusicians, with whom he regularly shared avibrating column of air. Glass became astudent of Shankar's, Philip Glass todayacknowledges "I owe a lot to Ravi; he wasone of my teachers. "

The movement Philip Glass helped to createwas called "Minimalism," and the foundingMinimalists are all fine performers. Whateverdifferences they may have had in the mid-60's, what they had in common was thedynamic re-assertion of the primacy ofrhythm.

They chose different sources: Steve Reichwas drawn by African drumming and Balinesegamelan (as well as Be-bop); Terry Riley byNorthern Indian vocal techniques under theguidance of the legendary Pandit Pran Nath,as well as blues and jazz improvisation; andin the next generation, John Adams points torock and roll as well as the early Minimalists,as his seminal influences.

Pandit Ravi Shankar went to collaborationswith Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Jean-Pierre Rampaland the much-publicized master/pupilrelationship with Beatle George Harrison thatserved to introduce Indian music (and itsinherent spirituality) to a generation of rockfans. Film scores such as the legendary Aputrilogy, "Charly" and "Gandhi" as well asadditional cross-cultural excursions into othermusical traditions, have enriched his palette,all the while he has remained pre-eminent inthe classical Indian music which traces itshistory to at least 2,000 B.C.

Philip Glass, in part through re-emphasizingthe role of rhythm in his music (influenced bynon-Western forms including Indian Raga)has created a uniquely affective music foropera [Einstein on the Beach (1976),Satyagraha (1982), Akhnaten (1984), TheMaking of the Representative for Planet 8(1988) and Hydrogen Jukebox based on thepoetry of Allen Ginsberg (1990)], film(Koyaanisqatsi, Mishima and The Thin BlueLine), ballet and concert hall.

Peter Baumann, founder of Private Music,(who had been a member of the Minimalist /Rock band Tangerine Dream and an admirerof all of the above) responded enthusiasticallywhen the record company's President/CEO,Ron Goldstein, suggested in the summer of1989, that they bring the now-famous PhilipGlass back into musical contact with the everexpanding world of Ravi Shankar.

Unlike previous Shankar"collaborations" (actually elaborate sessions



with masters of other musical traditionsjoining Ravi to "jam" on his own music) theGlass encounter was rare instance ofclassical music reciprocity, each composerpresenting thematic material to the other asraw material from which these finished pieceswere fashioned. Passages contains four suchco-ventures: two Glass compositions onthemes by Shankar (Shankar / Glass); twoShankar compositions on themes by Glass(Glass / Shankar) as well as one piece fromeach composer completely of his owndevising.

Martin Perlich

CREDITS:Original music composed by Ravi Shankarand Philip Glass. Produced by Kurt Munkacsi,Ravi Shankar and Suresh Lalwani.

Production Shankar: Recorded atKodandapani Audio Lab Madras. Recordedby A. R. Swaminathan. Assisting RaviShankar in orchestration and arrangement:Suresh Lalwani. Conducted by Ashit Desaiand Suresh Lalwani. Mixed by MichaelRiesman and Suresh Lalwani.

Musicians: Vocals Ravi Shankar and S.P.Balasubramanyam and the Madras Choir.Orchestral group from Madras. Soloists: RonuMazumdar, Flute; Shubho Shankar, Sitar;Partha Sarathy, Sarod; Partha Sarathy,Veena; T. Srinivasan, Mridangam & DrumSpeech; Abhiman Kaushal, Tabla.Production Glass: Music by Philip Glass.Produced by Kurt Munkacsi for EuphorbiaProductions, Ltd., NYC. Conducted byMichael Riesman. Engineered by BlaiseDupuy. Assistant Engineers: MichaelMcGrath, Ramone Diaz. Recorded at TheLiving Room Studios, NYC. ExecutiveProducer: Rory Johnston. Edited with SoundTools by Digidesign.Musicians: Strings: Tim Baker Violin; BarryFinclair Violin, Viola; Mayuki Fukuhara Violin;Regis landiorio Violin; Karen Karlsud Violin;Sergiu Schwartz Violin; Masako Yanagita,Violin, Viola; Al Brown, Viola; RichardSortomme, Viola; Seymour Barab, Cello;Beverly Laudrisen, Cello; Batia Lieberman,Cello; Fred Zlotkin, Cello; Joe Carver, Bass.Woodwinds: Theresa Norris, Flute; Jack Kripl,Flute, Soprano Saxophone; Jon Gibson,Soprano Saxophone; Richard Peck, Tenor,Alto Saxophone; Lenny Pickett, Tenor, AltoSaxophone. Brass: Peter Gordon, FrenchHorn; Ron Sell, French Horn; Keith O'Quinn,Trombone; Alan Raph, Trombone. GordenGottleib: Percussion. Jeanie Gagne: Voice.Michael Riesman: Piano.

Art Direction by Melanie Penny. Design byCandy Jernigan. Photography by EbetRoberts.

Tracks 1,5,6 Composed by Ravi Shankar, 1990 Saira Music, Ltd./23rd Street Publishing,Inc. (ASCAP).



Tracks 2,3,4 Composed by Philip Glass, 1990 Dunvagen Music Publishers, Inc.(ASCAP).

1990 Private, Inc.

2007 Dunvagen Publishing, All Rights Reserve Home | Contact us about the Website



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