Glass: Symphony no 5 (Choral): Requiem, Bardo, Nirmanakaya

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Music reviews of Glass: Symphony no 5 (Choral): Requiem, Bardo, Nirmanakaya

Music Review: Hearing the Words
Rating: 5 Stars

At first I listened to the CDs as I usually do--doing one or two other things at the same time. I thought, "That was nice music, but not exciting." Then I thought that since the work was a choral work in English, and the CDs came with such nice cards with all the words, I really should try reading along and focusing on the words. It was an investment in time and attention, but when I did it the symphony suddenly came alive to me, both musically and emotionally, and clearly that is how it was intended to be experienced.

At the Kennedy Center I had the opportunity to hear Philip Glass himself speak informally before the concert, describing the writing of Symphony No. 5. He was accompanied by the Rev. James Parks Morton, the President of the Interfaith Center of New York, who had been closely involved with Glass in collecting the text excerpts from the "world wisdom traditions" that were used as a text in the work.

In his talk, Glass confirmed that this work centers on the text. The symphony was intended as a large work that would be a tribute to the change of millennia. The music is in twelve sections (Glass seemed unsure whether they should be called movements), each treating a major theme found in the great scriptures. The text selections come from nearly every major world religion as well as wisdom stories from folk cultures worldwide. Not only does this work have geographic and cultural breadth, but also it has a breadth in time that boggles the mind, sweeping from "Before the Creation" to "Judgement and Apocalypse," and "Paradise." En route, the human condition is examined with sections entitled "Joy and Love," "Evil and Ignorance," "Suffering," "Compassion," and "Death."

Here are some brief examples of the text:

Before the Creation: The symphony opens with these memorable words: "There was neither non-existence nor existence then; there was neither realm of space nor the sky which is beyond. What stirred? Where?" (The Rig Veda, India)

Joy and Love: "Come, come, whoever you are!/ Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving./ Come./ This is not a caravan of despair./ It doesn't matter if you have broken your vows a thousand times./ Still come, and yet again come!" (Rumi, Persia)

Paradise: "There I have seen joy filled to the brim./ There falls the rhythmic beat of life and death:/ Rapture wells forth, and all space is radiant with light." (Kabir, India)

Dedication: The closing lines are: "For as long as space endures/ And [for] as long as living beings remain,/ Until then may I too abide/ To dispel the misery of the world." (Bodhicaryavatara, Tibet)

Glass pointed out that the last section repeats the music of the first section, "but a little more distantly." He said this is to suggest (as taught in Eastern traditions) that the great cosmic cycles of time repeat again and again, so as one cycle comes to an end another begins.

Glass said that while he was writing he wondered if the work, drawing from so many sources, might come across as a mere "patchwork of texts" rather than as a unified whole. But he said when he heard it performed he was satisfied that it held together well. This is my experience also. I was impressed that in this work so many disparate cultural voices speak together with both unity and urgency. It is a tribute to the universality of these text selections, as well as the sensitivity with which they were arranged.

Someone asked Glass how he came up with the music to fit each selection. He said that the music arose from the words themselves as he meditated on them, aided, of course, by a lifetime of composing music for songs and choral works.

Someone else asked Glass whether working with these texts had affected him spiritually. He answered that they had very much affected him and that he continues to study the wisdom teachings. Currently he is reading "Black Elk Speaks," and, he said, some of these texts have found their way into more recent works, including a Symphony No. 6 on which he is now working.

During the Kennedy Center performance, as the choruses and soloists lingered on every word, and the music embraced the beautiful thoughts of the great thinkers and spiritual seekers of the world, I felt emotionally overwhelmed. Other people too, were deeply moved as evidenced by a ten minute standing ovation for the hundreds of orchestral and choral performers, for the conductor, Dante Anzolini (who also conducted for the recording), and for Glass himself, who joined the performers for a bow.

Description of Glass: Symphony no 5 (Choral): Requiem, Bardo, Nirmanakaya

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