Glass

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By L. KENT WOLGAMOTT / GZO

I met Philip Glass about 20 years ago and have gotten to know him over the ensuing decades. He’s even ridden around Lincoln in my Saturn.

That’s not intended to be name dropping. Rather, it is full disclosure for this review of “Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts,” the new documentary about Philip by “Shine” director Scott Hicks.

In 2005, Hicks began following Glass with an HD camera, catching him making pizza, composing at the piano, meeting with Woody Allen, exercising and playing with his two small children.

Combining that footage with interviews with Glass, his wife, Holly, his brother and sister, artist Chuck Close, his collaborators, spiritual teachers and others, Hicks has come up with an intimate portrait of arguably the most important composer of the past 40 years and a fascinating man.

The informality of much of the footage shot in Glass’ New York home, his New England seaside retreat and behind the scenes at rehearsals and during work on a film score gives “Glass” a near-home-movie feel. That includes the point where Glass asks the filmmaker to make tea while he talks with Gelek Rimpoche, one of his teachers and the founder/spiritual director of Jewel Heart, the Tibetan Buddhist organization that has a Lincoln chapter.

As the film unfolds in parts (the title is a knockoff of a Glass composition title), it becomes an insightful, informed Glass biography, detailing his studies at the University of Chicago and Juilliard School of Music and with his teacher Nadia Boulanger, who he says turned him from a Juilliard graduate into a composer.

In the early ’60s, Glass met and collaborated with Ravi Shankar, the Indian sitar master who appears in the movie. The combination of Western and Eastern classical music formed the core of Glass’ controversial, groundbreaking music that was initially called minimalist, taking the name from a visual art movement emerging at the same time.

While “minimal” doesn’t at all fit Glass’ music, which is repetitive but lush and ever-changing, it recognized a link with the New York art scene of the mid-1960s — something that is emphasized in Glass’ talks with his friend Close, who first made Glass’ portrait in that era. The Sheldon Museum of Art owns one of several Glass portraits done by Close.

Since the ’60s, Glass has performed with his ensemble. But he’s also written symphonies, a series of operas and myriad film scores. Hicks follows him as he works on “Barbarians at the Gate,” his most recent opera, which premiered in 2005, and shows him talking with Allen about the score for “Cassandra’s Dream,” which hit screens earlier this year.

But just as important, the film captures Glass doing exercises with and talking to his spiritual teachers and dealing with his family, creating a full portrait of the man and a glimpse inside the creation of his music.

The Glass seen on screen is the same man I’ve gotten to know over the years: humble, open and one of the most intelligent people I’ve ever met. I learned some things about Glass watching the movie and had some of my own observations of the man confirmed.

I last saw Glass in Ann Arbor, Mich., this spring at an arena event with the Dalai Lama. I don’t remember exactly what we talked about, but he was excited about his current project and curious about what I’d been up to.

That’s the Glass that Hicks has captured with grace and insight in “Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts.” That is why the film will stand as a record of one of the most important music/cultural figures of the late 20th and early 21st century.

Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.