Brad Kronen  

Show Notes

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  Date / Time: 9/15/2009 3:08 AM UTC

  Philip Glass - The New Frontier / Uranus - Song of the Day Part ONE
  

  PHILIP GLASS –

  THE NEW FRONTIER

  

   

  Uranus – Song of the Day

  From Brad Kronen’s

  “Welcome to the Solar System” Series

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  And now, South Park Elementary presents the happy, non-offensive, non-denominational Christmas Play, with music and lyrics by New York minimalist composer, Philip Glass!

  [Philip Glass moves into position and starts playing his keyboards. The curtains draw back, and the kids look out at the audience. They begin to move around]

   

  Voice-over: As I turn and look into the sun, the rays burn my eyes [a track saying "Happy Happy Happy, Everybody Happy" is added, along with an arpeggio. Members of the audience look confused] How like a turtle the sun looks.

   

  Sheila Broflovski: What the hell is this??? [The kids just keep moving and turning] This is horrible!!!

   

  Priest: This is the most God-awful piece of crap I've ever seen!!

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  ar⋅peg⋅gi⋅o - noun

  1. the sounding of the notes of a chord in rapid succession instead of simultaneously.

  2. a chord thus sounded.

  Also called:  broken chord.

  ________________________________________________________See web results for arpeggio

  See images of arpeggio

  The Simpsons – Episode “A Milhouse Divided”

  Gripped by the fear that his marriage may be as ill fated as their newly divorced neighbors, The Milhouses,  Homer pulls out every stop to show Marge that their matrimonial bonds are still strong, even if it means pretending to be cultural.

   

  Homer: “Look Marge! “An Evening with Philip Glass”

  Just an evening?”

   

  Philip Glass.  No cultured person should leave home without being able to reference something from an extensive and ever growing body of work from the man considered to be the world’s “greatest living composer today.”

   

  Even though I had a career as an opera singer, my exposure to any kind of non-mainstream music was by self exploration.  And when I first began my trek of foraging into that vast, unchartered territory that IS classical music, nothing would make me run for cover faster than hearing the words “Philip Glass”.

   

  When exploring the lands of the unknown and something is seen from one’s peripheral vision that is considered distant yet threatening, the male species of explorer will quickly attempt to cover his insecurity, lack of knowledge, or fear by loudly stating his false dominance of the area to all creatures within the sound of his voice:

   

  “Philip Glass?  I’m sorry but I like listening to music.”

   

   “O, so just because a bunch of people who wear a lot of black and get paid a ton of money making what they call “minimalist music” which is nothing more than a bunch of noises that any 4 year old could hammer out with a broken Jack-In-The-Box, deem that Glass guy’s stuff as “Art” means that I should too?  I don’t think so.”

   

  Even after doing a quick roundabout of this wild and foreign terrain by hearing a snippet of music from “Einstein on the Beach” or giving a short Glassian piano concerto a full listen through, I still felt the need to place myself in a superior position that was impervious to any kind of modern musical sphere of influence whenever I would smugly sum up Glass’ entire lexicon of work by calling him “The Arpeggio King”.

   

  Well folks, today I’m here to tell you that “The Arpeggio King” not only rules the new frontier of where classical music is headed, but that Philip Glass IS the new frontier!

   

  True brilliance, be it artistic, scientific, philosophical or otherwise is usually comprised of things that have never been thought of before (Inventiveness) or are created WAY ahead of their time (Futurism). And all of these qualities; Mental Brilliance, Inventive Genius, and Futuristic Foresight are under Uranus’ domain.

   

  Therefore, how could Philip Glass be born under ANY other sign other than that which is Uranian to the core – Aquarius?

   

  Maybe anything hinting of futurism produces a human knee jerk reaction of intrepidation or dread filled caution, simply because “the unkown” will most likely have to be addressed.  When I decided that Glass had to be the subject matter of my Uranian Music piece, I surprised myself by throwing myself into a delusional quandary over not knowing where to start looking for reference material since Glass was so prolific and there still could be so much music that I was unfamiliar with…….

   

  I went with the flow and looked for the most recent interview I could find, since Uranus is the planet that deals with things contemporary and beyond, and the first thing I stumbled upon was such a gold mine of things not only Uranian and Aquarian but lo! the Uranian artform known as astrology itself was also crammed into this 59 minute interview from April of 2009 with Pulitzer Prize music critic, Tim Page!

   

  I planned on taking notes or referencing direct quotes from that interview that pertained only to Uranian themes.  A mere 4 minutes would pass before realizing I was pretty much transcribing every word! Here are the main Uranian highlights from this most far thinking of Aquarians:

   

  Glass: “Very early on, (1963) I got interested in what we call “global” or “world” music.”

  This quote shows the Uranian sense of extending the theory of its 11^th house rulership of “the group” and extending it to humanity at large. Ummm, Didn’t world music start around the same time those Benetton global ads were big in the early 90’s?  For the rest of us… possibly.  For the Uranian futurist, 30 years earlier.

   

  Glass: “In my encounters with world music, I came to the conclusion that all music was actually ethnic music.”

  The Uranian “Gestalt” perspective of taking diverse and unique parts and blending them into an equaniminous whole known as Utopia.  (and still way back and way before anyone else would catch on in 1963!)

   

   

  COMMENTS REGARDING HIS REACTIONARY WORK EARLY IN HIS CAREER, THE GROUNDBREAKING PIECE, “MUSIC IN SIMILAR MOTION” THAT REBELLED AGAINST HIS PRINCIPLES OF HARMONY PROFESSOR

   

  Glass: “I began to write music that was the opposite. But of course being the opposite of course is being the same.”

  The “Principle of Duality” that is one of, if not the biggest source of mental stimulation for not just the Uranian personality but for all rationally ruled air signs as well.

   

  Glass: (Regarding “Music In Similar Motion”) I was taking another look at harmony.  I began inventing a musical language.

  Necessity may be the cause for the rest of us, but for the Uranian person, rebellion and genius are the mothers of invention, a term which is the essence of that planet since an invention is a creation based on thoughts that had never been previously thought before!

   

  Glass: “To break the rules rigorously is to follow them unfailingly.”

  Duality in motion! And Aquarius is the one sign who, in this country especially, will resolutely and fixedly choose to live outside of society’s parameters resulting in the rest of us considering them outlaws and even anarchists, when, in reality, they are living within  a structure of life rife with the most dogmatic of self imposed rules!

   

  Mr. Page went on to ask Glass what music he was currently working on now. Glass replied, “I’m working on an opera based on the life of the ASTROLOGER, astronomer Kepler.”

  Those of you who are even just slightly acquainted with me know that Mr. Gemini at any given moment is doing at least 2 -3 things simultaneously. Those same people also know that I should take stock in Arizona Raspberry Iced Tea because of my incessant consumption of the liquid.  It should so happen that as the above question was being asked, I was just beginning a good heavy chugging of my liquid of choice which in turn ended up in a  hose-like dousing of my monitor and computer desk upon hearing Mr. Glass say the words “The Astrologer”!!

   

  Glass then expounded upon his choice of subject matter for his operas over the years:

   

  Glass: “I’ve been very drawn to figures in science: there was, of course, Einstein, (his opera, Einstein on the Beach) there’s Galileo (his opera, Galileo Galilei which yours truly attended the world premiere of in 2002 at The Brooklyn Academy of Music), I did a score for a film about Stephen Hawking called “A Brief History of Time”,

  so now the Kepler.”

  The highly analytical study of tangible facts called “Science” itself is under the domain of Uranus.  The “Scientific Method” is, in actuality, an exercise in Prediction since it takes Uranus’ genius of the rational mind and combines it with Uranian futurism by having the scientist “predict” or deduct the future based on the overall analysis of his or her experimental methods!

   

  Glass goes on to discuss his focus on great scientists throughout history in his operas:

   

  Glass: “To me, scientists are like poets. By bringing them into opera houses; what I’m doing is combining them and wrapping them into music.”

  Or maybe wrapping them in musical Utopia, Phil?

   

  When asked about the foundation of his interest in all People and Things Scientific?

   

  Glass: “By the age of 10 or 12 I belonged to an astronomy club in Baltimore where we made telescopes.”

  Telescopes? Hmmm, Telescopes. Didn’t a certain astrologer who just HAPPENS to have five planets in the 11^th Uranian house of science and astrology very recently, almost in a synchronicity kind of way, write a piece on how a telescope, with its vision of scientific precision and balance, confirm the existence of God more or less?  I could be wrong, though……..

   

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