Façades

• Glass composed “Façades” for the Philip Glass Ensemble in 1981.¹
  • Glass developed this ensemble in the late 60s and early 70s. The core group of musicians play wind instruments and amplified keyboard. They are sometimes joined by strings or other instruments as the music requires.
  • Until the late 1970s Glass composed almost exclusively for this group, partly because they were uniquely suited to his music’s unusual performance demands. They first performed at unconventional venues like art galleries and lofts until Glass achieved mainstream success.
• “Façades” was the fifth movement of Glass’s 1981 album/composition Glassworks.²

“Glassworks was my debut record on CBS. This music was written for the recording studio, though a number of the pieces soon found their way into the Ensemble repertory. A six-“movement” work, Glassworks was intended to introduce my music to a more general audience than had been familiar with it up to then.”

Glass’s program note for Glassworks ³

“The music was originally intended for the Koyaanisqatsi film. The visual montage it accompanied consisted of scenes from New York’s Wall Street on a Sunday morning.”

Glass’s program note for “Façades”⁴

1. Strickland and Mark Alburger, “Glass, Philip,” Grove Music Online (October 16, 2013), accessed October 9, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-1002252917.
2. “Philip Glass: Compositions: Glassworks (1981),” PhilipGlass.com, accessed October 9, 2019, https://philipglass.com/compositions/glassworks/.
3. Ibid.
4. “Philip Glass: Compositions: Façades (1981)”, PhilipGlass.com, accessed October 9, 2019, https://philipglass.com/compositions/facades/.