Einstein on the Beach

I've just finished listening to one of my favorite pieces of music - Philip Glass's opera, Einstein on the Beach

"Repetition" is the word most often used to describe Philip Glass's music - although that isn't (most of the time) meant in a negative way. Glass uses repetition and sound tonality to create a musical experience that transports the listener outside of themselves. This is not background music, and you won't hear it in any elevators or any radio stations - it is music that was meant for something far greater than just filling silence - it is meant to be an experience, and you have to treat it as such. You have to be willing to invest yourself in it - to give up a time of your life to the music, with the knowledge that if you do this, it will change everything.

It really is a three hour excavation into sound - into resonance - into that space where it echoes in your head. Without your full dedication to the experience the opera will fail - one only needs to let the music into one's self and be amazed at how the controlled chaos of noise comes together to not sound beautiful (although indeed it does) but creates beauty.

This is the kind of art that requires something from the audience. It is impossible to be a passive participant in this experience - you must remain active in it. If you are unwilling or unable to give yourself to the melodies than stick with popular music.

All great art is great because it takes something from the audience. Something intangible, something metaphysical. It is when we have nothing left to give that all forms fall away and we are left with experience - a true experience, unaffected by the prisons of culture and expectations. In this state anything is possible and the only thing at risk is you.

It's as though we stand at the edge of a cliff and look down into the abyss - we know that at the bottom is Eden - all we have to do is jump.

Forgive me this rant - I just think it would be a shame if you lived your life without taking this chance.

I encourage you to find three hours and sit in a dark place and let the music fill you.