Passages (Ravi Shankar and Philip Glass album)
Passages is a musical album with compositions that have Ravi Shankar and Philip Glass wrote together. In the musical design of the album the styles of both composers are merged, namely, the classical music with repetitive structures of glass and the traditional Hindustani (ie North Indian classical ) style of Shankar.
History of cooperation between Shankar and Philip Glass
Philip Glass met Ravi Shankar for the first time in 1965, as Shankar and Philip Glass collaborated on the soundtrack for the film Chappaqua. Here, Philip Glass was particularly interested for the importance of melody and rhythm in Hindustani music, which had withdrawn in the Western musical tradition behind the harmony.
"It was possible to graduate from a major Western conservatory, in my case Juilliard, without exposure to music from outside the Western tradition. World music which completely Call unknown in the mid -60 's. "
"It was possible to finish his education at a major Western Conservatory, without ever having come with music from outside the Western tradition into contact. World music was in the mid sixties completely unknown. "
"From the very first moment I saw seeking interest from him - he was a young man then - and he started asking me questions about ragas and talas and started writing down the whole score, and for the seven days he asked me so many questions. And seeing how interested he what I told him everything i could in short time did. "
"Since the very first moment I saw so much interest from him - he was a young man - and he began to ask me questions about ragas and talas and wrote all the notes on, and the next seven days he asked me so many questions. And when I saw how interested he was, I told him everything I could tell him in this short time. "
1989 suggested the head of the recording studios of Shankar Glass and Ron Goldstein, that the two should work together again. For this proposal then was the album Passages.
Occupation
- Tim Baker - Violin
- S. P. Balasubrahmanyam - Vocals
- Seymour Barab - Cello
- Al Brown - viola
- Ashit Desai - Conductor
- Blaise Dupuy - sound engineer
- Barry Finclair - Viola, Violin
- Mayuki Fukuhara - Violin
- Jean Gagne - voice
- Jon Gibson - Soprano Saxophone
- Philip Glass - Musician, Producer
- Peter Gordon - French Horn
- Regis Iandiorio - Violin
- Rory Johnston - executive producer
- Karen Karlsrud - Violin
- Abhiman Kaushal - Tabla
- Jack Kripl - alto saxophone, flute
- Suresh Lalwani - arranger, conductor, sound engineer, assistant to the orchestra, Producer
- Regis Landiorio - Violin
- Beverly Lauridsen - Cello
- Batia Lieberman - Cello
- Ronu Mazumdar - Flute
- Michael McGrath - Toningenieurassistent
- Kurt Munkasci - producer
- Keith O'Quinn - Trombone
- Richard Peck - Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone
- Melanie Penny - Artistic Director
- Martin Perlich - liner notes
- Lenny Pickett - alto saxophone, tenor saxophone
- Alan Raph - trombone
- Michael Riesman - conductor, sound engineer, pianist
- Ebet Roberts - photography
- Partha Sarathy - Sarod, Vina
- Sergiu Schwartz - Violin
- Ron Sell - French Horn
- Ravi Shankar - arranger, orchestrator, musician, producer, voice
- Shubho Shankar - Sitar
- Richard Sortomme - Viola
- T. Srinivasan - drum sound, Mridangam
- A.R. Swaminathan - sound engineer
- Masako Yanagita - Viola, Violin
- Frederick Zlotkin - Cello
Title list
Musical performance
During the creation of the album exchanged the two composers arrangements, themes and melodies so that the individual pieces of the album contain elements of both composers. So the piece composed by Shankar " Offering" for example, is located rather in the style of Philip Glass' repetitive music as in the field of Hindustani classical music.
Offering
At the beginning of the play a saxophone plays at a slow pace on the opening melody from Shankar's raga composition. Two more Saxophones get on it. It follows a central part in a faster tempo, in which the topic of the opening melody is further processed. In this middle part is clearly an influence from the repetitive style Glass' to hear. At the end of the opening melody is repeated again.
Sadhanipa
The title of this piece is based on the melody of the same: the syllables " SA NI DHA PA " are the Indian names for the first four notes of the melody of the piece, namely, D, H, C and A. The melody is first ad libitum from a trumpet played. Then, the subject of the remaining instruments in the first 4/8- and 6/8- and then developed in 7/8-Takt. Finally, the tune is repeated once more.
The theme that was composed by Philip Glass, though consisting of only four notes and is minimalist, but the piece loses its minimalism by the arrangement of Ravi Shankar: In the first minute of the lavish style Shankar becomes dominant, which is that almost no harmony or counterpoint are available, but many instruments like tabla, sitar, sarod, mridangam and many more. Often, these instruments play in call- and-response style
Channels and Winds
Channels and Winds is a piece with instruments and vocals. It has the A-B -A-B -A-B -shape. This piece is perceived as a bridge between Sadhanipa and Ragas in Minor Scale. These two pieces are the pieces in which Philip Glass has only set the theme and were usually composed by Ravi Shankar.
Ragas in Minor Scale
Ragas in Minor Scale, the second piece in which Philip Glass has only given the topic and the other was composed by Ravi Shankar, will be opened by a Vina in 6/8-measure. The following middle part and the final part will be played in 4/8-Takt.
Meetings Along the Edge
Meetings Along the Edge is a fast piece, which is composed mainly of the following topic:
By Philip Glass also come more rhythmic ideas as well as the introduction. In the final, all subjects will be played, mixed and combined.
Prashanti
The title of this piece is called " peacefulness ". It is constructed such that an initially upbeat music that is supposed to represent the peaceful coexistence of a community that is always loud and chaotic, which stands for the spread of greed, envy, hatred and violence in this society. Finally, you will hear a loud bang, and the previous rhythmic structure disappears in favor of a slow melody part to which a singer performs the following Vedic poem:
"Hey Nath, hama para kripa kijiye. Door kara andhakar, gyan ka aloka dijiye, Hinsa dwesh lobha bamese CHHIN lijiye, manamey prem shanti bhar dijiye. "
" Oh Lord, be gracious to us. Dispel the darkness. About Schütte us with the light of wisdom. Take us the envy, greed and anger and fill our hearts with love and peace. "
Reception
In Allmusic rating the album gets four out of five stars. The employees of Allmusic Jim Brenholts writes:
"A collaboration in between to avant -garde modern classical composer and a traditional Indian / Hindi composer / performer Seems as unlikely as ice hockey on the River Styx. HOWEVER, Passages is a collaboration in between Philip Glass and Ravi Shankar and it works quite well. Shankar 's smooth style fits nicely with Glass ' dissonant orchestra tion. "
" A joint project by a composer of avant-garde modern classical music and a traditional Indian composer and virtuoso appears just as likely as hockey on the river Styx. But Passages is a joint project of Philip Glass and Ravi Shankar, and it works really well. Shankar's even-toned style fits well with Glass' dissonant orchestrations. "
Chart position
The album came in 1990 and listed in the charts for " Best World Music Album " of Billboard magazine. It peaked at the third place.