Glass, "Metamorphosis 1"

“Metamorphosis 1” from Metamorphosis by Phillip Glass

By Vicky Trifiletti

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Metamorphosis are a set of 5 pieces for solo piano. They were composed in 1998. The themes for these solo piano works come from two different places. The title comes from the original work in which the main themes in movements 3 & 4 were derived, The Metamorphosis. The theme for this particular movement (along with movements 2 & 5) come from a piece of incidental music that Glass wrote for the documentary “The Thin Blue Line,” a documentary about a  Glass scored the entire documentary, which is said to have postmodernist themes (in terms of cinema). Both of the pieces that Glass uses to derive these themes from were not originally scored for Solo Piano. At the time, Glass’s band (the Glass Experience) was touring. Phillip Glass was touring for solo piano at the time. Since he did not usually perform with sheet music, he may have gathered the material for this work by arranging/performing material from “The Thin Blue Line” and The Metamorphosis.

            It is important to note that although Glass is widely recognized as being a minimalist composer, 1) he did not like the term, 2) at this point in time, the minimalist movement had come to a close. Instead there are elements of post-minimalism throughout this piece.

            Regarding the form of this piece, there are three main themes that help structure this piece.

1.    Theme 1 is characterized by block chords. Each chord is repeated twice (a quarter followed by a dotted half note). This theme can be seen in mm. 1-5. Although this is a five measure phrase, because there is no new note sounding on the 5th measure, it is difficult to aurally perceive the 5th measure.

2.    There is a variation on Theme 1. This occurs when a new chord is added. The addition of a new chord adds another measure to the phrase. Although this is now a six measure phrase, there is still no new note sounding on the 6th measure, and it is difficult to aurally perceive this measure. This variation can be seen at mm. 47-51 (although due to repeats, this is much later in the piece)

3.    Theme two is first found from mm. 6-9. This theme features a broken Em chord (with a sustained E in the bass and an alternating G & B eight-note pattern.) Halfway through this theme, there is an octave-doubling of a sustained E, where the right hand crosses over and sounds lower than the left.

4.    Theme three is first found from mm. 19-23. This theme features a broken Em chord, the same as theme 2. As this Em chord is arpeggiated, the bass note changes to resemble that of the bass notes found in theme 1 (block chords). The last two measures of the theme contain a shift in pitch center, as an Eb major chord is introduced. At this moment, the pitch center momentarily shifts to Bb (there is a strong sense of “me-do” in the melody) This also changes the pitch center by a tri-tone.

5.    At times, themes 2 & 3 elide with each other (due to the similar broken Em chord pattern).

The three main themes alternate to create one larger section of the piece. This large section is repeated 3 times. One way to keep track of this large section is to listen for the return of the block chords.

The texture of this piece becomes thicker when there is a broken Em chord (themes 2 & 3). Due to octave doublings, and consistent bass voice, there appears to be more than two voices. This type of voicing effects the sound as well. Register differences are a key factor in what separates each layer of the texture in this piece.

Throughout this piece, conventional harmony is used, (as in M/m 3rds are often seen) but there is no goal-directed motion (which is typical of minimalistic or post-minimalistic music). The movement of each chord (there are chords) does not follow the conventional rules, however there are common tones between adjacent chords. This allows for a smooth motion between harmonies.

There are a few main chords found within this piece:

• Em chord (sometimes seen in a broken pattern, sometimes with the 7th added in)

• G major chord

• C Major 7th chord (with no third (E))

• C7 (with no 5th (G))

• Eb major

• There is a harmony that is not a conventional chord

There is a sense of a pitch center, and that is E, it is present in most of the chords used throughout the piece. As mentioned above, there is an instance in theme 3 where the pitch center deviates to Bb (a tri-tone away from E)

Throughout the piece there is a sense of melody that comes from the changing pitches. There is a strong melody that is found within the 3rd theme of the piece.

The meter is consistently 4/4, although it is difficult to perceive meter at times due to the equal accenting of weak and strong beats. This type of accenting occurs in theme 1, as well as the right hand of theme 3.

The smooth transitions within this piece lend themselves to the title “Metamorphosis.” It’s as if each chord is morphing, or changing, smoothly to the next. Each of the three themes also appears to be evolving, as they each contain material  from one of the other themes (just slightly varied).

To represent this piece, I chose this sculpture set called “Aught” by Eva Hesse. This set of sculptures is considered post-minimalistic, and does tie in with this piece very well. I enjoy how there are 4 stand-alone sculptures. There is a difference in each one, yet from a distance they still look the same. It is the differences in each sculpture that makes this art interesting. This concept is similar to this piece; the differences in each theme is what makes the piece interesting.