Glass Cage - Bruce Brubaker (2006)

Ideated from: Adding this one onto the “essential winter albums” thread, even though it’s not in the article.

A biographical aside: my first foray into legal streaming music was a site called Lala.comway back in the aughts. I was just getting really into classical music, and discovering a lot of composers and artists I’d never known about. This was an early find in my Lala phase, and one I still love.

I don’t want to write a wikipedia page here, but this needs some explanation. “Glass Cage” refers to the album comprising compositions by two similar but distinct 20th century composers, Phillip Glass and John Cage.

Glass has made a long career out of “minimalism” : he’ll find a small figure or melody, or a handful of changes, and then repeat them in different registers or different instruments or slowly build on top of them until it starts to take on an ethereal life of its own. His most famous piece is probably the spooky Koyaanisqatsi, which you’ve heard in countless movies and trailers.

Cage, on the other hand, was less about repetition and more about trying to find ways to introduce random chance or intentional complications to change the sound of his music. His scores were often more like instructions on what should be done rather than what actual notes to play. His most famous piece is called 4’33”, where the musicians sit silently for 4 minutes 33 seconds and don’t play anything. His other music is less cheeky, but works basically the same way.

So, to the album: Brubaker is a great pianist and a lover of all things patient and subtle. He handles these pieces with a lot of restraint and a lot of style. This leaps to mind immediately when I think of “winter music” because it’s so calm and indifferently icy. It keeps the listener at a distance, even though you want to lean in closer. It builds its own world around you, in its own time and according to its own plan: beautiful but indifferent to your wishes.

Tracks I liked:

Satyagraha: Act 3, Conclusion - a solo piano transcription of a piece from one of Glass’ many operas. Opera isn’t something you’ll find much of in this space, but this is a heart-stoppingly good adaptation to piano

Metamorphosis: Metamorphosis Two - most of the album is from this work Glass wrote specifically for solo piano. This one is particularly intricate and chilling

Dream - one of the two Cage pieces. Haunting and beautiful.