An insightful, casual conversation tonight between Philip Glass and Paul Simon at BAM’s Harvey Theater, where the two composers shared thoughts for 90 minutes, mostly about music. Simon started things off with a bang.
PS: "Who, in your mind, were the greatest composers of the 20th Century?"
PG: (after much hesitation) "Charles Ives, because of how he was able to marry innovation to lyricism. I’ve always had a thing for composers who didn’t teach, who were mavericks: Nancarrow, Partch…In the end, the only music that matters is the music that we love, the music that we want to hear."
PS: "If you can get people to listen, they’re at a level of heightened awareness."
PG: "I see songwriting as a very refined art, one that I myself have been unable to master. I find it incredible that you wrote the music before you wrote the words (for Graceland)."
PS: "How do sounds become language?"
PG: "It’s about the rhythm of words matching they rhythm of the music."
PS: "And what do you think about that?"
PG: "I think it’s a very good idea."
PS: "What compelled you to write an opera in Sanskrit?"
PG: "Because it’s consonants followed by vowels. English is not a good language for opera. English cuts off their words with hard consonants. It takes a lot of time and energy to teach singers how to sing in English. It’s a distraction from the music."
PS: "It always happens: I’m on tour, playing my 30th show, and then all of a sudden – usually in the middle of "You Can Call Me Al" – I go: "What am I doing? I’m imitating myself!"
PG: "I made a conscious choice to perform my own music. It’s given me a deeper appreciation for what interpreters do: they – not the writers – are the ones who create the music. They realize the music. That’s an important word: they make it real. In a sense, I’ve become an interpreter of my own music."
PS: "I have absolutely no connection to the person that wrote The Caveman. I don’t even remember writing those songs. But, I remember feeling that it suceeded at what it was trying to do."
PG: "Young composers worry about when they’re going to find they’re voice. But that’s not the problem. The problem is: how do you get rid of it?"
PS: "There’s no plan. I just follow what I like."
