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Glass, Philip : Words Without Music: A Memoir

Liveright, New York City, NY, 2015

ISBN 0871404389

First Edition / First Printing. Fine in Fine Dust Jacket. 418 pages. The author/composer's memoir. One of the most important musical and cultural events of our time. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Philip Glass' "Words Without Music: A Memoir". A very productive lifetime of music-making, NOT just composing: Performing, conducting, holding festivals, creating recorded music from scratch as a valid way of producing music, touring, giving lectures, writing books. "A world-renowned composer of symphonies, operas, and film scores, Philip Glass has, almost single-handedly, crafted the dominant sound of late-twentieth-century classical music. Yet here, he creates an entirely new and unexpected voice, that of a born storyteller and an acutely insightful chronicler, whose behind-the-scenes recollections allow readers to experience those moments of creative fusion when life so magically merged with art. From his childhood in post-World War II Baltimore to his student days in Chicago, at Juilliard, and his first journey to Paris, where he studied under the formidable Nadia Boulanger, Glass movingly recalls his early mentors while reconstructing the places that helped shape his artistic consciousness. From a life-changing trip to India, where he met with gurus and first learned of Gandhi's Salt March to the gritty streets of New York in the 1970's, where the composer returned, working day jobs as a furniture mover, cab driver, and an unlicensed plumber, Glass leads the life of a bohemian artist, only now transported to late-twentieth-century America. Yet even after Glass' talent was first widely recognized with the sensational premiere of 'Einstein on the Beach' in 1976, even after he stopped renewing his hack license and gained international recognition for operatic works like 'Satyagraha', 'Orphee', and 'Akhnaten', the son of a Baltimore record store owner never abandoned his earliest universal ideals throughout his memorable collaborations with Allen Ginsberg, Ravi Shankar, Robert Wilson, Doris Lessing, Martin Scorsese, and many others, all of the highest artistic order" (Publisher's blurb). "Overflows with love and enthusiasm for life and art. Philip Glass' vision of human culture as the transmission of ideas through time is transcendent. Should be read by everyone interested in music and great writing" (Laurie Anderson). "Demonstrates mesmeric properties that are as palpable as they are inexplicable" (Alex Ross). An absolute "must-have" title for Philip Glass collectors. This copy is very boldly and beautifully signed in black pen-marker on the half-title page by Philip Glass. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. Glass' signature on this particular copy is the best we have ever seen. This title is a contemporary classic. This is one of few such signed copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare signed copy thus. Lavishly illustrated with 32 pages of vintage photographs. One of the greatest composers of our time. A fine copy. . ISBN 0871404389.

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