Where to start with Glass
Essential works to know this composer by — spread across their styles-
StageAkhnaten — Opera
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ChamberGlassworks, 6 pieces for chamber ensemble or piano
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KeyboardMetamorphosis
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OrchestralViolin Concerto
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Vocal3 Songs for Chorus a capella
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StageKoyaanisquatsi — Film score
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StageEinstein on the Beach — Opera
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StageSatyagraha — Opera
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OrchestralSymphony no. 1, "Low"
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Stage12 Pieces for Ballet, for piano, "Aguas da Amazonia"
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Keyboard4 Movements, for 2 pianos
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Chamber5 Dance Pieces
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Chamber600 Lines
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StageA Brief History of Time — Film score
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StageA Descent into the Maelstrom — Ballet
Listening guide
Hand-curated paths into Glass's catalogueMost Popular
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Glassworks (piano)
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Metamorphosis I-V (piano)
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Violin Concerto No. 1
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The Hours (film score)
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Knee Play No. 5 (from Einstein on the Beach)
Most Acclaimed
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Einstein on the Beach (complete opera)no narrative, 5 hours, no intermission — audience can come and go
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Akhnaten (opera)
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Symphony No. 3
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Music in Fifths
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Music in Similar Motion
Most Weird
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Einstein on the Beachyou are expected to leave during the performance; trains, beach scenes, spaceship, trial — no text beyond numbers and solfège syllables
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Music in Contrary Motion1969 — two keyboard parts move in opposite directions by half-steps; pure additive process
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Low Symphonyorchestral realisation of David Bowie and Brian Eno’s ”Low” album
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Hydrogen Jukeboxfor voice + ensemble — texts by Allen Ginsberg
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Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (film score)his most classical film score — string quartet + orchestra
Similar composers
Same era, overlapping styles — by genre & period affinityIn your library
Works 108
- Stage
- ● Akhnaten — Opera
- ● Koyaanisquatsi — Film score
- Einstein on the Beach — Opera
- Satyagraha — Opera
- 12 Pieces for Ballet, for piano, "Aguas da Amazonia"
- A Brief History of Time — Film score
- A Descent into the Maelstrom — Ballet
- A Madrigal Opera — Opera
- Anima mundi — Film score
- Animals in Love — Film score
- Bent — Film score
- Candyman — Film score
- Candyman 2 — Film score
- Cassandra's Dream — Film score
- Dracula, for string quartet — Film score
- In the Upper Room, for chamber ensemble — Ballet
- Jenipapo — Film score
- Kepler — Opera
- La Belle et la Bête — Opera
- Les Enfants Terribles
- Mishima — Film score
- Monsters of Grace
- Music for Voices
- Naqoyqatsi — Film score
- Neverwas — Film score
- No Reservations — Film score
- North Star — Film score
- Notes on a Scandal — Film score
- Orphée — Opera
- Powaqqatsi — Film score
- The Fog of War — Film score
- The Hours, for piano — Film score
- The Illusionist — Film score
- The Juniper Tree
- The Photographer
- The Photographer
- The Secret Agent — Film score
- The Thin Blue Line — Film score
- The Voyage — Opera
- Undertow — Film score
- Waiting for the Barbarians — Opera
- Witches of Venice — Ballet
- Chamber
- ● Glassworks, 6 pieces for chamber ensemble or piano
- 5 Dance Pieces
- 600 Lines
- Duo for Viola and Percussion
- Façades, for 2 flutes and strings
- Gradus, for soprano saxophone
- In the Summer House, incidental music for violin and cello
- Melodies, for saxophone
- Music With Changing Parts
- Music in 12 Parts, for chamber ensemble
- Music in 5ths, for chamber ensemble
- Music in Similar Motion, for ensemble
- Opening, for chamber ensemble or piano
- Orion, for sitar, pipa, didgeridoo, kora, violin and ensemble
- Passages, for instrumental ensemble
- Piece in the Shape of a Square, for 2 flutes
- Saxophone Quartet
- Sonata no. 1 for Violin and Piano
- Songs and Poems, for cello
- String Quartet no. 1
- String Quartet no. 2, "Company"
- String Quartet no. 3, "Mishima"
- String Quartet no. 4, "Buczak"
- String Quartet no. 5
- Strung Out, for amplified violin
- The Sound of a Voice, suite from the incidental music
- The Windcatcher, for flute and piano
- Tissues, for cello, percussion and piano
- Keyboard
- ● Metamorphosis
- 4 Movements, for 2 pianos
- A Musical Portrait of Chuck Close
- Etudes, Vol.1
- How Now
- Mad Rush
- Modern Love Waltz
- Music in Contrary Motion
- Night on the Balcony, for harpsichord
- Orphée Suite
- Two pages
- Wichita Vortex Sutra
- Orchestral
- ● Violin Concerto
- Symphony no. 1, "Low"
- Cello Concerto
- Concerto Fantasy, for 2 timpanists and orchestra
- Concerto Grosso
- Concerto for Saxophone Quartet, for sax quartet and orchestra
- Days and Nights in Rochina
- Double Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra
- Echorus, for 2 violins and strings
- Harpsichord Concerto
- Persephone
- Symphony no. 2
- Symphony no. 3
- Symphony no. 4, "Heroes"
- Symphony no. 6, "Plutonium Ode"
- Symphony no. 7, "A Toltec Symphony"
- Symphony no. 8
- The Light
- Tirol Concerto, for piano and orchestra
- Violin Concerto no. 2, "The American Four Seasons"
- Vocal
- 3 Songs for Chorus a capella
- Another Look at Harmony Part 4, for chorus and electric organ
- Channels and Winds, for orchestra with optional voice
- Itaipu, symphonic portrait for chorus and orchestra
- Psalm 126, for chorus and orchestra
- Songs from Liquid Days, 6 songs for voice and chamber ensemble