End of year blah.
Too much of some and not nearly enough of others.
Gray light and the clock races to an endpoint in a mad rush.
Then the new year. Tick tock.
Thought this might be a good point to play Mad Rush from Philip Glass as the last choice for this year’s Sunday morning music selection. It has an ethereal, almost cosmic feel that seems appropriate for the frantic race to the end of one year and the transition to the subdued and tenuous beginning of the next.
It’s a gorgeous piece which was written for the Dalai Lama‘s first North American address back in 1979. Written originally for organ– it was written on the organ at the Saint John the Divine Cathedral in NY– it was meant to be a open-ended piece that could be shortened or extended without the audience noticing to accommodate the vague timetable of the Dalai Lama’s scheduled appearance. It has been recognized over the years as an iconic piece of modern music. Glass performs it here in Montreal from 2015.
The image at the top is a painting of Glass by Chuck Close who has painted the composer several times including one done solely with fingerprints that I featured in a favorite blog entry that I’ve run a couple times. If you look closely, you can see how this painting is a great example of Close’s unique style of pixelation.
Enjoy the last Sunday of this mad year. Have a great day.
Redtree Times 