• Philip Glass
  • Symphony No. 8 (2005)

  • Dunvagen Music Publishers Inc (World)

Commissioned by Bruchnerhaus, Linz.

In three movements

  • 2+pic(fl).2(ca).2(Ebcl)+bcl.2/4.3(2E Flat Trumpet).2+btbn.1/timp.4perc/hp.pf/str
  • 40 min
    • 7th December 2024, Theater, Magdeburg, Germany
    • 4th April 2025, Opernhaus, Magdeburg, Germany
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Programme Note

My recent symphonies - Symphony No. 5 Requiem, Bardo, Nirmanakaya, Symphony No. 6 - (Plutonian Ode), and Symphony No. 7 - A Toltec Symphony - are all driven by text: Symphony No. 5 by Ancient, Classical, and Aboriginal writings; Symphony No. 6 by Allen Ginsberg’s poem; Symphony No. 7 by a transcription of a Native American song. Symphony No. 8 marks a return to symphonic writing based on instrumental music alone. Dennis Russell Davies asked me think of the orchestra as a collection of virtuoso instruments as you would find in a concerto formation. Symphony No. 8 starts from this point in presenting ideas involved with timbre, density, structure, and melody.

PG April 2005

Media

"Movement I" from Symphony No. 8

Scores

Discography