David Borden - Variations on a Theme of Philip Glass (2011-2014)
0:18 Theme: Screens of Memory (from 1000 Airplanes on the Roof)
1:28 Variation 1 (Prelude)
4:14 Variation 2 (Holographic Wave Patterns)
10:07 Variation 3 (Interlude)
13:13 Variation 4 (Lines)
19:30 Variation 5 (Invocation)
22:24 Variation 6 (Polyphony)
24:33 Variation 7 (Ghostly)
27:54 Variation 8 (Land of Broken Chords)
32:53 Variation 9 (Another Look at Counterpoint)
35:28 Variation 10 (Spooky Action at a Distance)
38:26 Variation 11 (Satisfaction Lies in the Effort, Not in the Attainment)
"Sometime in early 1990 I told Phil Glass, a friend since the 1970s, that I would like to do a set of variations on one of his melodies. He agreed to the idea. I then asked him to choose one of his melodies, and we would meet sometime later to discuss his choice.
A few weeks later he told me that he looked, but that he didn't really write melodies -- a remarkable statement from the composer who reinvented opera. So he suggested that I look for something that I could use.
I settled on two titles from 1000 AIRPLANES ON THE ROOF:
1. Screens of Memory
2. What Time is Gray?
He gave his blessing, and we made a legal agreement.
The first set of variations were premiered in 1991. I kept reworking them, and they received several performances. The last one was at the Smithsonian in 2000. It was not until 2011 that I revisited these variations, decided to retire them, and do a completely new set on the same theme. Screens of Memory is the theme of both sets. The most recent set is called VARIATIONS ON A THEME OF PHILIP GLASS 2011-14.
The earlier set used hardware synthesizers, electric guitar, voice and wind instruments. This latter set is played on Apple Laptops by three keyboardists and uses Propellerhead REASON 7 or above as a live performance platform." -- David Borden
Performed and programmed by David Borden.
