Minimalist composer Philip Glass is a one-man industry

Minimalist composer Philip Glass explains how he protected his creative freedom early in his career when he wrote ‘Music in Twelve Parts.’

SAN FRANCISCO — Philip Glass, known superficially as “the” minimalist composer, is in fact one of the most creative and prodigious all-around composers of modern times.

At 72 — and as creative as ever — Glass has to his credit two dozen operas (including the San Francisco-commissioned “Appomattox”); eight symphonies; concertos for just about every instrument you can think of; soundtracks to some 20 movies; music for major modern-dance choreographers; collaborations with Paul Simon, Linda Ronstadt, Yo-Yo Ma and the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Doris Lessing; and many, many more.

You don’t need to be a classical-music fan to have heard at least parts of Glass’ opera “Einstein on the Beach,” his scores for “Koyaanisqatsi,” “The Hours,” “The Fog of War,” “Kundun” and “Mishima.”

A native of Baltimore, Glass had an intense and high-level education beginning at the University of Chicago, going on to the Juilliard School, then studies with the legendary Nadia Boulanger and sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar in Europe. Glass returned to the U.S. in 1967, settling in New York. He formed the Philip Glass Ensemble and embarked on a five-year stint of ... driving a cab.

Why, besides the obvious need of a struggling composer to make a living, become a taxi driver? In Manhattan, even — he could have followed the career path of other musicians, combining performing gigs and teaching.

But Glass considers his unusual choice vital for his career.

“It meant that I didn’t have to work in the academic or commercial music worlds,” Glass said from his New York home, before leaving for San Francisco. “I wanted to be by myself, with no commitment to an employer, simply earning money, and able to compose independently and pretty much all the time.”

Glass was able to take his children to school and spend time with them.

“No one cared what I did, I wasn’t invited anywhere. There was this tremendous amount of freedom,” he said. “Life was easier and cheaper then, before the overwhelming consumerism and indulgences of today.”

And it was behind the wheel of the cab that Glass wrote the four-hour-long “Music in Twelve Parts,” a huge experimental piece from the late 1960s.

While driving a cab, and creating “Music in Twelve Parts,” much of “Einstein on the Beach” and many other major compositions, Glass also had the “advantage” of being an unknown. Yes, he considers lack of fame a plus, actually “a great fortune of being ignored until I turned 40.”

“I didn’t have to worry about commissions or reviews,” he said. “I chose independence, and I owed nothing to anybody.”

That ragged individualism, coupled with an unalterable insistence on the ostinato (repetition) of classic minimalism, or what Glass calls “music with repetitive structures,” sets the composer apart from his generation.

Another famous minimalist, Berkeley’s John Adams, retains only elements of that style, opening up to varied rhythms and neoclassical melodic lines.

Despite Glass’ fame and significance, his music is not for everyone.

In just about every concert featuring a work by Glass — especially when it’s a long one — there are people bolting from the hall, holding their hands to their ears, trying to stop the throbbing sound of what seems like endless repetition.

For those in the Bay Area, their next chance to see Glass perform will be Monday, when San Francisco Performances brings him to Davies Symphony Hall. In “Twelve Parts,” seven musicians play keyboards and woodwinds, amplified and fed through a mixer, for four hours, with breaks every hour. How they ever manage to get through that is what’s worth watching.

San Francisco native belts out one of music’s lengthiest roles

Before Philip Glass’ monumental “Music in Twelve Parts” is performed in Paris, Tokyo, or Monday in Davies Symphony Hall, there is one final question: Is Lisa Bielawa ready? Without her, there is no show.

The San Francisco native sings for the good part of the four hours the show runs. Her continuity in the program is essential, since instrumentalists can be replaced, but not“the” Glass singer of her generation.

Bielawa is matter-of-fact about it: “I am the last person they check with when presenters ask if we can do it.”

It is not the kind of singing you would encounter in opera or pops, more like vocalizing in the shower — but to a score. She calls it “instrumental singing, somewhat similar to running through solfège.”

And it’s for a good length of time.

“Anatomically, it’s an incredible challenge,” the singer says, “so there is physical preparation, and you must be healthy. Just as you prepare for a marathon, you must run before the event, but not too much. It takes a balance of singing before, but not doing too many gigs. Then, I don’t talk at all on the day of performance, take a lot of water, lot of rest.”

Bielawa, who lives in New York and circles the globe for performances of her own compositions, was born in San Francisco; her father is composer and retired San Francisco State University music professor Herbert Bielawa.

She attended Lowell High School, sang with the San Francisco Girls Chorus, then left for Yale University, where she earned a degree in literature.

Moving to New York, she joined the Philip Glass Ensemble in 1992, and in 1997, co-founded the MATA Festival, which celebrates the work of young composers.

In 17 years with the Philip Glass Ensemble, Bielawa has performed “Music in Twelve Parts” in seven productions. Is her part improvised?

“No, it’s all written out — each ‘figure’ [a portion of the music, similar to a movement] is notated; the only variation is how many times it’s repeated,” she says. “We know that by watching Philip, and when he nods, we repeat the figure twice more, and go on to the next one.”

— Janos Gereben

IF YOU GO

Philip Glass’ ‘Music in Twelve Parts’

Michael Riesman, music director/conductor

Performed by: The Philip Glass Ensemble — Lisa Bielawa, David Crowell, Dan Dryden, Stephen Erb, Jon Gibson, Michael Riesman, Mick Rossi and Andres Sterman
Where: Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco
When: Monday, 5 p.m., Parts 1-3; 6 p.m., Parts 4-6; 8 p.m., Parts 7-9; 9 p.m., Parts 10-12 — with intermissions and dinner break at 7 p.m.
Tickets: $25 to $55
Contact: (415) 392-2545, www.performances.org