Music
The orchestra's size is about the size employed for early 19th-century opera: 2 flutes (one doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (both doubling oboe d'amore), 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 2 french horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, tuba, percussion (3 players), celesta (doubling synthesizer), 12 violas, 8 celli, 6 double basses.
Since the Stuttgart State Opera house was being restored in 1984 and the orchestra pit of the Stuttgart State theater, where the premiere was to take place, was considerably smaller, Glass chose to completely leave out the violins (about 20), giving the orchestra a darker, sombre character, which fits the subject. Apart from this, this was Glass's most "conventional" opera orchestra until then (compared to Einstein on the Beach, written for the six-piece Philip Glass Ensemble, and Satyagraha, scored for woodwinds and strings only).
Generally speaking, for the unprepared listener the music of this opera is more accessible than that of its predecessors, the "hardcore" minimalist Einstein and the oratorio-like Satyagraha. The music follows and underlines the dramatic context outlined by the story, and the harmonic and melodic language is more varied and changes more often, giving the music a more theatrical and almost "romantic" quality.
Read more about this topic: Akhnaten (opera)
Famous quotes containing the word music:
“For the introduction of a new kind of music must be shunned as imperiling the whole state; since styles of music are never disturbed without affecting the most important political institutions.”
—Plato (c. 427–347 B.C.)
“The train was crammed, the heat stifling. We feel out of sorts, but do not quite know if we are hungry or drowsy. But when we have fed and slept, life will regain its looks, and the American instruments will make music in the merry cafe described by our friend Lange. And then, sometime later, we die.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“Great music is that which penetrates the ear with facility and leaves the memory with difficulty. Magical music never leaves the memory.”
—Thomas Beecham (1879–1961)