Editing Philip Glass (section)

===1975–1979: Another Look at Harmony: The Portrait Trilogy===
[[File:Einstein on the beach 2.jpg|thumb|A scene from a 2017 rehearsal of ''[[Einstein on the Beach]]'', a 1975 opera by Glass in [[Dortmund]], Germany]]
{{External media|image1=[http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/mapplethorpe-philip-glass-and-robert-wilson-ar00214 ''Philip Glass and Robert Wilson'' (1976)] by [[Robert Mapplethorpe]]|image2=[http://it-was-like-this.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/zen-and-art-of-mapplethorpe.html ''Philip Glass and Robert Wilson'' (2008)] by Georgia Oetker}}
Glass continued his work with a series of instrumental works, called ''Another Look at Harmony'' (1975–1977). For Glass, this series demonstrated a new start, hence the title: "What I was looking for was a way of combining harmonic progression with the rhythmic structure I had been developing, to produce a new overall structure. ... I'd taken everything out with my early works and it was now time to decide just what I wanted to put in—a process that would occupy me for several years to come."<ref name="timpage" />

Parts 1 and 2 of ''Another Look at Harmony'' were included in a collaboration with [[Robert Wilson (director)|Robert Wilson]], a piece of musical theater later designated by Glass as the first opera of his portrait opera trilogy: ''[[Einstein on the Beach]]''. Composed in spring to fall of 1975 in close collaboration with Wilson, Glass's first opera was first premiered in summer 1976 at the [[Festival d'Avignon]], and in November of the same year to a mixed and partly enthusiastic reaction from the audience at the [[Metropolitan Opera]] in New York City. Scored for the Philip Glass Ensemble, solo violin, chorus, and featuring actors (reciting texts by [[Christopher Knowles (poet)|Christopher Knowles]], [[Lucinda Childs]] and Samuel M. Johnson), Glass's and Wilson's essentially plotless opera was conceived as a "[[metaphorical]] look at [[Albert Einstein]]: scientist, humanist, amateur musician—and the man whose theories ... led to the splitting of the atom", evoking [[nuclear holocaust]] in the climactic scene, as critic [[Tim Page (music critic)|Tim Page]] pointed out.<ref name="ReferenceA">Tim Page, liner notes to the recording of ''Einstein on the Beach'', Nonesuch Records 1993</ref> As with ''Another Look at Harmony'', "''Einstein'' added a new functional harmony that set it apart from the early conceptual works".<ref name="ReferenceA" /> Composer [[Tom Johnson (composer)|Tom Johnson]] came to the same conclusion, comparing the solo violin music to [[Johann Sebastian Bach]], and the "organ figures ... to those [[Alberti bass]]es [[Mozart]] loved so much".{{sfn|Kostelanetz|1999|page=58}} The piece was praised by ''[[The Washington Post]]'' as "one of the seminal artworks of the century".

''Einstein on the Beach'' was followed by further music for projects by the theatre group Mabou Mines such as ''Dressed like an Egg'' (1975), and again music for plays and adaptations from prose by [[Samuel Beckett]], such as ''[[The Lost Ones (Beckett)|The Lost Ones]]'' (1975), ''Cascando'' (1975), ''[[Mercier and Camier]]'' (1979). Glass also turned to other media; two multi-movement instrumental works for the Philip Glass Ensemble originated as music for film and TV: ''North Star'' (1977 score for the documentary ''[[North Star: Mark di Suvero]]'' by François de Menil and [[Barbara Rose]]) and four short cues for the children's TV series ''[[Sesame Street]]'' named ''Geometry of Circles'' (1979).

Another series, ''Fourth Series'' (1977–79), included music for chorus and organ ("Part One", 1977), organ and piano ("Part Two" and "Part Four", 1979), and music for a radio adaption of [[Constance DeJong (writer)|Constance DeJong]]'s novel ''Modern Love'' ("Part Three", 1978). "Part Two" and "Part Four" were used (and hence renamed) in two dance productions by choreographer [[Lucinda Childs]] (who had already contributed to and performed in ''Einstein on the Beach''). "Part Two" was included in ''Dance'' (a collaboration with visual artist [[Sol LeWitt]], 1979), and "Part Four" was renamed as ''Mad Rush'', and performed by Glass on several occasions such as the first public appearance of the [[14th Dalai Lama]] in New York City in fall 1981. The piece demonstrates Glass's turn to more traditional models: the composer added a conclusion to an open-structured piece which "can be interpreted as a sign that he [had] abandoned the radical non-narrative, undramatic approaches of his early period", as the pianist [[Steffen Schleiermacher]] points out.<ref>Steffen Schleiermacher, booklet notes to his recording of Glass's "Early Keyboard Music", MDG Records, 2001</ref>

In spring 1978, Glass received a commission from the [[De Nederlandse Opera|Netherlands Opera]] (as well as a [[Rockefeller Foundation]] grant) which "marked the end of his need to earn money from non-musical employment".{{sfn|Potter|2000|p=260}} With the commission Glass continued his work in music theater, composing his opera ''[[Satyagraha (opera)|Satyagraha]]'' (composed in 1978–1979, premiered in 1980 at Rotterdam), based on the early life of [[Mahatma Gandhi]] in South Africa, [[Leo Tolstoy]], [[Rabindranath Tagore]], and [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] For ''Satyagraha'', Glass worked in close collaboration with two "[[SoHo]] friends": the writer [[Constance DeJong (writer)|Constance deJong]], who provided the libretto, and the set designer Robert Israel. This piece was in other ways a turning point for Glass, as it was his first work since 1963 scored for symphony orchestra, even if the most prominent parts were still reserved for solo voices and chorus. Shortly after completing the score in August 1979, Glass met the conductor [[Dennis Russell Davies]], whom he helped prepare for performances in Germany (using a piano-four-hands version of the score); together they started to plan another opera, to be premiered at the [[Staatsoper Stuttgart|Stuttgart State Opera]].<ref name=musicby />