By Janelle Gelfand
The Cincinnati Enquirer

"I couldn't find a bigger subject (than living and dying) to be a kind of parable of that moment of change that would be the millennium year," says composer Philip Glass about his Symphony No. 5.

Philip Glass

Glass, 66, will speak about his symphony when the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music performs its regional premiere Saturday.

He is one of the most influential and original composers of our time. Although he shuns the "minimalist" label today, he was first associated with the style of repeating musical fragments, scales and arpeggios.

His pivotal work was his 1976 opera, Einstein on the Beach, with designer Robert Wilson. He also has composed the scores to Martin Scorsese's Kundun, Peter Weir's The Truman Show, and Stephen Daldry's Oscar-nominated The Hours.

Glass, who is at work on his Symphony No. 7, spoke about his Fifth Symphony from his home in New York.

IF YOU GO

What: Philip Glass' Symphony No. 5, concert orchestra and choruses, Earl Rivers, conductor When: 8 p.m. Saturday Where: Corbett Auditorium Tickets: $10 general; $5 students; UC students free with ID. 556-4183 or www.ccm.uc.edu. Preconcert: Talk by Glass, hosted by CCM dean Douglas Lowry, 7 p.m.

Your Symphony No. 5 has been performed many times since its 1999 premiere at the Salzburg Festival. What is its appeal?

One of the big attractions is that there are 30 or 40 different texts that tell this story. Coming not only from many different sources around the world, but also from many different periods of history, it's a surprisingly coherent text. It seems to be written with one voice, in a way.

How did you begin such a massive project?

I had the idea for a long time about doing a requiem. . . . I didn't want to stick with the traditional requiem, because this is a millennium piece. I wanted to really address the kind of monumental change that everyone was anticipating, and the biggest change is about living and dying. That's why the subtitle is "Requiem (death) Bardo (the period after death) and Nirmanakaya" (rebirth).

I've seen it compared to Beethoven's Ninth. Did you begin with that model in mind?

The co-commission was for a work for chorus and orchestra. The Japanese (sponsors) had a request. They said, "Beethoven's Ninth is very popular here." They wanted another choral work that would be of that scale.

Do you use minimalist techniques in your Symphony No. 5?

I don't even know what they are, because, though I helped to invent them, the event was so long ago. . . . But I would suppose that there are rhythmic techniques and harmonic techniques that developed over the years, which are still current to my music, though the actual sound of the music may have changed a lot.

What do you hope people will come away with?

What surprised me while I was working on (Symphony No. 5) was how powerful it was in the way it spoke to our lives today. I think people will discover that.

E-mail jgelfand@enquirer.com