Philip Glass

The ultimate endurance test of early minimalism, a four-hour encyclopedia of additive process that exhaustively explores every permutation of Glass's rhythmic and harmonic vocabulary before moving beyond it.

The opera that destroyed opera, replacing plot with process and arias with arpeggios, turning five hours of solfege syllables and numbered counting into one of the most transformative theatrical experiences of the twentieth century.

A hypnotic ritual opera where ancient Egypt's heretic pharaoh ascends and falls in slow-motion arpeggios, the countertenor voice floating above a violin-less orchestra like a ghost speaking in dead languages.

A Hopi word meaning 'life out of balance' set to escalating orchestral minimalism, creating the definitive audiovisual document of civilization's self-destructive acceleration and the film score that proved concert music could speak to millions.

Glass's deliberate invitation to the uninitiated, distilling years of rigorous process into six movements of luminous, emotionally immediate chamber music that proved minimalism could be as warm as it was repetitive.