二十世纪最勇於突破，也最有影响力的作曲家—Philip Glass（菲利普葛拉斯），作品极为大量且涵盖层面甚广，包括管弦乐作品、歌剧、电影配乐，因为脚步遍及环境音乐及新世纪音乐，所以对电子合成音效也有涉猎，并融入了世界各地的音乐精髓。 从八岁起接触长笛开始，Philip Glass便展现了对音乐的天份及兴趣，十五岁远赴芝加哥求学时，他花最多精力在钢琴上，接着还进茱莉亚音乐学院接受正统音乐教育，但是带给他最大启发的，却是印度西塔琴之王—Ravi Shankar，从此他的音乐是由心中浮现的旋律乐段来带领，而不是纸上谱出的符号。 1967年他到了纽约，发展出着名的极微主义乐派，由几个不断重覆的旋律主题构成整首乐曲，彻底打破了古典乐的成规，作法十分后现代，很快就受到艺文圈的注目。随着专属演奏团体的组成，以及几年下来的表演耕耘，1974他受英国Virgin唱片公司欣赏而签下，并逐渐获得国际声望，不过，直到1977年发行了专辑“North Star”，他的音乐才开始接触到普罗大众。 “North Star”原本是为了纪念一位艺术家的电影而作，经过一番改写重组后，才变成这张专辑。专辑中的乐曲虽然是各自独立的，但仍然互相连贯。别以为是电影配乐，就会听见叙事性强烈的主题乐章，在这里，只有意识流般的简短音调要你去感受，当然也蕴含了极微乐派的精神。彷佛从机器运转出的管风琴音色，被混入管弦乐的电子合成乐器，加上环绕的人声合音┅，整张专辑就像是末世纪的赞美诗，充满前瞻性的视野，同时瞄准现在与未来。 Philip Glass无疑是被称为简约派中名头最响的一位，这得益于他大量的戏剧、电影、舞蹈配乐创作。更内在的因素是他更加注重声音效果，通过借鉴印度音乐中的“循环节奏结构”，他在广泛应用重复原则，以一个简单音型的不断重复贯穿全曲的同时，通过不断扩展节奏、增强配器的修饰效果等手段使之变化。Glass作品和声的音响效果、音乐织体的丰富都远远超出了上述两位作曲家。他的代表作有《五度的音乐》、《再看和声》等器乐作品。但影响更为广泛的则是由《爱因斯坦在海滩》、《不合作主义》（以甘地为主角）、《阿赫那吞》（Akhnaten，公元前14世纪的埃及国王）所组成的三联歌剧。它打破了歌剧讲故事的传统，而用富于冥思的音乐隐喻和象征刻画人物。 一九七五年的歌剧《沙滩上的爱因斯坦》。在长达四幕五个钟头的演出当中，不落幕也没有中场休息，观众可以任意地进出，整出作品没有以往人们熟悉的歌剧咏叹调与宣叙调，也没有剧情可言。此剧打破了传统歌剧的形式，葛拉斯与威尔逊宣称「沙」剧无需任何解释，他们希望人们以自己的眼睛与耳朵来感受，从中体会出属于自己的意义。随后葛拉斯又写了《真理坚固（Satyagraha）》《甘地在南非的故事》与《法老王Akhnaten》，此两者与《沙滩上的爱因斯坦》，合称为葛拉斯的歌剧三部曲。 而自歌剧三部曲后，葛拉斯又陆续写下数部歌剧作品，到了九○年代的考克多（Jean Cocteau）三部曲（《奥菲》、《美女与野兽》、《恐怖的小孩》），他完成的歌剧数量已经有十三部之多。歌剧之外，自八七年起他也开始谱写大型管弦乐曲，《低限交响曲（Low）》、《易太普水坝（Itapu）》都是这时期的杰作，同时他也替多部电影撰写配乐，包括《失衡生活》在内的Godfrey Reggio执导的纪录片三部曲、《三岛由纪夫传》以及马丁·斯科塞斯所导的《达赖的一生》是其代表作，他还同纪录片大师埃罗尔·莫里斯合作过有着长期合作，《细红线》、《时间简史》以及《战争之雾》三部纪录片经典的配乐都是他的作品。作为极简主义现代音乐的代表人物，葛拉斯是一个不做电影配乐，也具有广泛影响力的领袖级作曲家。不过，如果不是他为30多部电影配乐，大家遇到他作品的机会就要小得多，毕竟，我们总是宁愿看电影，而不会专门去听纯先锋音乐的。葛拉斯的音乐理论说起来似乎也“极简”：使用尽量少的音符循环重复层迭出丰富的音乐，但真正要弄懂就不容易了。好在我们不仅可以用耳朵去听音乐，还可以用电影去看葛拉斯的极简主义风格。看过导演Godfrey Reggio记录片《QATSI三部曲》影碟的人，就都感受过这位大师的音乐魅力。而更多的奥斯卡电影迷们，则可以通过获奖电影《时时刻刻》来聆听Philip Glass了。Philip Glass was unquestionably among the most innovative and influential composers of the 20th century. Postmodern music's most celebrated and high-profile proponent, his myriad orchestral works, operas, film scores, and dance pieces proved essential to the development of ambient and new age sounds, and his fusions of Western and world musics were among the earliest and most successful global experiments of their kind. Born in Baltimore, MD, on January 31, 1937, Glass took up the flute at the age of eight; at just 15, he was accepted to the University of Chicago, ostensibly majoring in philosophy but spending most of his waking hours on the piano. After graduation he spent four years at Juilliard, followed in 1963 by a two-year period in Paris under the tutelage of the legendary Nadia Boulanger. Glass' admitted artistic breakthrough came while working with Ravi Shankar on transcribing Indian music; the experience inspired him to begin structuring music by rhythmic phrases instead of by notation, forcing him to reject the 12-tone idiom of purist classical composition as well as traditional elements including harmony, melody, and tempo.Glass' growing fascination with non-Western musics inspired him to hitchhike across North Africa and India, finally returning to New York in 1967. There he began to develop his distinctively minimalist compositional style, his music consisting of hypnotically repetitious circular rhythms. While Glass quickly staked out territory in the blooming downtown art community, his work met with great resistance from the classical establishment, and to survive he was forced to work as a plumber and, later, as a cab driver. In the early '70s, he formed the Philip Glass Ensemble, a seven-piece group composed of woodwinds, a variety of keyboards, and amplified voices; their music found its initial home in art galleries but later moved into underground rock clubs, including the famed Max's Kansas City. After receiving initial refusals to publish his music, Glass formed his own imprint, Chatham Square Productions, in 1971; a year later, he self-released his first recording, Music With Changing Parts. Subsequent efforts like 1973's Music in Similar Motion/Music in Fifths earned significant fame overseas, and in 1974 he signed to Virgin U.K. Glass rose to international fame with his 1976 "portrait opera" Einstein on the Beach, a collaboration with scenarist Robert Wilson. An early masterpiece close to five hours in length, it toured Europe and was performed at the Metropolitan Opera House; while it marked Glass' return to classical Western harmonic elements, its dramatic rhythmic and melodic shifts remained the work's most startling feature. At much the same time, he was attracting significant attention from mainstream audiences as a result of the album North Star, a collection of shorter pieces that he performed in rock venues and even at Carnegie Hall. In the years to follow, Glass focused primarily on theatrical projects, and in 1980 he presented Satyagraha, an operatic portrayal of the life of Gandhi complete with a Sanskrit libretto inspired by the Bhagavad Gita. Similar in theme and scope was 1984's Akhnaten, which examined the myth of the Egyptian pharaoh. In 1983, Glass made the first of many forays into film composition with the score to the Godfrey Reggio cult hit Koyaanisqatsi; a sequel, Powaqqatsi, followed five years later. While remaining best known for his theatrical productions, Glass also enjoyed a successful career as a recording artist. In 1981, he signed an exclusive composer's contract with the CBS Masterworks label, the first such contract offered to an artist since Aaron Copland; a year later, he issued Glassworks, a highly successful instrumental collection of orchestral and ensemble performances. In 1983, he released The Photographer, including a track with lyrics by David Byrne; that same year, Glass teamed with former Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek for Carmina Burana. Released in 1986, Songs from Liquid Days featured lyrics from luminaries including Paul Simon, Laurie Anderson, and Suzanne Vega, and became Glass' best-selling effort to date. By this time he was far and away the avant-garde's best-known composer, thanks also to his music for the 1984 Olympic Games and works like The Juniper Tree, an opera based on a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. In 1992, Glass was even commissioned to write The Voyage for the Met in honor of the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the Americas -- clear confirmation of his acceptance by the classical establishment. In 1997, he scored the Martin Scorsese masterpiece Kundun; Dracula, a collaboration with the Kronos Quartet, followed two years later.