Philip Glass
composer
Philip Glass learned how to derive musical structures from rhythmic cycles from Indian sitar player and composer Ravi Shankar. Following an experimental phase, he developed a musical language characterised by overlapping and intertwining rhythmic patterns, as well as minimally varied, circular melodic figures. Repetition became a central stylistic device for Glass. Alongside Steve Reich, Terry Riley and La Monte Young, he is one of the leading pioneers of minimal music.
