Philip Glass

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I'm always almost always very frustrated by the low level of inspiration and film composing. I think that film composers market themselves and basically give directors what they want. A lot of the taste that even the greatest directors people like Steven Spielberg have is just very sort of sentimental and to me rather tacky. Most of the film score music I like comes from France or Italy not American. These days now a lot of films don't even have a composer they have a music consultant so you'll get a film let's say a Coen brothers film which would be a great film but the music comes from all different sources maybe three or four different pop artists or whatever.

Is classical music dying? For John Adams the answer is an emphatic no. Considered by Tyler to be America’s greatest living composer, he may well be one of the people responsible for keeping it alive. John’s contemporary classical music is some of the most regularly performed and he is well-known for his historically themed operas such as Nixon in China, Doctor Atomic, and most recently Antony and Cleopatra. He is also a conductor and author of, in Tyler’s words, a “thoughtful and substantive” autobiography.

He joined Tyler to discuss why architects have it easier than opera composers, what drew him to the story of Antony and Cleopatra, why he prefers great popular music to the classical tradition, the “memory spaces” he uses to compose, the role of Christianity in his work, the anxiety of influence, the unusual life of Charles Ives, the relationship between the availability and appreciation of music, how contemporary music got a bad rap, his favorite Bob Dylan album, why he doesn’t think San Francisco was crucial to his success, why he doesn’t believe classical music is dead or even dying, his fascination with Oppenheimer, the problem with film composing, his letter to Leonard Bernstein, what he’s doing next, and more.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Recorded September 14th, 2022

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