Composer
Philip Glass
The composer whose name became shorthand for minimalism itself.
Philip Glass is one of the central figures behind minimalism, building his music from small repeating patterns that shift gradually rather than through the dramatic contrast that drives most earlier classical music — a style so closely tied to his name that "Glass- like" has become a genuine shorthand for the sound of steady, evolving repetition.
Glassworks, a set of shorter pieces designed partly to introduce his style to a wider audience, remains one of the friendliest entry points into minimalism. Einstein on the Beach, an experimental, nearly five-hour opera with no conventional plot, is a far more demanding but hugely influential work that helped establish minimalism as a serious force in contemporary concert music and opera alike.
Beyond the concert hall, Glass has written extensively for film, and his steady, hypnotic style has proven especially well suited to film scoring, influencing how tension and atmosphere are built in modern soundtracks well beyond his own credited scores.
Where to start listening: "Opening," the first track of Glassworks, is a gentle, immediately accessible introduction to his sound.