for Philip Glass

I often come across gifted but obscure composers whose creative timelines imitate the trends of whatever their more-famous teachers chose to follow. They have no arc of their own and disappear, appropriately I suppose, into history, into their mentor’s shadow. Philip Glass never, ever did that. With his story, and with his music, he reminds all of us: Make sacrifices. Kill your masters. Write your credo. And run with it. Happy Birthday.