Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder’s Reviews > Words Without Music: A Memoir > Status Update
Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder
is on page 317 of 416
Thinking back on it, it seems improbable that one man could change the whole society, which at that point had been governed by a polytheistic religion for two or three thousand years. In fact, he didn't succeed, though some credit him with the origin of monotheism. Freud's idea was that Moses was one of the priests of Akhnaten and that the Aten religion went underground and later formed the basis of Judaism ...
— Jul 30, 2026 07:03PM
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Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder
is on page 393 of 416
Tomo Geshe Rimpoche told me once that there is not just one universe, there are three thousand universes.
Right away I asked him, "Is one of them music?"
"Yes," he said.
"Could I go there someday?"
"Hopefully," he replied.
...
Perhaps he was thinking that in this very life I would be in that world. And now I'm thinking that is what he thought, and I feel that I'm closer to the realization of that than I've ever been.
— Jul 30, 2026 10:47PM
Right away I asked him, "Is one of them music?"
"Yes," he said.
"Could I go there someday?"
"Hopefully," he replied.
...
Perhaps he was thinking that in this very life I would be in that world. And now I'm thinking that is what he thought, and I feel that I'm closer to the realization of that than I've ever been.
Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder
is on page 240 of 416
The pieces were loud and they were fast, and they didn't stop. "Music in Similar Motion" is a string of eighth notes that goes on for fifteen minutes or so. It's unrelenting. ... Listening to this music was like standing in a very strong, cold wind and feeling the hail and the sleet and the snow pounding your flesh. It was definitely bracing. The music had the feeling of a force of nature.
— Jul 25, 2026 10:03AM
Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder
is on page 211 of 416
John Cage liked me personally, but sometimes we would have conversations in which he would shake his head and say, "Philip, too many notes, too many notes, too many notes."
...
In spite of his comments about "too many notes." we got along fine. He finally found a piece, my 1979 opera Satyagraha, he liked, and he made a point of telling me. He mentioned to me several times that it had made an impression on him.
— Jul 25, 2026 09:58AM
...
In spite of his comments about "too many notes." we got along fine. He finally found a piece, my 1979 opera Satyagraha, he liked, and he made a point of telling me. He mentioned to me several times that it had made an impression on him.
Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder
is on page 209 of 416
The emotional effect was what many people were looking for, a kind of transcendence and epiphany, an emotional high that came from being detached from the world of the rational and the dramatic. It turns out that there is a lot of room in the human mind to experience deep and transcendent emotions that may not have very much to do with ordinary subject matter.
— Jul 25, 2026 09:23AM
Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder
is on page 149 of 416
What she had written so many years ago astonished me.
"I've been working with Mr. Philip Glass on music technique. My impression is that he is a very unusual person, and I believe that someday he will do something very important in the world of music."
I was completely shocked. I had no idea. Of the many students she had at the time, I was convinced I was among the less gifted.
[a letter from Nadia Boulanger]
— Jul 20, 2026 07:07AM
"I've been working with Mr. Philip Glass on music technique. My impression is that he is a very unusual person, and I believe that someday he will do something very important in the world of music."
I was completely shocked. I had no idea. Of the many students she had at the time, I was convinced I was among the less gifted.
[a letter from Nadia Boulanger]
Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder
is on page 121 of 416
After his death, when I went down to the store with my brother, I found that Ben was carrying my first album on the shelves. He hadn't said anything about it when we met that last time. He never said to me, "I have your record in the store." I was looking to see whether he was keeping up with new music, and there was Music with Changing Parts, the album I had recorded in 1971.
— Jul 20, 2026 06:58AM
Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder
is on page 105 of 416
As Hesse is not read much these days, the impact on young people some fifty or sixty years ago may be largely unknown. But missing his profound impact on that moment is missing a vital part of that story. And that is my story as well.
— Jul 18, 2026 11:34AM
Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder
is on page 61 of 416
I would not make a living working full-time as a musician-composer until 1978 when, at the age of forty-one, I was commissioned to compose Satyagraha for the Netherlands Opera. Still, all the years of day jobs - twenty-four years - never bothered me. My curiosity about life trumped any disdain I might have had for working.
— Jul 08, 2026 06:45PM
Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder
is on page 40 of 416
Now fifty years later, listening to Tristano's music again, I found what I was looking for. Two tracks: the first, "Line Up" and the second "East Thirty-Second Street." I listened to them and there it was. No, the notes weren't the same. Most listeners would probably not have heard what I did. But the energy, the feel, and, I would say, the intention of the music was completely captured in the "Train."
— Jul 08, 2026 06:27PM
Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder
is starting
Listened to the audiobook in my pre-review days and now decided to re-read via the print book thanks to enjoying last night's sold out concert at Koerner Hall, Toronto with the Philip Glass Ensemble performing selections from several major early works.
— Jun 21, 2026 11:18AM