Philip Glass And Ravi Shankar - Passages Jun 2026

For Philip Glass, Passages deepened his lifelong fascination with cyclical forms. One can hear echoes of Shankar’s talas in Glass’s opera Satyagraha (about Gandhi’s early years) and in his sprawling Music in Twelve Parts . For Ravi Shankar, it was a late-career triumph, demonstrating that his music was flexible enough to converse with the West on equal terms, without losing its soul. (Shankar died in 2012 at the age of 92; Glass continues to compose and perform well into his 80s.)

The receiving composer would then arrange and orchestrate that theme in their own signature style.

To understand Passages , one must understand the long intertwining history of its creators. Philip Glass has often cited Ravi Shankar as a pivotal influence on his artistic development. In the early 1960s, a young Glass, working as a composer for film, was tasked with transcribing Shankar’s music for Western musicians. The task proved maddening. Glass, trained in the Western conservatory tradition, was baffled by Shankar’s time signatures. Philip Glass and Ravi Shankar - Passages

Glass’s signature arpeggios provide a motoric momentum, while Shankar’s sitar soars above with improvisational flair. The brilliance lies in the rhythmic interplay. The tabla and the synthesized percussion do not merely keep time; they converse. It is a high-energy dialogue that feels like a debate between two brilliant philosophers,

Decades after its release, Passages remains a essential listen for anyone interested in the bridge between Eastern spirituality and Western avant-garde. It is a reminder that music, at its best, is a universal language that can transcend borders and "pass" through the boundaries of culture. For Philip Glass, Passages deepened his lifelong fascination

Passages is not an easy listen, nor a definitive “best of both worlds.” It is a between two giants who refused to dilute their voices. If you approach it as a workshop — a place where raga meets minimalism on equal but awkward footing — you’ll find profound rewards, especially in its quieter, more patient moments. For fans of Glass, Shankar, or adventurous world music, it is essential.

: Reviews frequently describe the album as a "brilliant" and "masterful" merger of two distinct musical traditions. Unique Compositional Style (Shankar died in 2012 at the age of

(co-written)

The story of Passages actually began in 1965 in a Paris recording studio. A young Philip Glass, then a student of Nadia Boulanger, was hired to transcribe Ravi Shankar’s music into Western notation for the film Chappaqua .

The album opens with "Offering," composed by Ravi Shankar. It begins with a serene, almost hesitant woodwind melody that feels like a prayer at dawn. True to its title, the track serves as a gesture of peace. The arrangement is lush, but the emphasis remains on the spiritual quality of the melody. Here, Glass’s touch is invisible but felt in the way the orchestration supports Shankar’s sitar without cluttering it. It establishes the meditative tone that permeates the record, suggesting that this will be an inward journey rather than a performative display.

On paper, the two shared common ground: a love for cyclical structures, a devotion to melodic cells, and a meditative patience that allowed phrases to unfold over long durations. Yet their musical languages—one rooted in the harmonic grids of Western tonality, the other in the microtonal, improvisatory architecture of Hindustani tradition—could have easily clashed. Instead, Passages became a singular document: a dialogue where neither composer surrendered his voice, yet both emerged transformed.