conclusion

I apologize for not being able to present you with any physical examples from a score -- simply because I could not find a score for this work anywhere. Lucky for me the structure of "Knee Play 1" is relatively simple and you can probably picture the score very easily on your own.

Overall, however, I believe that this is a very fascinating piece that not only serves as a "knee," but stands very strong on it's own. It is pleasing to the ear both melodically and rhythmically. It also allows you to close your eyes and conjure images of Einstein's life and thoughts. If you haven't heard Philip Glass' Einstein On The Beach," I suggest you give it a chance. You won't regret it.

I am going to leave you with a relatively irrelevant video -- a Lego depiction of "Knee Play 1." (PS - this is an older, alternate recording of the track which actually has a very beautiful violin line and added text towards the end.)

the performance itself

(image courtesy of the Brooklyn Academy of Music)

The above image is a picture from a 1984 performance of "Einstein On The Beach." After analyzing the music itself and imagining so many visual aspects of Einstein's life -- you can only imagine what an actual performance of this avant-garde opera might be like. "A recording cannot capture the spectacular visual imagery that Robert Wilson devised for Einstein on the Beach but it should be said immediately that this was much more than the usual uneven collaboration between a librettist and composer." -- (philipglass.com

It is said that the performance can be described as a series of "stage pictures" including a jail, courtroom, bus, supermarket, and a park bench among others. Throughout the play, the violinist of the opera (who happens to be the Einstein from the title and sports a wig and suspenders) sits in the orchestra as the chorus you hear reciting the rhythmic/melodic numbers in "Knee Play 1" comes and leaves as they please. Speaking of, Glass encourages the members of the audience to come and go as they please as well. (nytimes.com)

The images portrayed throughout the opera, as you can see above, are outrageously electic and hard to link to any particular physical being - which coincides with what I stated in an earlier post about the work literally having NO central plot or story board. Bernard Holland of the New York Times states how "People smarter than I have expended a lot of brain power trying to figure out what “Einstein on the Beach” means. I don’t think it means anything. It is majestically two-dimensional. Its references to the atomic age, criminal justice, true love, air-conditioning and Patty Hearst are merely art materials, like red paint or blue. Those who want to link it to our inner beings or to outer space are welcome to try."nytimes.com)

a closer look

I find it rather difficult to do a specific analysis of just this work, as it serves more as a "joint" or connection between the rest of the pieces in the work (hence why Glass chose the term "knee" play -- he describes it as "the joining function that humans' anatomical knees perform"). (wikipedia.org) However, in looking past its' musical factors, I found it easier to picture and discover new things about the piece.

As a whole, the opera reflects on different parts of Einstein's life including references to the AM radio, nuclear weapons, and multiple mathematical and scientific themes. The latter (math and science) can be heard within "Knee Play 1." In fact, the first several times that I had listened to this work, references to Einstein's mathematical and scientific lifestyle immediately came to mind. The cluster of numbers being read from random, along with the orchestrated and rhythmic choral numbers, make me picture Einstein locked away in a classroom or laboratory scribbling away mathematical equations on a blackboard. I got the sense that if Einstein's brain could make noise, this is what we would hear. This Pepsi ad from 2000 surprisingly links this "image" of Einstein's brain with "Knee Play 1" (minus the advertising, of course):




The texts being read also seem to have a similar effect. Many of the audible lines help to portray how Einstein was such a "thinking-man." One line in particular, "All these are the days, and these are the days my friends," gives me the idea that Einstein was an optimist -- not taking a single day for granted -- always thinking and looking towards the future.

The fact that the numbers being performed in SATB setting are rhythmically and melodically matching the electric organ part also presents a sense of regiment and order -- another element that can be linked to the mathematical mind of Albert Einstein.