Words Without Music: A Memoir

Words Without Music: A Memoir

Philip Glass • Rizzoli

This edition of Words Without Music: A Memoir

ISBN-10: 1631491431 · ISBN-13: 978‑1631491436 · 2016

Live offer for this book: 1 live copy of this book from $5 (as of 2026-09-05).

Canonical book record

Completeness 54

Cover quality: good

2manybooks editorial

Philip Glass has, almost single-handedly, crafted the dominant sound of late-twentieth-century classical music. Yet in Words Without Music, his critically acclaimed memoir, he creates an entirely new and unexpected voice, that of a born storyteller and an acutely insightful chronicler, whose behind-the-scenes recollections allow readers to experience those moments of creative fusion when life so magically merged with art. From his childhood in Baltimore to his student days in Chicago and at Juilliard, to his first journey to Paris and a life-changing trip to India, Glass movingly recalls his early mentors, while reconstructing the places that helped shape his creative consciousness. Whether describing working as an unlicensed plumber in gritty 1970s New York or composing Satyagraha, Glass breaks across genres and re-creates, here in words, the thrill that results from artistic creation. Words Without Music ultimately affirms the power of music to change the world.

Book metadata

Marketplace observations

1 live copy of this book from $5 (as of 2026-09-05).

Other editions of Words Without Music: A Memoir

• Hardcover · First Edition
• Hardcover · First Edition
• Paperback · 2016 (this edition)

Contributors

Community tags

Inferred themes

Machine-inferred from catalog text. Not verified subjects.

Stored catalog notes

Community signals

Have: 10 · Like: 6 · Rating: 2.6 / 5 (12)