OMG…this.
After not hearing it for many, many years, Akhnaten has been my commute soundtrack for the past few days and has reminded me that even though all the negative aspects of who I was prior to my cancer battle ideed sloughed off and died, some of the things that still send my soul quivering are very much alive and well.
Even after all this time (I first heard Akhnaten in 1988 and I doubt I've listened to it in full since we moved to Denver), it still gives me goosebumps.
But then I am an admitted Philip Glass fanboy. I first became acquainted with his work by way of the Koyaanisqatsi soundtrack back in the mid 1980s, and was immediately hooked on his minimalism. In my journeys I have known only two other souls who shared that Glass love; one was a neighbor in San Francisco who turned me on to Satyagraha—a piece of music which was later to become my muse—and another a dear friend who is sadly no longer with us.
While the entire opera is a slice of heaven that easily transports me away from my daily life, three cuts especially stand out. The first is the final scene of Act I, The Window of Appearances:
The Window of Appearances will forever be burned in my memory as playing while driving back to Phoenix one night after an evening of astrophotography an hour north of town.
The other two are Scenes 1 and 2 from Act II, The Temple and Akhnaten and Nefertiti:
I especially like the love poem recited in Akhnaten and Nefertiti…
(Recited by the Scribe and then sung in Egyptian by Akhnaten and Nefertiti, it is a love poem found in a royal mummy of the Armarna period, from Journal of Egyptian Archæology, translated by Sir Alan Gardiner):
I breathe the sweet breath
Which comes forth from thy mouth.
I behold thy beauty every day.
It is my desire
That I may be rejuvenated
With life through love
Of thee.
Sesenet neftu nedjem
Per em rek
Peteri nefruk em menet
Ta-i nehet sedj emi
Kheruk nedjem en mehit
Renpu ha-i em ankh
en mertuk.
Give me thy hands, holding thy spirit.
that I may receive it and may live by it.
Call thou upon my name unto eternity
And it shall never fail.
Di-ek eni awik kher ka-ek
Shesepi su ankhi yemef
I ashek reni er heh
Ben hehif em rek
Now I have Phillip Glass going through my mind over and over….
Wow! This is blast from my past. I used to listen to this a great deal. It was played a lot during a trip to Key West, which means when I hear the music I recall that lovely memory. I must pull out my CDs and rehear it.
Listening to "Songs from Liquid Days" still gives me goosebumps!