Modern minimalistic music composed by Philip Glass for the movie by Stephen Daldry "The Hours" which is an adaptation from the book by Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. The film "Hours" is the tale of three women living in three different time periods, all of whom are linked by one factor: the novel "Mrs Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf, where the protagonist pretends to be brave but is alone and unhappy, locked away from the romance she desires. The one of the three women, Virginia Woolf, is writing the novel, the other woman, an unhappy pregnant housewife in the 50s, is reading the novel and the third one, a contemporary Manhattan editor, is living the novel. These women are each one looking for more meaningful lives, where they do not have to pretend and conform to society's expectations. The film is a reflection on how easily we can lose ourselves to others' expectations and ideals.
This piece, part of the soundtrack with the same name, has as main characteristic multiple layers building on one another to create beautiful rhythms. The layering structure of the music helps in the juxtaposition of the three women's lives which although separated by time, are joined by very similar stories.
Glass’s music is, broadly, a work for strings and piano, with the strings laying tonal layers, and the piano providing the majority of the thematic content over the top.
Novelist Michael Cunningham says that he wrote the book "The Hours" while listening to Glass’s music, becoming inspired by its multilayering structure and associating the music with Virginia Woolf herself, on how the music has no beginning and no end, instead existing as its own entity, and going on and on and on.