In the October 19 issue of The Guardian, the London newspaper ran the following editorial honoring Philip Glass on the occasion of his 70th birthday celebration, Glassworks, at London's Barbican Centre. The events included a rare performance—the first in London since 1985—of Glass's entire Music in 12 Parts by the Philip Glass Ensemble:

Few composers of our time have dismantled the barriers between the music of the people and the music of the elite more consistently and creatively than Philip Glass. So it is appropriate that this weekend's celebration of Mr Glass's 70th birthday at London's Barbican Centre should feature not just Patti Smith and Leonard Cohen—two of the many performers from other traditions with whom he has worked through the years—but the remarkable (and, at three-and-a-half hours, remarkably long) Music in 12 Parts, which the composer created for his own ensemble in the early 1970s. There continues to be a lively debate about whether Mr Glass's determination to rid his music of the trappings of the conservatoire and the past has been a new path or a blind alley for modern art music. But the fact that the debate still rages is proof that the question matters. If the critics have often turned up their noses at Mr Glass's abandonment of development and harmony (as well as disharmony) the public—instinctively sensing that he, like them, was for ever changed by Chuck Berry—has generally embraced his focus on rhythm, repetition, volume and duration. The London stage premiere of Mr Glass's 1980 opera about Gandhi, Satyagraha, was one of the great musical events of 2007. Let us hope Mr Glass's latest opera, Appomattox, about the end of the American civil war, which premiered in San Francisco this month, reaches our stages more quickly. Mr Glass's music may be minimalist, but his achievement is massive.

The editorial can also be read on The Guardian's website, guardian.co.uk.