Philip Glass has achieved a rare feat for a 21st century classical composer: You may have actually heard of him. The American is probably best known for his award-winning scores for films such as The Hours and The Truman Show. Outside the Hollywood limelight, Glass has composed hundreds of pieces that have been performed by many of the world’s most famous orchestras and performers. Credited by critics for his influential role in the development of minimalist composition and his success in bringing classical music to the public, Philip Glass is arguably the most important and influential American composer of the past 50 years.

Composer Philip Glass has collaborated with Aphex Twin and David Bowie. Photo by Pasquale Salerno on Flickr, licensed under Creative Commons.

Glass appeared Saturday evening at the Art Institute of Chicago as part of the city’s year-long “American Perspectives” series, which is sponsored by the Art Institute, the Chicago Symphony, and the Poetry Foundation. The performance combined several of Glass’ works for solo piano with poems by punk singer/songwriter Patti Smith and beat poet Allen Ginsburg. A recent hand injury prevented Glass from playing the piano parts himself, so Michael Reitman, a member of the Philip Glass Ensemble, stepped in as pianist while Glass recited the poetry. It seemed modest at first, but six selections and a standing ovation later the composer’s greatness was evident. The performance seemed to ask: What are the possibilities when verbal and musical art combines?

The performers opened the night with three piano compositions by Phillip Glass matched with several poems by Patti Smith, who is considered by some to be the “Grandmother of Punk” for her integration of beat style poetry with garage rock. The marriage of Glass’ “Metamorphosis 2” with Patti Smith’s “Beneath The Southern Cross” and “My Blakean Year” was striking. The brooding piano was met with a humble recitation of the first poem and then in perfect unison Glass launched into a more forceful reading of the second poem as Reitman shifted into a stormy, wavering passage. This was followed by a return to the first poem accompanied again by the original piano part, bringing closure to the piece.

While this work illustrated a relationship between poetic and musical form, the Allen Ginsburg half of the performance represented a study in musical and poetic emotion. During the post-concert Q&A session, Glass said he strived to covey “clarity and emotion” in the performances. This was evident in the combination of Glass’ “Metamorphosis 3” with Ginsburg’s “On Cremation of Chogyam Trungpa, Vidyadhara”. As the piano rose and declined, the poetry followed suit. The repetition of the words perfectly matched the repetition of the music.

The evening’s main performance was Wichita Vortex Sutra. As a recording of Ginsberg’s heady voice launched into a stream of beat-consciousness — a meditation on war that Ginsberg wrote while driving through Wichita, Kan. — Reitmans’ piano playing meticulously followed the shaping dynamics of the verse. Still, the piano retained a distinct, dreamy voice of its own.

After the performance, Philip Glass mentioned how Russian composer Igor Stravinsky revolutionized classical music by letting movement influence his compositions. It was as though both Glass and Ginsberg had each said something personal about the same theme, and the marriage of the two voices allowed something even greater to grow.