Today's Composer of the Day is Carl Ruggles.
(1876-1971)
Ruggles was an individualist, cranky, transcendentalist New Englander. He had a fierce modernist bent. He was friends with, and championed by, Charles Ives. His music is delightfully atonal, rugged, and beautiful. He later turned his interest to painting, which may account for his limited compositional output.
Ruggles was a true American original. His limited oeuvre is individualistic and fascinating. He is long overdue a revival of interest in his work.
His most famous pieces are The Sun-Treader and Men and Mountains. His work is scrappy, experimentalist, obscure, and delightful. He represents, and/or typifies, the forgotten between-war American atonal composers that I love.
You should listen to his music.
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1/30/08
Composer of the Day!
Posted by Sator Arepo at 9:59 PM
Labels: American between-war atonality, Composer of the Day, Ruggles
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5 comments:
Man, he lived a long time. That TRUE American original, writing individualistic pieces. A long, long time.
Well, in fairness, he did not write pieces for most of that time. But still: Damn! 94 is fucking old for anyone, let alone a composer.
I'd just like to thank you guys for the Composers of the Day. It's a very, very good idea.
I am very, very glad you like it. It's a fun and easy post to...post.
Nice use of "delightfully rugged." Reminds me of Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain.
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