Thursday, March 04, 2010

Sun-treader

I listened to Carl Ruggles Sun-treader yesterday afternoon.

An inspiring prickly work which didn't get its US premiere until 1966 - it was written in 1931 and takes as its title part of a line from Robert Browning:
Sun-treader, light and life be thine forever!
a homage to Shelley and as such acts as a fitting tribute to that lover of Shelley, Michael Foot, who died yesterday.A man of principle who remained positive even when the rubbish of politics was being thrown at him. He didn't fit well with today's image conscious media driven politics. As the Guardian obituary (linked above) records:
When a general election was called in 1935, he walked into Labour's headquarters, asked for a list of constituencies that needed candidates, and was adopted the next day for Monmouth. Politics was simpler in those days.

Ruggles died at the age of 95, Foot at 96.

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