Composer. His music has often been compared to that of his friend, Charles Ives, though unlike Ives' sprawling, exuberant works, Ruggles' compositions were short, highly concentrated and monolithic in their sound. They have such mystical titles as "Sun-Treader" (1931), "Angels" (1938), "Men and Mountains" (1941), and "Evocations" (1955). He spent more than a decade (1912 to 1923) writing an opera, "The Sunken Bell", only to destroy the manuscript; surviving sketches show that it would have been a masterpiece. In the 1950's he gave up composing to devote himself to abstract painting. The best approach to his music is summed up by Ives, who responded to a heckler of "Sun-Treader" by saying, "When you hear strong, masculine music like this, get up and use your ears like a man!"
Composer. His music has often been compared to that of his friend, Charles Ives, though unlike Ives' sprawling, exuberant works, Ruggles' compositions were short, highly concentrated and monolithic in their sound. They have such mystical titles as "Sun-Treader" (1931), "Angels" (1938), "Men and Mountains" (1941), and "Evocations" (1955). He spent more than a decade (1912 to 1923) writing an opera, "The Sunken Bell", only to destroy the manuscript; surviving sketches show that it would have been a masterpiece. In the 1950's he gave up composing to devote himself to abstract painting. The best approach to his music is summed up by Ives, who responded to a heckler of "Sun-Treader" by saying, "When you hear strong, masculine music like this, get up and use your ears like a man!"
Bio by: Bobb Edwards
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