WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.060 Welcome back to another deep dive. Today we're 00:00:03.060 --> 00:00:06.740 settling in to talk about a figure who, well, 00:00:06.839 --> 00:00:09.279 who quite honestly feels like a bit of a secret 00:00:09.279 --> 00:00:13.199 giant, specifically in the world of British music. 00:00:14.019 --> 00:00:17.179 We are going to be looking at the life and really 00:00:17.179 --> 00:00:20.660 the immense work of Frances Johnruth. It's a 00:00:20.660 --> 00:00:23.550 pleasure to be here. And Secret Giant is actually 00:00:23.550 --> 00:00:25.550 a really apt way to put it. You think so? Oh, 00:00:25.609 --> 00:00:27.429 absolutely. Because when you just look at the 00:00:27.429 --> 00:00:29.469 surface, you see a composer. Right. But when 00:00:29.469 --> 00:00:31.269 you start digging into the sources, and we do 00:00:31.269 --> 00:00:33.829 have a really great stack of material to go through 00:00:33.829 --> 00:00:36.450 today, you realize he was just so much more than 00:00:36.450 --> 00:00:38.789 that. Exactly. I mean, usually when we do these 00:00:38.789 --> 00:00:41.409 dives, we're looking at someone who did one thing 00:00:41.409 --> 00:00:44.020 really, really well. The specialist. Right. the 00:00:44.020 --> 00:00:46.460 specialist, the guy who's been 40 years perfecting 00:00:46.460 --> 00:00:49.179 the violin sonata, or the woman who only wrote 00:00:49.179 --> 00:00:53.039 about, say, medieval chant. But Ruth feels like 00:00:53.039 --> 00:00:55.380 he's a triple threat. In the theatrical sense. 00:00:55.520 --> 00:00:57.979 Well, no, not singing and dancing. But in the 00:00:57.979 --> 00:01:01.259 context of classical music history, he wasn't 00:01:01.259 --> 00:01:03.280 just sitting in a room somewhere, writing notes 00:01:03.280 --> 00:01:05.700 on a page, waiting for the muse to strike. No, 00:01:05.700 --> 00:01:08.019 not at all. He was a prolific composer, yes. 00:01:08.060 --> 00:01:12.340 Yeah. But he was also a dedicated author. and 00:01:12.340 --> 00:01:14.640 a historian, documenting the music of his time. 00:01:15.060 --> 00:01:18.299 And perhaps, surprisingly to me, he was a tireless 00:01:18.299 --> 00:01:21.159 organizer. Yes. He actually built platforms for 00:01:21.159 --> 00:01:23.299 other people. And that is the key right there, 00:01:23.299 --> 00:01:25.799 that third pillar. The organizer. The organizer, 00:01:25.980 --> 00:01:28.079 exactly. That's what makes him such a fascinating 00:01:28.079 --> 00:01:30.340 case study for us. He wasn't just creating art. 00:01:30.599 --> 00:01:33.519 He was creating the ecosystem for art to exist. 00:01:33.640 --> 00:01:35.420 And we're talking about a massive span of time 00:01:35.420 --> 00:01:37.780 here. Oh, the dates alone are staggering. Yeah. 00:01:37.920 --> 00:01:41.168 Born in 1927 and he died in 2021. Which is... 00:01:41.159 --> 00:01:44.219 years. Right. It's a life that effectively spans 00:01:44.219 --> 00:01:47.120 the entire modern era of British classical music. 00:01:47.180 --> 00:01:49.920 Truly. I mean, he saw the post -war reconstruction, 00:01:50.599 --> 00:01:53.180 the avant -garde explosion of the 60s. The shift 00:01:53.180 --> 00:01:55.900 into the digital age. All the way to the 21st 00:01:55.900 --> 00:01:58.019 century. He was there for the invention of talking 00:01:58.019 --> 00:02:00.900 pictures and he was there for the rise of digital 00:02:00.900 --> 00:02:02.659 streaming. And that's really our mission for 00:02:02.659 --> 00:02:05.140 this deep dive, isn't it? To use Francis Ruth 00:02:05.140 --> 00:02:08.939 as a lens. We want to see how his career serves 00:02:08.939 --> 00:02:11.710 as a microcosm for all that history. But we also 00:02:11.710 --> 00:02:13.270 want to get to the heart of the man himself. 00:02:13.550 --> 00:02:16.889 Right. And specifically the legacy he left behind. 00:02:17.469 --> 00:02:19.689 Because for all the work he published, and there 00:02:19.689 --> 00:02:21.909 is a lot of it, which we'll get into, there's 00:02:21.909 --> 00:02:24.930 this really haunting detail at the very end of 00:02:24.930 --> 00:02:26.990 his life that I know we're going to get to. Yes. 00:02:27.270 --> 00:02:30.430 A final symphony that, as of right now, has never 00:02:30.430 --> 00:02:32.569 been heard. That really stuck with me too, the 00:02:32.569 --> 00:02:35.110 idea of a silent symphony. It's almost cinematic. 00:02:35.250 --> 00:02:37.430 It is. But before we get to the end, we have 00:02:37.430 --> 00:02:39.830 to start the beginning. We do. So let's unpack 00:02:39.830 --> 00:02:42.069 the foundations of Francis Ruth. Let's do it. 00:02:42.229 --> 00:02:44.830 We're starting in Kitterminster, England, January 00:02:44.830 --> 00:02:48.849 5th, 1927. A pre -depression, pre -war world. 00:02:48.930 --> 00:02:51.389 Yeah, a completely different England than the 00:02:51.389 --> 00:02:53.870 one you or I know today. Very different. And 00:02:53.870 --> 00:02:56.330 he goes through the traditional education route 00:02:56.330 --> 00:02:59.330 initially. The sources mention Malvern College, 00:02:59.729 --> 00:03:02.169 Harrow School. These are, you know, highly prestigious 00:03:02.169 --> 00:03:04.750 institutions. You really get the sense of a classic 00:03:04.750 --> 00:03:07.810 English upbringing. You do. But then history 00:03:07.810 --> 00:03:10.449 intervenes. The source notes that he served in 00:03:10.449 --> 00:03:14.189 the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve from 1945 to 00:03:14.189 --> 00:03:17.689 1948. Which is a crucial detail. Just think about 00:03:17.689 --> 00:03:20.370 those dates for a second. Yeah. 1945. The war 00:03:20.370 --> 00:03:24.509 is ending. The war is ending, but the world is 00:03:24.509 --> 00:03:27.830 in absolute turmoil. And he's 18 years old. It's 00:03:27.830 --> 00:03:30.310 hard to imagine, isn't it? I mean, today, you 00:03:30.310 --> 00:03:33.490 look at an 18 -year -old aspiring musician, they're 00:03:33.490 --> 00:03:35.530 probably worrying about conservatory audition. 00:03:35.590 --> 00:03:37.250 Or building up their social media following. 00:03:37.449 --> 00:03:40.310 Right. But Ruth is joining the Navy. Precisely. 00:03:40.330 --> 00:03:42.569 He spends three years in the service before he 00:03:42.569 --> 00:03:44.870 really begins his artistic life in earnest. And 00:03:44.870 --> 00:03:47.009 I think that context is so important for you 00:03:47.009 --> 00:03:48.969 to keep in mind as we discuss his later work. 00:03:49.050 --> 00:03:51.340 How so? Well, we often forget that this generation 00:03:51.340 --> 00:03:54.080 of artists, the post -war generation, they brought 00:03:54.080 --> 00:03:56.479 a level of maturity and perhaps a very specific 00:03:56.479 --> 00:03:58.939 kind of discipline to their work because they'd 00:03:58.939 --> 00:04:01.560 seen service. It's not just about discipline 00:04:01.560 --> 00:04:04.800 in the sense of like waking up early to practice 00:04:04.800 --> 00:04:07.319 scales, is it? No, no. It's about understanding 00:04:07.319 --> 00:04:11.120 hierarchy and function. On a naval ship, everything 00:04:11.120 --> 00:04:14.060 has a place. Right. Every single action has a 00:04:14.060 --> 00:04:17.160 consequence. You exist in a very rigid, high 00:04:17.160 --> 00:04:20.139 -stakes structure. They had existed in that environment 00:04:20.139 --> 00:04:23.420 before they ever set foot in a composition seminar. 00:04:23.639 --> 00:04:25.699 Which certainly sets the stage for a disciplined 00:04:25.699 --> 00:04:28.139 mind. Absolutely. And speaking of a disciplined 00:04:28.139 --> 00:04:30.819 mind, after the Navy, he doesn't just go to music 00:04:30.819 --> 00:04:33.259 school immediately. He goes to King's College, 00:04:33.339 --> 00:04:36.379 Cambridge. But here's the curveball. He didn't 00:04:36.379 --> 00:04:39.600 just study music there. He read classics. This 00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:41.699 is one of those details that just explains so 00:04:41.699 --> 00:04:44.060 much about his later work. It really jumped out 00:04:44.060 --> 00:04:46.360 at me. Because reading classics at Cambridge 00:04:46.360 --> 00:04:49.240 isn't just about learning Latin and Greek vocabulary. 00:04:49.639 --> 00:04:52.439 It's about understanding structure, rhetoric, 00:04:53.319 --> 00:04:56.699 balance, and form. It's heavy stuff. It is the 00:04:56.699 --> 00:04:59.000 study of the architecture of thought, essentially. 00:04:59.220 --> 00:05:01.139 So you think that directly influenced his music? 00:05:01.519 --> 00:05:04.079 Without a doubt. If you spend your university 00:05:04.079 --> 00:05:07.680 years analyzing, say, the meter of an epic poem 00:05:07.680 --> 00:05:10.300 or the logical arguments of ancient philosophers, 00:05:11.199 --> 00:05:14.779 you're wiring your brain to appreciate form and 00:05:14.779 --> 00:05:16.459 development. You're learning how to construct 00:05:16.459 --> 00:05:19.000 a narrative arc that holds together. Exactly. 00:05:19.399 --> 00:05:21.759 When he eventually sits down to write a symphony 00:05:21.759 --> 00:05:25.360 or a concerto, that classical architecture is 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:28.759 going to be in his DNA. It suggests he wasn't 00:05:28.759 --> 00:05:32.180 interested in chaos. He was interested in coherent 00:05:32.180 --> 00:05:34.620 expression. It's like he was learning the engineering 00:05:34.620 --> 00:05:36.899 of art before he actually learned the specific 00:05:36.899 --> 00:05:38.959 bricks of music. That's a great way to put it. 00:05:38.959 --> 00:05:40.779 And we should note, he was learning the organ 00:05:40.779 --> 00:05:42.839 at Cambridge, too. Yes, he picked up the organ 00:05:42.839 --> 00:05:45.379 there. And the organ is, in many ways, the most 00:05:45.379 --> 00:05:48.060 architectural of all instruments. Right, because 00:05:48.060 --> 00:05:51.560 of its sheer size. Size, yes, but also mechanics. 00:05:51.639 --> 00:05:54.300 It's literally a machine, a massive structure. 00:05:54.360 --> 00:05:57.199 It relies on wind pressure, mechanical linkages, 00:05:57.500 --> 00:06:00.250 levers, stops. It's not just a piece of wood 00:06:00.250 --> 00:06:02.870 with strings on it. No, it's not like a flute 00:06:02.870 --> 00:06:05.329 where it's just your breath and a simple tube. 00:06:06.069 --> 00:06:09.410 You are operating a complex engine. So you have 00:06:09.410 --> 00:06:11.709 this convergence of the naval discipline, the 00:06:11.709 --> 00:06:14.370 classics curriculum, and the structural complexity 00:06:14.370 --> 00:06:16.730 of the organ. That's the foundation. That is 00:06:16.730 --> 00:06:19.769 a rock solid bedrock. So after Cambridge, he 00:06:19.769 --> 00:06:22.610 finally pivots to pure music training. He heads 00:06:22.610 --> 00:06:25.670 to the Royal Academy of Music in 1951. Where 00:06:25.670 --> 00:06:28.110 he studies with some real heavy hitters, William 00:06:28.110 --> 00:06:31.120 Alwyn for piano. Allwin is a big name. Huge. 00:06:31.339 --> 00:06:34.000 Allwin was a master melodist, famous for his 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:36.839 film scores as much as his symphonies. He really 00:06:36.839 --> 00:06:38.779 knew how to communicate with an audience. And 00:06:38.779 --> 00:06:40.939 then Ruth studied organ with Wesley Roberts. 00:06:41.199 --> 00:06:43.939 Right. But what fascinates me here is what happened 00:06:43.939 --> 00:06:46.620 after the Academy. The private lessons. Yes. 00:06:47.100 --> 00:06:49.139 The source mentions he took private composition 00:06:49.139 --> 00:06:52.069 lessons with Macias Cyber. Which, why is that 00:06:52.069 --> 00:06:53.870 significant? I mean, he already went to the Royal 00:06:53.870 --> 00:06:56.490 Academy, he's got the pedigree. Why go get a 00:06:56.490 --> 00:06:58.389 private tutor after you've already graduated 00:06:58.389 --> 00:07:01.069 from a top -tier institution? It shows a very 00:07:01.069 --> 00:07:04.110 specific kind of hunger. The Academy gives you 00:07:04.110 --> 00:07:07.050 the broad strokes, right? The credential, the 00:07:07.050 --> 00:07:11.529 network. But seeking out Cyber, who was a Hungarian 00:07:11.529 --> 00:07:14.889 composer living in England, that tells us something 00:07:14.889 --> 00:07:17.449 else entirely. What does it tell us? Well, cyber 00:07:17.449 --> 00:07:20.670 was known for being quite rigorous and very knowledgeable 00:07:20.670 --> 00:07:24.250 about modern techniques, specifically the European 00:07:24.250 --> 00:07:26.310 modernist traditions that might not have been 00:07:26.310 --> 00:07:29.009 the main focus at the Royal Academy at that specific 00:07:29.009 --> 00:07:31.329 time. So the Academy was perhaps a bit more... 00:07:31.399 --> 00:07:33.839 I don't know, tradition. A bit more English establishment, 00:07:34.420 --> 00:07:36.480 perhaps? Whereas cyber represented the wider, 00:07:36.480 --> 00:07:39.740 more experimental world. Ruth going to him shows 00:07:39.740 --> 00:07:41.939 that he wasn't satisfied with just being good 00:07:41.939 --> 00:07:43.600 enough for the English scene. He wanted to push 00:07:43.600 --> 00:07:46.199 himself. He wanted to refine his specific voice. 00:07:46.339 --> 00:07:48.579 He wanted to understand the absolute nuts and 00:07:48.579 --> 00:07:51.220 bolts of composition on a much deeper level. 00:07:51.339 --> 00:07:52.980 It's like getting your degree, but then going 00:07:52.980 --> 00:07:55.180 out and hiring a master craftsman to teach you 00:07:55.180 --> 00:07:58.189 the actual secrets of the trade. Exactly. It 00:07:58.189 --> 00:08:00.689 implies that he took the craft of composition 00:08:00.689 --> 00:08:03.949 incredibly seriously. He wasn't just, you know, 00:08:03.970 --> 00:08:06.970 waiting for inspiration to strike from the heavens. 00:08:07.209 --> 00:08:10.350 He was actively honing his tools. So let's talk 00:08:10.350 --> 00:08:12.089 about those tools. Yeah. Let's talk about his 00:08:12.089 --> 00:08:15.050 voice. He spends the 50s training, organizing, 00:08:15.610 --> 00:08:19.170 getting ready. And by the early 1960s, he really 00:08:19.170 --> 00:08:22.009 starts to get noticed. Yes. The source describes 00:08:22.009 --> 00:08:25.490 his style in a very specific way. It calls it 00:08:25.490 --> 00:08:29.550 chromatic. but still tonal. Now that is a phrase 00:08:29.550 --> 00:08:32.269 we need to unpack because it appears a lot in 00:08:32.269 --> 00:08:34.110 descriptions of his work and if you aren't a 00:08:34.110 --> 00:08:36.049 music theorist it can be a bit confusing. Please 00:08:36.049 --> 00:08:38.470 do unpack it because to a lay person that might 00:08:38.470 --> 00:08:40.289 sound like a complete contradiction. It does 00:08:40.289 --> 00:08:42.549 doesn't it? Think of tonal music as having a 00:08:42.549 --> 00:08:45.159 home base. Okay. When you're listening to a piece 00:08:45.159 --> 00:08:46.820 of music and you can just sort of feel where 00:08:46.820 --> 00:08:49.299 it's going to resolve, you feel the key of the 00:08:49.299 --> 00:08:51.720 song. It's like gravity. Like when a pop song 00:08:51.720 --> 00:08:54.159 ends on that final satisfying chord. Exactly. 00:08:54.200 --> 00:08:56.200 No matter how high the melody jumps, you know 00:08:56.200 --> 00:08:58.419 where the ground is. That's tonality. OK, got 00:08:58.419 --> 00:09:01.659 it. It's grounded. Right. Now, chromatic refers 00:09:01.659 --> 00:09:04.299 to using all the notes in between the standard 00:09:04.299 --> 00:09:07.019 scale steps. The black keys on the piano essentially 00:09:07.019 --> 00:09:10.200 slipping in and out. It adds color, tension, 00:09:10.419 --> 00:09:12.419 ambiguity. So it makes it less straightforward. 00:09:12.600 --> 00:09:15.580 Yes. If a simple tonal song is a primary color 00:09:15.580 --> 00:09:19.059 painting, just red -yellow -blue chromaticism 00:09:19.059 --> 00:09:21.940 is adding thousands of shades of shadow and neon 00:09:21.940 --> 00:09:24.820 in sharp contrast. I like that analogy. So when 00:09:24.820 --> 00:09:27.399 Ruth is described as chromatic but still tonal, 00:09:27.740 --> 00:09:30.039 it means he's pushing the boundaries. He's wandering 00:09:30.039 --> 00:09:33.879 far away from home using complex, colorful, modern 00:09:33.879 --> 00:09:37.120 harmonies that might sound dissonant or edgy. 00:09:37.200 --> 00:09:38.980 But he never completely burns the house down. 00:09:39.000 --> 00:09:41.419 Exactly. He never abandons that sense of a tonal 00:09:41.419 --> 00:09:44.909 center entirely. So it's modern, but not alienating. 00:09:45.149 --> 00:09:46.769 That is a really great way to put it. He's not 00:09:46.769 --> 00:09:49.509 writing purely a tonal noise where there is zero 00:09:49.509 --> 00:09:51.350 gravity and you just float in space without a 00:09:51.350 --> 00:09:53.710 compass. He is writing music that communicates, 00:09:53.830 --> 00:09:55.730 that has a logic you can follow. It's just dressed 00:09:55.730 --> 00:09:58.809 in a very sophisticated mid -century harmonic 00:09:58.809 --> 00:10:00.909 language. Let's look at some of the works that 00:10:00.909 --> 00:10:03.129 actually established this voice. We mentioned 00:10:03.129 --> 00:10:05.649 his background in classics earlier, and that 00:10:05.649 --> 00:10:07.850 seems to pop up immediately in his vocal works. 00:10:07.929 --> 00:10:11.169 It definitely does. In 1962, he writes a song 00:10:11.169 --> 00:10:13.769 cycle called A Woman young and old, which is 00:10:13.769 --> 00:10:17.590 based on Yeats. And then in 1963, four Shakespeare 00:10:17.590 --> 00:10:20.789 songs. Both heavy literary hitters. Yeah, he's 00:10:20.789 --> 00:10:22.929 not messing around. He isn't setting simple nursery 00:10:22.929 --> 00:10:26.309 rhymes, that's for sure. And then later, in 1972, 00:10:26.529 --> 00:10:29.190 he writes The Death of Iphigenia. Which is a 00:10:29.190 --> 00:10:31.450 direct callback to his classics degree. The text 00:10:31.450 --> 00:10:34.669 is by Aeschylus from the Oristea. It is. And 00:10:34.669 --> 00:10:37.809 The Death of Iphigenia is a heavy, tragic subject. 00:10:37.950 --> 00:10:39.549 It's about as heavy as it gets in literature. 00:10:40.320 --> 00:10:44.279 sacrifice, betrayal, the whims of the gods. For 00:10:44.279 --> 00:10:46.460 a composer to tackle Greek tragedy, they need 00:10:46.460 --> 00:10:49.259 a real sense of grandeur and dramatic pacing. 00:10:49.480 --> 00:10:52.220 It's not light listening. No. And this confirms 00:10:52.220 --> 00:10:54.240 that Ruth wasn't just writing pretty little tunes 00:10:54.240 --> 00:10:56.480 to be played in the background. He was engaging 00:10:56.480 --> 00:10:59.240 with serious weighty literature. He treated the 00:10:59.240 --> 00:11:01.820 music as an extension of that literary tradition. 00:11:01.980 --> 00:11:04.019 He was probably analyzing the text just like 00:11:04.019 --> 00:11:06.720 he did back at Cambridge. Oh, surely. He was 00:11:06.720 --> 00:11:08.879 likely analyzing the rhythm of the text just 00:11:08.879 --> 00:11:11.120 as closely as he analyzed the notes themselves. 00:11:11.480 --> 00:11:14.039 Now, we can't talk about Ruth without talking 00:11:14.039 --> 00:11:16.299 about the organ. No, we cannot. You mentioned 00:11:16.299 --> 00:11:18.399 it was his instrument at Cambridge and at the 00:11:18.399 --> 00:11:20.840 Academy. The list of his organ works and our 00:11:20.840 --> 00:11:23.919 sources is, well, it's extensive. It's central 00:11:23.919 --> 00:11:26.759 to his entire output. The organ was his laboratory 00:11:26.759 --> 00:11:29.960 and there's one massive project that really stands 00:11:29.960 --> 00:11:32.740 out in the source material, the sacred tetralogy. 00:11:33.039 --> 00:11:35.980 The name alone sounds imposing. The Sacred Tetralogy. 00:11:36.179 --> 00:11:38.039 It sounds like a high fantasy novel series. It 00:11:38.039 --> 00:11:40.179 really does, but it's actually a set of four 00:11:40.179 --> 00:11:43.860 major organ works composed between 1959 and 1974. 00:11:44.100 --> 00:11:47.000 Wait, 1959 and 1974? That's a 15 -year span? 00:11:47.240 --> 00:11:50.179 15 years to complete one cycle that shows incredible 00:11:50.179 --> 00:11:52.240 persistence. Just think about how much the world 00:11:52.240 --> 00:11:55.440 changed between 1959 and 1974. Everything changed. 00:11:55.720 --> 00:11:59.080 Culture, politics, music. Everything. Yet he's 00:11:59.080 --> 00:12:01.840 stuck with this singular project. The works are 00:12:01.840 --> 00:12:04.440 The Manger Throne from 1960, Lumen Christi from 00:12:04.440 --> 00:12:08.759 1968, Aeternar Rex Celticia from 1970, and Gloria 00:12:08.759 --> 00:12:11.799 Tibi Trinitas from 1974. Lumen Christi, Light 00:12:11.799 --> 00:12:14.820 of Christ, Gloria Tibi Kitty, Trinitas' Glory 00:12:14.820 --> 00:12:17.320 to the Trinity. These are deeply religious titles. 00:12:17.519 --> 00:12:20.799 They are. And they suggest that for Ruth, The 00:12:20.799 --> 00:12:22.779 organ wasn't just a concert instrument. It was 00:12:22.779 --> 00:12:26.120 a vessel for spiritual expression. And calling 00:12:26.120 --> 00:12:30.740 it a tetralogy implies a unified artistic statement. 00:12:31.419 --> 00:12:33.779 He is building a cathedral out of sound. And 00:12:33.779 --> 00:12:37.460 when you consider his style, that chromatic tonal 00:12:37.460 --> 00:12:40.820 language we just talked about, these pieces likely 00:12:40.820 --> 00:12:43.000 have an immense power to them. Because the organ 00:12:43.000 --> 00:12:45.490 can handle that kind of density. Exactly. The 00:12:45.490 --> 00:12:48.090 organ can sustain these long, complex chords 00:12:48.090 --> 00:12:51.429 that shift and evolve slowly over time. It is 00:12:51.429 --> 00:12:53.830 the perfect medium for his harmonic language 00:12:53.830 --> 00:12:56.429 because the organ literally breathes. It has 00:12:56.429 --> 00:12:58.509 infinite sustain. As long as the blower's running, 00:12:58.549 --> 00:13:00.889 the sound doesn't stop. Precisely. But he didn't 00:13:00.889 --> 00:13:02.970 start there with the organ, though. There's an 00:13:02.970 --> 00:13:06.049 English organ book from 1972 and four Marian 00:13:06.049 --> 00:13:09.470 antiphons from 1989. Which tells us he was contributing 00:13:09.470 --> 00:13:11.629 to the everyday repertoire. He wasn't just playing 00:13:11.629 --> 00:13:13.649 for himself. He was giving other organists new 00:13:13.639 --> 00:13:16.820 material to play. Practical material? Yes. An 00:13:16.820 --> 00:13:19.059 English organ book sounds like something specifically 00:13:19.059 --> 00:13:21.399 designed to be used to be part of the canon of 00:13:21.399 --> 00:13:23.919 English church and recital music. He was trying 00:13:23.919 --> 00:13:26.259 to ensure that the English organ tradition had 00:13:26.259 --> 00:13:29.000 new vibrant music to keep it alive. But he wasn't 00:13:29.000 --> 00:13:31.480 stuck in the organ loft. We had to look at his 00:13:31.480 --> 00:13:33.919 orchestral output. I was honestly surprised by 00:13:33.919 --> 00:13:35.940 how many concertos he wrote. It's a very healthy 00:13:35.940 --> 00:13:38.580 list. Yeah, let's look at it. Violin concerto 00:13:38.580 --> 00:13:42.269 in 65, double concerto in 70. cello concerto 00:13:42.269 --> 00:13:46.610 in 73, piano concerto in 76, and an oboe concerto 00:13:46.610 --> 00:13:50.590 in 84. That covers almost every major solo instrument 00:13:50.590 --> 00:13:53.169 family. It does. And writing a concerto is a 00:13:53.169 --> 00:13:55.629 very specific challenge, isn't it? Oh, it's incredibly 00:13:55.629 --> 00:13:58.149 difficult. You have to balance a solo ego, a 00:13:58.149 --> 00:14:01.070 single melodic line against a massive orchestra. 00:14:01.250 --> 00:14:03.090 Right. Ensuring the soloist isn't drowned out, 00:14:03.129 --> 00:14:04.929 but the orchestra isn't bored. Exactly. You have 00:14:04.929 --> 00:14:07.070 to understand the specific mechanics of the violin, 00:14:07.230 --> 00:14:09.429 the cello, the oboe. It shows he was a highly 00:14:09.429 --> 00:14:11.549 practical musician who understood how instruments 00:14:11.549 --> 00:14:14.279 actually worked in the real world. He likely 00:14:14.279 --> 00:14:16.639 knew the soloists he was writing for, understanding 00:14:16.639 --> 00:14:18.940 their individual strengths and weaknesses. And 00:14:18.940 --> 00:14:21.320 then there are the symphonies. The big ones. 00:14:21.480 --> 00:14:24.299 The heavyweights. Symphony No. 1 in 1973. And 00:14:24.299 --> 00:14:27.759 then a pause? A huge pause. Symphony No. 2 doesn't 00:14:27.759 --> 00:14:31.840 appear until 2003. That is a 30 -year gap between 00:14:31.840 --> 00:14:34.539 his first and second symphony. 30 years. What 00:14:34.539 --> 00:14:36.960 do we make of that? Why wait 30 years to write 00:14:36.960 --> 00:14:39.340 your second symphony? It is really fascinating 00:14:39.340 --> 00:14:41.559 to speculate on that. This source doesn't explicitly 00:14:41.559 --> 00:14:44.480 tell us why, but look at what else he was doing 00:14:44.480 --> 00:14:46.220 during that time, which we'll get to in a moment. 00:14:46.419 --> 00:14:49.279 He was busy. Very busy. He was organizing concerts, 00:14:50.120 --> 00:14:53.639 editing magazines, teaching. Life happens. But 00:14:53.639 --> 00:14:56.720 also, the symphony is a daunting form. It is 00:14:56.720 --> 00:14:59.620 the novel of the music world. It's a major statement. 00:14:59.799 --> 00:15:02.100 Right. Maybe he felt he had said what he needed 00:15:02.100 --> 00:15:05.779 to say in 1973, and it simply took three decades 00:15:05.779 --> 00:15:08.440 of living, of changes in the musical landscape, 00:15:08.799 --> 00:15:11.080 before he felt he had something new to say in 00:15:11.080 --> 00:15:13.340 that specific form. It speaks to that longevity 00:15:13.340 --> 00:15:15.600 we mentioned at the start. He didn't burn out. 00:15:15.659 --> 00:15:17.940 He kept going. He didn't just retire in the 90s 00:15:17.940 --> 00:15:20.779 and stop writing. And he kept evolving. We have 00:15:20.779 --> 00:15:22.700 to mention the chamber music, too. The dance 00:15:22.700 --> 00:15:25.399 suite for string quartet, mosaics for two violins, 00:15:25.840 --> 00:15:28.139 and his late piano work, The Well -Tempered Pianist 00:15:28.139 --> 00:15:30.980 from 2009. Another title that feels like a massive 00:15:30.980 --> 00:15:33.639 nod to history. Bach wrote The Well -Tempered 00:15:33.639 --> 00:15:37.580 Clavier. Exactly. Ruth rates 24 Preludes. That 00:15:37.580 --> 00:15:40.740 is a direct conversation with Bach and with Chopin. 00:15:41.000 --> 00:15:43.779 and with Shostakovich, who also wrote sets of 00:15:43.779 --> 00:15:46.080 24 preludes and fugues. He's placing himself 00:15:46.080 --> 00:15:48.980 in that direct lineage. He is, and the source 00:15:48.980 --> 00:15:50.899 notes, it was actually performed and recorded 00:15:50.899 --> 00:15:54.139 by Charles Matthews. So even in 2009, when Ruth 00:15:54.139 --> 00:15:57.399 is in his 80s, he is creating substantial, ambitious 00:15:57.399 --> 00:15:59.639 cycles of music that are being brought to life. 00:15:59.919 --> 00:16:02.019 Which brings us to the unheard finale we teased 00:16:02.019 --> 00:16:05.159 earlier, Symphony in 03. Written between 2010 00:16:05.159 --> 00:16:07.379 and 2012. So he's in his mid -80s while writing 00:16:07.379 --> 00:16:10.519 this. Yes. And the source gives us a really poignant 00:16:10.519 --> 00:16:13.019 detail about this piece. It incorporates and 00:16:13.019 --> 00:16:15.700 develops material from some of his previous compositions. 00:16:15.860 --> 00:16:18.559 So it's a retrospective. It is a musical memoir. 00:16:18.879 --> 00:16:21.500 He is looking back at his entire life's work, 00:16:22.039 --> 00:16:24.799 taking themes or ideas from earlier pieces, maybe 00:16:24.799 --> 00:16:27.759 things he wrote in the 50s or the 70s, and weaving 00:16:27.759 --> 00:16:30.220 them into a final symphonic statement. It's a 00:16:30.220 --> 00:16:32.879 summation of his artistic identity. Yes. And 00:16:32.879 --> 00:16:36.480 yet, the source says, it remains unperformed. 00:16:36.679 --> 00:16:39.139 That is the real tragedy here. A lifetime of 00:16:39.139 --> 00:16:41.279 experience synthesized into a final symphony 00:16:41.279 --> 00:16:43.500 and it's just sitting in a drawer or an archive 00:16:43.500 --> 00:16:45.379 somewhere. It really makes you wonder what we 00:16:45.379 --> 00:16:48.519 are missing. It's like finding the final unpublished 00:16:48.519 --> 00:16:51.500 manuscript of a great novelist. It does. But 00:16:51.500 --> 00:16:54.179 Ruth's legacy isn't just about the notes he wrote. 00:16:54.600 --> 00:16:56.700 It is about the notes he helped other people 00:16:56.700 --> 00:16:59.659 get heard. We really need to shift gears and 00:16:59.659 --> 00:17:02.639 talk about the organizer. The organizer. This 00:17:02.639 --> 00:17:05.380 is part three of our dive. And honestly, this 00:17:05.380 --> 00:17:07.900 might be where he had the most tangible everyday 00:17:07.900 --> 00:17:10.200 impact on the life of British music. I agree 00:17:10.200 --> 00:17:12.599 completely. It starts in the 1950s. The source 00:17:12.599 --> 00:17:14.700 says he began organizing informal performances 00:17:14.700 --> 00:17:17.240 in St. Luke's Church, Red Cliff Square. Just 00:17:17.240 --> 00:17:19.559 a local church. This is real grassroots stuff. 00:17:19.680 --> 00:17:21.619 He's with colleagues from the Royal Academy, 00:17:21.960 --> 00:17:24.440 probably drinking tea and complaining that nobody's 00:17:24.440 --> 00:17:27.019 playing their music. And they just say, well, 00:17:27.279 --> 00:17:29.220 we need a place to play new music. Let's do it 00:17:29.220 --> 00:17:32.039 ourselves. And from those informal church gigs, 00:17:32.339 --> 00:17:35.019 things snowball. It evolves into the Redcliffe 00:17:35.019 --> 00:17:39.460 Festival, which ran between 1957 and 1961. Right. 00:17:39.900 --> 00:17:42.619 And then the big one, the Redcliffe Concerts 00:17:42.619 --> 00:17:46.079 of British Music, founded in 1963. The Red Cliff 00:17:46.079 --> 00:17:48.539 Concerts became a legitimate brand. They moved 00:17:48.539 --> 00:17:51.180 from the church to the Arts Council at St. James's 00:17:51.180 --> 00:17:54.859 Square. And then in 1967, they hit the Major 00:17:54.859 --> 00:17:57.339 League. The Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Purcell 00:17:57.339 --> 00:17:59.640 Room on the South Bank. For listeners who don't 00:17:59.640 --> 00:18:01.759 know the geography of London, that is the center 00:18:01.759 --> 00:18:03.960 of cultural life. It is the absolute heart. It 00:18:03.960 --> 00:18:06.200 is the equivalent of moving from a garage band 00:18:06.200 --> 00:18:09.160 to playing Carnegie Hall. It is a massive step 00:18:09.160 --> 00:18:11.680 up in prestige and visibility. And this series 00:18:11.680 --> 00:18:15.680 ran for 22 years until 1989. That is an incredible 00:18:15.680 --> 00:18:18.079 run for a concert series focused exclusively 00:18:18.079 --> 00:18:20.200 on British music. And the British music part 00:18:20.200 --> 00:18:22.640 is key. The source says the mission was promoting 00:18:22.640 --> 00:18:25.039 British music. He wasn't just putting on Beethoven 00:18:25.039 --> 00:18:27.839 and Mozart to sell easy tickets. No, and he wasn't 00:18:27.839 --> 00:18:30.680 just promoting himself either, which I think 00:18:30.680 --> 00:18:32.740 is the mark of a true statesman of the arts. 00:18:33.140 --> 00:18:36.009 He championed the Tippett generation. The Source 00:18:36.009 --> 00:18:39.029 mentions a 21st anniversary series in autumn 00:18:39.029 --> 00:18:42.609 1985 that surveyed composers like Constant Lambert, 00:18:42.910 --> 00:18:45.230 Alan Ross Dorn, and Michael Tippett. These are 00:18:45.230 --> 00:18:47.890 major figures. They are, but Ruth was ensuring 00:18:47.890 --> 00:18:50.369 they were contextualized and celebrated as a 00:18:50.369 --> 00:18:53.109 movement. He was building a narrative of British 00:18:53.109 --> 00:18:55.970 music history. He was saying to the public, look 00:18:55.970 --> 00:18:58.130 at what we have achieved in this country. He 00:18:58.130 --> 00:19:00.809 also looked backward too. The Source mentions 00:19:00.809 --> 00:19:03.930 he revised and edited the works of Samuel Wesley. 00:19:04.089 --> 00:19:07.150 Samuel Wesley is an interesting figure, a 19th 00:19:07.150 --> 00:19:10.250 century composer who is often overshadowed. Ruth, 00:19:10.269 --> 00:19:12.410 taking the time to edit his works for modern 00:19:12.410 --> 00:19:15.170 performance shows, he saw the Red Cliff concerts 00:19:15.170 --> 00:19:17.809 as a way to connect the deep past to the present. 00:19:17.950 --> 00:19:19.869 He's saying here is where we came from and here's 00:19:19.869 --> 00:19:22.490 where we are. Exactly. And doing all this with 00:19:22.490 --> 00:19:24.630 the backing of the Greater London Council, which 00:19:24.630 --> 00:19:27.509 gave it real institutional weight. But here is 00:19:27.509 --> 00:19:30.150 where it gets really interesting to me. We talked 00:19:30.150 --> 00:19:32.650 about his background classics, the organ, the 00:19:32.650 --> 00:19:37.589 Navy. Chromatic, but tonal. You picture a fairly 00:19:37.589 --> 00:19:40.569 traditional academic guy. Right. A very establishment 00:19:40.569 --> 00:19:42.990 figure. Maybe wearing a tweed jacket with elbow 00:19:42.990 --> 00:19:46.130 patches. Definitely. But then, look at what happened 00:19:46.130 --> 00:19:50.109 on January 15, 1968, at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. 00:19:50.329 --> 00:19:53.630 This is the aha moment of his organizing career. 00:19:53.789 --> 00:19:56.430 This is the plot twist. The source identifies 00:19:56.430 --> 00:19:58.670 it as one of the earliest concerts of electronic 00:19:58.670 --> 00:20:01.539 music by British composers held in Britain. In 00:20:01.539 --> 00:20:04.740 1968, think about that. It's so early for that. 00:20:05.099 --> 00:20:07.579 Electronic music was still in its absolute infancy. 00:20:08.299 --> 00:20:10.519 We aren't talking about sleek synthesizers or 00:20:10.519 --> 00:20:12.680 laptops as we know them today. We are talking 00:20:12.680 --> 00:20:15.319 about the wild avant -garde. And the lineup is 00:20:15.319 --> 00:20:17.519 legendary. Tristram Carey, Delia Derbyshire, 00:20:17.680 --> 00:20:20.299 George Newsome, Daphne Oram, Peters and Avif. 00:20:20.559 --> 00:20:23.200 Delia Derbyshire and Daphne Oram are icons now. 00:20:23.339 --> 00:20:25.460 They are the pioneers of the BBC radiophonic 00:20:25.460 --> 00:20:27.680 workshop. They are the people who literally made 00:20:27.680 --> 00:20:29.660 the sounds of the future. The Doctor Who theme, 00:20:29.819 --> 00:20:34.009 right? Exactly. But in 1968, putting this on 00:20:34.009 --> 00:20:36.569 in a concert hall was weird stuff. It involved 00:20:36.569 --> 00:20:39.730 tape loops, raw oscillators, physically cutting 00:20:39.730 --> 00:20:42.069 magnetic tape with razor blades and sticking 00:20:42.069 --> 00:20:44.710 it back together. It was probably seen as just 00:20:44.710 --> 00:20:46.869 noise by the classical elite. Oh, absolutely. 00:20:46.990 --> 00:20:49.589 It was highly controversial. And here is Frances 00:20:49.589 --> 00:20:52.650 Ruth, the organist, the classic scholar, giving 00:20:52.650 --> 00:20:54.630 them a platform at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. 00:20:54.890 --> 00:20:57.980 It reveals an incredible open mindedness. You 00:20:57.980 --> 00:21:00.140 might expect someone with his strict classical 00:21:00.140 --> 00:21:02.460 background to turn up his nose at beeps and boops. 00:21:02.480 --> 00:21:05.720 Right. But he didn't. He recognized that this 00:21:05.720 --> 00:21:08.660 was a vital growing part of the British musical 00:21:08.660 --> 00:21:12.059 landscape. He saw the value in it. It shows he 00:21:12.059 --> 00:21:14.279 wasn't a gatekeeper trying to keep things traditional. 00:21:14.640 --> 00:21:17.579 He was opening the gates for true innovation. 00:21:17.859 --> 00:21:20.609 That contrast is just wild to me. The man writing 00:21:20.609 --> 00:21:23.230 the sacred tetralogy for organ is the exact same 00:21:23.230 --> 00:21:25.970 man booking a gig for Delia Dobercher. It proves 00:21:25.970 --> 00:21:28.690 that for Ruth, British music was a very big tent. 00:21:28.930 --> 00:21:31.430 It included everything. And, you know, perhaps 00:21:31.430 --> 00:21:33.769 there is a connection. We talked about the organ 00:21:33.769 --> 00:21:37.029 being a machine. Early electronic music was also 00:21:37.029 --> 00:21:40.509 intensely mechanical. It was about directly manipulating 00:21:40.509 --> 00:21:44.259 sound waves and voltage. Maybe his analytical 00:21:44.259 --> 00:21:46.440 mind saw the connection between the windpipes 00:21:46.440 --> 00:21:48.920 of an organ and the electronic oscillators of 00:21:48.920 --> 00:21:51.579 a synthesizer. That is a fascinating thought, 00:21:51.960 --> 00:21:54.400 the mechanics of sound. Yes. And he didn't just 00:21:54.400 --> 00:21:56.319 stop at concerts, he got into the business side 00:21:56.319 --> 00:22:00.240 too. In 1989, he formed Red Cliff Records and 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:02.579 Red Cliff Publishing. Which is the logical next 00:22:02.579 --> 00:22:04.839 step, because concerts are ephemeral. Right, 00:22:04.940 --> 00:22:06.440 you play it once and it's gone. Once they are 00:22:06.440 --> 00:22:09.019 done, they are done. The applause fades. But 00:22:09.019 --> 00:22:12.299 recordings and printed scores last forever. By 00:22:12.299 --> 00:22:14.460 starting a label in a publishing house, he was 00:22:14.460 --> 00:22:17.619 ensuring that the music is owned, but also works 00:22:17.619 --> 00:22:20.519 by people like Priya Rangne and Graham Weddam 00:22:20.519 --> 00:22:22.900 had a permanent home. He was securing the legacy. 00:22:23.039 --> 00:22:24.960 He was taking the means of production into his 00:22:24.960 --> 00:22:27.720 own hands, which is incredibly forward thinking 00:22:27.720 --> 00:22:31.000 for a classical composer of his era. So we have 00:22:31.000 --> 00:22:34.160 a composer and we have the organizer. But there 00:22:34.160 --> 00:22:37.859 was one more hat he wore, the scholar. Because 00:22:37.859 --> 00:22:40.960 apparently writing symphonies and running a 22 00:22:40.960 --> 00:22:43.539 -year concert series just wasn't enough work 00:22:43.539 --> 00:22:46.539 for one man. I know, right? When did this guy 00:22:46.539 --> 00:22:49.140 sleep? The source tells us he taught music at 00:22:49.140 --> 00:22:52.460 Morley College starting in 1971. Morley College 00:22:52.460 --> 00:22:55.059 has a great tradition of adult education and 00:22:55.059 --> 00:22:57.640 music, so he's out there passing on the knowledge 00:22:57.640 --> 00:23:00.019 directly to students. But he's also writing. 00:23:00.200 --> 00:23:03.319 He was the editor of Composer Magazine from 1980 00:23:03.319 --> 00:23:06.640 to 1987. Being an editor is a really powerful 00:23:06.640 --> 00:23:09.660 position. You shape the conversation. You decide 00:23:09.660 --> 00:23:12.240 what gets discussed. Composer Magazine was a 00:23:12.240 --> 00:23:14.619 crucial forum for the profession. It forced him 00:23:14.619 --> 00:23:16.640 to be in touch with the issues facing composers 00:23:16.640 --> 00:23:19.160 in the 80s. Funding, aesthetics, technology. 00:23:19.559 --> 00:23:21.819 He had his finger constantly on the pulse. And 00:23:21.819 --> 00:23:24.759 he wrote books. Actual physical books. Several 00:23:24.759 --> 00:23:27.319 of them. Playing the organ in 1958. Which was 00:23:27.319 --> 00:23:29.519 a practical instruction manual. Contemporary 00:23:29.519 --> 00:23:32.910 music. an introduction in 1968, an educational 00:23:32.910 --> 00:23:35.269 text probably helping everyday people understand 00:23:35.269 --> 00:23:37.349 the weird new sounds of the 60s we were just 00:23:37.349 --> 00:23:39.769 talking about, and contemporary British music, 00:23:39.910 --> 00:23:44.809 1945, 1970, published in 1972. Now, that one 00:23:44.809 --> 00:23:47.769 is deeply significant. He is writing the history 00:23:47.769 --> 00:23:50.349 of his own era while he is living it. That's 00:23:50.349 --> 00:23:52.869 tough to do objectively. It takes a lot of confidence 00:23:52.869 --> 00:23:56.089 and a very analytical mind. He is documenting 00:23:56.089 --> 00:23:59.569 the first 25 years of post -war British music. 00:24:00.150 --> 00:24:02.369 He is trying to make sense of the chaos of the 00:24:02.369 --> 00:24:05.039 present. He's saying to his readers, This is 00:24:05.039 --> 00:24:07.619 what happened, and this is why it matters. And 00:24:07.619 --> 00:24:10.700 finally, a book on Stravinsky in 1975. Which 00:24:10.700 --> 00:24:13.319 brings us back full circle to that chromatic 00:24:13.319 --> 00:24:16.180 but tonal idea. Oh, right. Stravinsky is the 00:24:16.180 --> 00:24:19.160 ultimate model for that fiercely modernist but 00:24:19.160 --> 00:24:22.299 deeply rooted in structure and tradition. It 00:24:22.299 --> 00:24:24.160 makes perfect sense Ruth would write about him. 00:24:24.500 --> 00:24:26.599 Stravinsky was the giant of the century, and 00:24:26.599 --> 00:24:29.079 Ruth clearly saw him as kindred spirit in terms 00:24:29.079 --> 00:24:31.759 of valuing structure and clarity over pure emotion. 00:24:32.220 --> 00:24:34.579 So how does this writing side compliment the 00:24:34.579 --> 00:24:37.119 composer's side. I mean, why do both? It forces 00:24:37.119 --> 00:24:39.900 you to articulate why music matters. When you 00:24:39.900 --> 00:24:42.079 compose, you are working mostly with intuition 00:24:42.079 --> 00:24:44.299 and raw sound. When you write about music, you 00:24:44.299 --> 00:24:46.299 have to use logic and language. You have to explain 00:24:46.299 --> 00:24:49.759 yourself. Exactly. Ruth was doing both. The scholar 00:24:49.759 --> 00:24:52.019 informed the composer and the organizer gave 00:24:52.019 --> 00:24:54.880 the composer a platform. It is a complete self 00:24:54.880 --> 00:24:57.319 -sustaining ecosystem of a career. It really 00:24:57.319 --> 00:25:00.400 is. It's incredibly impressive. So we reach the 00:25:00.400 --> 00:25:03.079 end of the timeline. Francis Ruth died on November 00:25:03.079 --> 00:25:06.799 27, 2021. At the age of 94. The source notes 00:25:06.799 --> 00:25:09.599 the funeral was at St. Peter's Church, Hammersmith, 00:25:09.920 --> 00:25:11.839 followed by a committal at Mortlake Crematorium. 00:25:12.279 --> 00:25:15.920 A quiet end to a very loud, very full life. When 00:25:15.920 --> 00:25:17.940 we sum it up, the numbers are just impressive. 00:25:18.579 --> 00:25:21.980 85 published works spanning 60 years. And remember, 00:25:22.000 --> 00:25:24.319 that's just the composition stats. That doesn't 00:25:24.319 --> 00:25:26.519 count the hundreds of concerts he organized, 00:25:26.859 --> 00:25:29.019 the students he taught at Morley, the articles 00:25:29.019 --> 00:25:31.400 he edited, or the books he wrote. It's a legacy 00:25:31.400 --> 00:25:33.500 that touches literally every part of the musical 00:25:33.500 --> 00:25:36.720 world. Performance, creation, education, promotion. 00:25:36.859 --> 00:25:39.380 He was a true custodian of British music. He 00:25:39.380 --> 00:25:41.519 took care of it. He nurtured it. He made sure 00:25:41.519 --> 00:25:43.640 it had a place to live. But I can't help but 00:25:43.640 --> 00:25:45.980 go back to that one loose end. The Symphony No. 00:25:46.119 --> 00:25:49.160 3. Yeah. It's the final provocative thought I 00:25:49.160 --> 00:25:51.000 want to leave you, our listeners, with today. 00:25:52.000 --> 00:25:54.660 Here is a man who spent his entire life ensuring 00:25:54.660 --> 00:25:57.099 other people's music was heard. He organized 00:25:57.099 --> 00:25:59.240 the concerts. He published the scores. He fought 00:25:59.240 --> 00:26:02.000 for the underdog in 1968. He did the work. He 00:26:02.000 --> 00:26:06.220 did. And yet, his own final statement, his musical 00:26:06.220 --> 00:26:09.500 memoir, the culmination of 94 years of life and 00:26:09.500 --> 00:26:12.940 art remains unperformed. It is a profound irony. 00:26:13.099 --> 00:26:15.000 It is. And it makes me think about the medium. 00:26:15.210 --> 00:26:17.329 You know, if he had just recorded a digital file 00:26:17.329 --> 00:26:19.490 and put it on a blog, anyone could hear it. But 00:26:19.490 --> 00:26:21.750 because it's a symphony, because it requires 00:26:21.750 --> 00:26:24.950 an orchestra, a hall, a budget, a physical gathering, 00:26:25.630 --> 00:26:28.049 it sits in silence. The physical medium is the 00:26:28.049 --> 00:26:31.029 barrier. Exactly. It raises a challenge for us 00:26:31.029 --> 00:26:33.130 and for you listening. We live in a world that 00:26:33.130 --> 00:26:35.009 is completely obsessed with the new. We want 00:26:35.009 --> 00:26:37.490 the latest release, the newest young star, the 00:26:37.490 --> 00:26:39.769 next big premiere. Always looking forward. But 00:26:39.769 --> 00:26:41.710 what else is hidden in the archives because of 00:26:41.710 --> 00:26:45.160 that obsession? Does the drive for new premieres 00:26:45.160 --> 00:26:48.539 actually kill the revival of late -in -life masterpieces? 00:26:49.180 --> 00:26:52.000 Here is a treasure, a symphony no. 3 by a master 00:26:52.000 --> 00:26:54.220 craftsman just sitting in a drawer. What is the 00:26:54.220 --> 00:26:57.160 true value of a musician? Is it the fame they 00:26:57.160 --> 00:26:59.960 have while they're alive? Or is it what they 00:26:59.960 --> 00:27:03.019 leave behind for us to find later? If the physical 00:27:03.019 --> 00:27:05.740 score is there waiting to be digitized or performed, 00:27:06.220 --> 00:27:08.599 maybe the story isn't over. I think Frances Ruth 00:27:08.599 --> 00:27:10.750 would say the value is in the work itself. He 00:27:10.750 --> 00:27:13.230 did the work. He wrote the notes. He respected 00:27:13.230 --> 00:27:15.990 the structure. Now, it is up to us, the next 00:27:15.990 --> 00:27:18.750 generation of organizers, conductors, and musicians, 00:27:19.150 --> 00:27:21.470 to open that drawer, take out the score, and 00:27:21.470 --> 00:27:23.390 bring it to life. Maybe one of you listening 00:27:23.390 --> 00:27:25.670 right now is the person to do it. That's all 00:27:25.670 --> 00:27:28.009 for this deep dive into the life of Frances Ruth, 00:27:28.490 --> 00:27:30.910 a fascinating journey through a century of British 00:27:30.910 --> 00:27:33.450 music. Thanks for listening. Thank you. Keep 00:27:33.450 --> 00:27:34.470 listening and keep digging.