Sun-Treader

Syrl Silberman of WGBH-TV in Boston had worked on a film about [Carl Ruggles] and had become friendly with the [94-year-old] man. We drove up to the rest home where Mr. Ruggles, an old — and, some said, senile — man was living. … Syrl and I just walked into his room and said “Hello,” set up a tape recorder, put some light earphones on his old and shriveled head, cranked the volume up as high as possible, and started to play an air-check of the [Boston Symphony Orchestra's recent] performance of Sun-Treader.

The first timpani stroke of the work hit the old man like a hammer. Suddenly, he was sitting bolt upright, his eyes wild and open, like an eagle, his breath coming in fast, hoarse grunts and growls and guttered noise. “Fine. Great. Damn, damn fine work!” He kept it up right through the whole piece. Sometimes singing or moaning along with the music until the end. He turned toward me, sitting at his bedside, and grabbed my hand in his, holding it in a viselike grip and just stared at me, saying nothing. We remained so awhile, then he settled back and began to talk, mostly about his friend Ives (“Charlie”), about Varèse, [artist] Thomas Hart Benton. And music, music, music:

“I don’t think much about that fellow Brahms. … Debussy — a genius — nothing wrong with him that a few weeks in the open air wouldn’t cure. … Oh, there are some fine works all right: the St. Matthew Passion, Missa solemnis, The Ring, Tristan, and Sun-Treader. When I wrote Sun-Treader, I knew it was great. I knew it!”

— Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas on his meeting with Carl Ruggles in 1970