Music was an essential part of Roger Scruton’s life. He learned the piano as a boy, and as an adult acquired the profound technical knowledge that enabled him to write The Aesthetics of Music, widely recognized as the most important book in its field. He also wrote two books of essays on music, and three magisterial books on Wagner – Death Devoted Heart (on Tristan und Isolde), The Ring of Truth, and his final book, Wagner’s Parsifal: The Music of Redemption. He taught himself to compose (with a little help from me) and wrote two operas, The Minister (1998) and Violet (2005), both of which were staged and which, as I experienced myself, are musically and dramatically effective. Composing for him was a sideline, although if he had not decided to pursue just about everything else, Roger might have become an important contributor to the music of our time
Read the full article HERE on the Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation website.