Music of the day is (collectively) Arnold Bax. Don't worry, more pop is coming in a few days, but at the moment we're in a classical clump.
Bax's work isn't top-drawer stuff. He's no Bach, Mozart or Reich. He wrote good tunes and interesting pieces in a polite English fashion, though the late music Tintagel and the Symphonies have a bit more meat to them, reflecting his emotional condition and his interest in Irish romanticism (the Celtic Twilight swallowed a lot of English creative types). He was friends with some of the Easter Rising leaders and was clearly sympathetic to Irish nationalism, writing poetry under the pseudonym Dermot O'Byrne. He also got into Norwegian folk culture too: lots of English composers took tunes, stories and energy from folk, and a good thing too.
I'll be honest: if you haven't any Bax in your library, you aren't a no-good Philistine loser. However, Naxos CDs of his works are cheap and you'll find them pleasant. I think there's more to them than that, but not too much more…
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