Alan Bush (22 December 1900 – 31 October 1995) was a British composer, pianist, teacher and political activist. From a prosperous middle-class background, Bush enjoyed considerable success as a student at the Royal Academy of Music in the early 1920s. Many of his early works took the form of settings for pageants and workers' songs and choruses. In his maturer years he wrote symphonies, operas and other large-scale works, which found greater acceptance in Eastern Europe than at home, in part because of his lifelong communist convictions. In his prewar works, Bush's music retained an essential Englishness, but was also influenced by the avant-garde European idioms of the period. Later he sought to simplify this style, in line with his Marxist- inspired belief that music should be widely accessible. Bush taught composition at the Academy for more than 50 years and was the founder and president of the Workers' Music Association.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Bush

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1807:

In an effort to avoid engaging in the Napoleonic Wars, the United States Congress passed the Embargo Act, forbidding American ships from engaging in trade with foreign nations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embargo_Act_of_1807

1968:

Cultural Revolution: The People's Daily published a piece by Mao Zedong directing that "the intellectual youth must go to the country, and will be educated from living in rural poverty." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sent-down_youth

1988:

Brazilian unionist and environmental activist Chico Mendes was murdered at his Xapuri home. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chico_Mendes

2008:

A dike ruptured at a waste containment area in Roane County, Tennessee, U.S., releasing 1.1 billion US gallons (4,200,000 m3) of coal fly ash slurry into local waterways. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston_Fossil_Plant_coal_fly_ash_slurry_spill

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

oneiromancy: 1. (uncountable, divination) Divination by the interpretation of dreams. 2. (uncountable, in a weak sense) The interpretation of dreams. 3. (countable, divination) An act of such divination or dream- interpretation. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/oneiromancy

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Today we hear a great deal about Organizational Men, Mass Culture, Conformity, the Lonely Crowd, the Power Elite and its Conspiracy of Mediocrity. We forget that the very volume of this criticism is an indication that our society is still radically pluralistic.   --Kenneth Rexroth https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kenneth_Rexroth