Radio 3 has incorporated a thread of neglected composers in its afternoon programming this week. This is a very worthwhile exercise to restore to the repertoire music which for various reasons has been forgotten. However, the BBC continues to turn its back on Alan Bush. The original objection to playing his music was clearly his Marxism, though no doubt his use of folk melodies alla Vaughan Williams would not have endeared him to the R3 chiefs devoted to the Schoenberg revolution. Now that the threat of Soviet communism has disappeared, and there has been a return to accepting all schools of music, there is surely a case for restoring Bush.
When anti-Semites like Wagner and many French composers, including the Nazi collaborator Canteloube, continue to be aired, surely Bush's communism is no longer an obstacle?
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