Scruton and Music

The British philosopher Roger Scruton (1944–2020) was one of the greatest thinkers of our time. As such, he naturally took an interest in music, an art form he knew not only as a theorist but also as an accomplished musician.

Roger Scruton has composed two operas based on librettos he wrote himself. The first is a one-act chamber opera, *The Minister* (1994), and the second is a two-act opera, *Violet* (2005). The latter, inspired by the life of the British harpsichordist Violet Gordon-Woodhouse (1872–1948), has been performed twice. The British philosopher, who died in 2020, also composed *Three Lorca Songs* and wrote the libretto for *Anna*, a two-act opera by David Matthews (1943–), which premiered in 2023.

«I started composing in the 1990s," the conservative thinker wrote on his website