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In his new book, The Ring of Truth: The Wisdom of Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung, the philosopher and writer Roger Scruton brings together a lifetime of study to cast Wagner’s tetralogy as a quasi-sacred experience, with its themes of sacrifice, heroism, love and power revealing the hidden depths of the human condition. Tom Service talks to Scruton about Wagner’s philosophical influences, and asks how he addresses the criticisms often levelled against Wagner and his music. Photo: Roger Scruton © Sophie Scruton

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Photo: Roger Scruton © Sophie Scruton

The composer Gavin Bryars and poet Blake Morrison have worked together for decades. Their latest collaboration is a sonic journey inspired by, and to be experienced on, the train route through East Yorkshire from Goole, where Bryars was born, along the rivers Ouse and Humber to the city of Hull. The Stopping Train, part of the Yorkshire Festival and Sound UK’s ongoing Sonic Journeys project, is a ride for the imagination which mingles the past and present of the East Yorkshire landscape. Tom joins Gavin and Blake on the train to experience the work. 

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Photo: Blake Morrison (L) and Gavin Bryars © Â鶹Éç

Inspired by the ground-breaking sound experiments of the 17th century scientist and philosopher Sir Francis Bacon, The Society of Strange and Ancient Instruments have created Sound House. Combining instruments such as the Nickelharpa and Tromba Marina with 21st century electronics, Sound House is a performance project which fuses the musical world of the 16th and 17th centuries with recreations of Bacon’s sonic adventures. Tom meets the ensemble’s director Clare Salaman and the composer and sound artist Jon Nicholls at the Royal Society in London, which owes much to Francis Bacon’s pioneering work. 

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Photo: Inside the Tromba Marina © Clare Slaman