On today’s date in 1949, at Carnegie Hall in New York, Leopold Stokowski conducted the New York Philharmonic in the first performance of the last major work of the American composer Carl Ruggles.

In a letter to his friend Charles Ives, or “Charlie” as he called him, Ruggles hinted that in this piece, “perhaps I’m stumbling on something new.” Another composer-friend, Edgar Varèse, agreed, but, perhaps thinking of the passage in Ecclesiastes suggesting there is “nothing new under the sun,” wrote: “The use [of intervals of] 5ths and 4ths is very remarkable, because that was done hundreds of years ago—let’s call it ‘Organum’.” And so “Organum,” a word referring to an early medieval polyphony, became the title of Ruggles’ final orchestral piece.

After that, Ruggles, then already 73 years old, pretty much gave up on the musical establishment and went to live on his farm in Arlington, Vermont, where he devoted himself to painting. His artwork, like his music, was in an abstract style, but bold and colorful. In 1966, he moved to a nursing home, where he died in 1971 at the age of 95.

Shortly before his death, Ruggles was visited by Michael Tilson Thomas, who recalls the feisty old man commenting to the young conductor, “Now don’t go feeling sorry. I don’t hang around this place, you know. Hell, each day I go out and make the universe anew—all over!”