The American composer Carl Ruggles (1876-1971) wrote a small number of powerful  finely crafted  intensely dissonant  and utterly individual works Although sometimes viewed as very much an isolated figureпїЅa stubbornly reclusive пїЅruggedly individualistпїЅ New Englander  painstakingly creating his uncompromisingly dissonant music in the wilds of VermontпїЅRuggles was in fact an integral member of a close-knit group of composers known as the пїЅultramoderns пїЅ which included (among others) Charles Seeger  Ruth Crawford Seeger  Henry Cowell  Edgard VarпїЅse  Dane Rudhyar  and Charles Ives (mainly in the role of financier)