Editing Alan Bush (section)

===Final years===
[[File:Lascaux painting.jpg|thumb|left|Cave paintings at Lascaux which inspired the Fourth Symphony]]
In old age, Bush continued to lead an active and productive life, punctuated by periodic commemorations of his life and works.  In November 1975 his 50 years' professorship at the RAM was marked in a concert there, and in January 1976 the WMA gave a concert to honour his recent 75th birthday.<ref name= Craggs23/> In 1977 he produced his last major piano work, the ''Twenty-four Preludes'', Op. 84, of which he gave the first performance at the Wigmore Hall on 30 October 1977.<ref>Foreman, p. 159</ref> A later reviewer described this piece as "music I'd like to have playing beside me as I sprawled on the grass beneath the trees with an ice-cream, watching a county cricket match on a golden afternoon".<ref>{{cite journal|last= Seabrook|first= Mike|title= Record Review: Bush, 24 Preludes etc.|jstor= 945203|journal= Tempo|issue= 187|pages= 57–59|date= December 1993}} {{subscription required}}</ref>

In 1978 Bush retired from the RAM after 52 years' service.<ref>N. Bush, p. 90</ref> His 80th birthday in December 1980 was celebrated at concerts in London, Birmingham and East Germany,<ref>{{cite news|last= Cole|first= Hugo|title= Alan Bush|newspaper= The Guardian|date= 13 December 1980|page= 11|id= {{ProQuest|186302057}}}} {{subscription required}}</ref><ref name= Craggs24>Craggs, p. 24</ref> and the BBC broadcast a special birthday musical tribute.<ref name= Craggs24/> In the same year he published  ''In My Eighth Decade and Other Essays'', in which he stated his personal creed that "as a musician and as a man, Marxism is a guide to action", enabling him to express through music the "struggle to create a condition of social organisation in which science and art will be the possession of all".<ref>A. Bush, p. 20</ref> In 1982 Bush visited the [[Lascaux]] caves in south-western France, and was inspired by the prehistoric cave paintings to write his fourth and final symphony, Op. 94, subtitled the "Lascaux".<ref name="Foreman, pp. 133–34">Foreman, pp. 133–34</ref> This, his last major orchestral work, was premiered by the [[BBC Philharmonic Orchestra]], under [[Edward Downes]] in Manchester, on 25 March 1986.<ref>Foreman, p. 157</ref>

In the late 1980s Bush was increasingly hampered by failing eyesight.<ref name= ODNB/> His last formal compositions appeared in 1988: "Spring Woodland and Summer Garden" for solo piano, Op. 124, and  ''Summer Valley'' for cello and piano, Op. 125,<ref>Foreman, pp. 152, 160</ref> although he continued to compose privately and play the piano.  Nancy's health meanwhile deteriorated, and she died on 12 October 1991. Bush lived on quietly at Radlett for another four years, able to recall the events of his youth but with no memory of the last fifty years and unaware of the [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|collapse of the Soviet Union]] in 1991.<ref>{{cite web|last= Amis|first= John|title= Alan Bush – An Appreciation |url= http://www.alanbushtrust.org.uk/articles/article_jamis.asp?room=Articles |publisher= The Alan Bush Music Trust|access-date= 23 July 2017}}</ref> He died in Watford General hospital on 31 October 1995, after a short illness, at the age of 94.<ref name=ODNB/>