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Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901-1953)

Ruth Crawford Seeger was a renowned composer of experimental works and specialist in folk music. As a composer she was a key figure in American modernism of the early 20th century. Her music can be divided into two styles: the Chicago period (1920's), characterized by dissonant, post-tonal harmonies and unusual rhythms, with a range of influences from Alexander Scriabin and Eastern mysticism to theosophy and American transcendentalism. The New York period (1930's) reflected her studies with musicologist and future husband Charles Seeger and his ideas of 'dissonant counterpoint,' as well as serial techniques which she innovatively employed in many aspects of her music. Crawford's later work as an arranger, editor, and transcriber of folk songs is well known and highly regarded. In 1930 Crawford became the first female composer to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship. She spent the following year in Berlin and Paris, composing two of her most original pieces: Three Chants (1930), for women's chorus, set to a wordless text, and String Quartet (1931). Crawford and her husband moved in 1936 to Washington, DC, where she worked with John and Alan Lomax collecting traditional music of the United States at the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress. Her family played a significant role in the resurgence of American folk music in the 1930's and 1940's; stepson Pete Seeger and children Mike and Peggy all became well-known folk performers and teachers. Crawford transcribed and arranged folk music published in many anthologies.

COMPOSITIONS                                                            Seeger Links     ~ ~ ~     Works by Genre    ~ ~ ~    Seeger on Seeger
Little Lullaby, piano (early: 1922?)
Jumping the Rope (Playtime), piano (early: 1922?)
Caprice, piano (early: 1922?)
Whirligig, piano (early: 1922?)
Mr. Crow and Miss Wren Go for a Walk - a little study in short trills, piano (early: 1922?)
Little Waltz, piano (1922)
Sonata, piano (1923)
Theme and Variations, piano (1923)
Nocturne, violin and piano (1923) [edited by Kim Bastin]
Five Canons, piano (1924)
Kaleidoscopic Changes on an Original Theme, Ending with a Fugue, piano (1924)
Five Preludes, piano (1924-25)
The Adventures of Tom Thumb, piano and narrator (1925) [w/additional lyrics by Peggy Seeger]
Sonata for Violin and Piano (1926)
Music for Small Orchestra (1926)
We Dance Together, piano (1926)
The American Songbag (1927) [collected by Carl Sandburg; Ruth Crawford Seeger contributed some of the arrangements]
Suite for Five Wind Instruments and Piano [flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, piano] (1927; rev. 1929)
Four Preludes, piano (1927-28; pub. 1941) [1928-29?]
Suite No. 2 for Four Stringed Instruments and Piano (1929)
Nine Preludes, piano (1928) [combination of "Five Preludes" and "Four Preludes"]
Five Songs, contralto and piano (1929) [text: Carl Sandburg]
Piano Study in Mixed Accents (1930; pub. 1932) [three performance versions]
Diaphonic Suite [No. 1], solo flute or oboe (1930)
Diaphonic Suite No. 2, bassoon and cello (or 2 celli) (1930)
Diaphonic Suite No. 3, 2 clarinets (1930)
Diaphonic Suite No. 4, oboe and cello (1930)
Three Chants, female chorus (1930)
String Quartet 1931 (1931)
    - Andante for Strings, string orchestra (1931; arr. 1938) [arr. of 3rd mvt from "String Quartet 1931")
Three Songs, contralto, oboe, percussion and piano, with or w/o an orchestral ostinato (1930-32; pub. 1933) [text: Carl Sandburg]
Two Ricercare, voice and piano (1932) [text: H.T. Tsiang]
    - Sacco, Vanzetti [also arr. by Larry Polansky for soprano, mandolin, mandola, mandocello and guitar]
    - Chinaman, laundryman [also arr. by L. Polansky for soprano, mandolin, mandocello and troubadour harp]
The Love at the Harp, [????] (1932) - ????
When, Not If, a round for three voices, female chorus [SSA] (1932-33) [text: Fred Rolland]
Nineteen American Folk Songs for Piano (1936-38)
Rissolty Rossolty, orchestra (1939) [with Charles Seeger for CBS radio production]
John Hardy, orchestra (1940)
American Folk Songs for Children (1948)
Animal Folk Songs for Children: Traditional American Songs (1950)
Suite for Wind Quintet, flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon (1952)
American Folk Songs for Christmas (1953)
Nineteen American Folk Songs, piano (pub. 1995)


WORKS BY GENRE                                                            Seeger Links    ~ ~ ~    Seeger on Seeger      ~ top of page ~
Orchestra
Music for Small Orchestra (1926)
    - Slow, Pensive
    - In Roguish Humor. Not Fast
Andante for Strings, string orchestra (1931; arr. 1938) [arr. of 3rd mvt from "String Quartet 1931")
Rissolty Rossolty, orchestra (1939) [with Charles Seeger for CBS radio production]
John Hardy, orchestra (1940)

Choral
Three Chants (1930) [Chant: 1930, 4-part chorus and soprano solo]
    - No. 1: To an Unkind God, [soprano, alto and chorus [SAA], w/piano for rehearsal only]
    - No. 2: To an Angel, [soprano, alto and chorus [SAA], w/piano for rehearsal only]
    - No. 3: [To a Kind God], [soprano, alto and chorus [10 female voices]]
When, Not If, a round for three voices, female chorus [SSA] (1932-33) [text: Fred Rolland]

Chamber
Suite for Five Wind Instruments and Piano [flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, piano] (1927; rev. 1929)
Suite No. 2 for Four Stringed Instruments and Piano (1929)
Diaphonic Suite No. 2, bassoon and cello (or 2 celli) (1930)
Diaphonic Suite No. 3, 2 clarinets (1930)
Diaphonic Suite No. 4, oboe and cello (1930)
String Quartet 1931 (1931)
Suite for Wind Quintet, flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon (1952)

Instrument and Piano
Nocturne, violin and piano (1923) [edited by Kim Bastin]
Sonata for Violin and Piano (1926)

Solo Instrument
Diaphonic Suite [No. 1], solo flute or oboe (1930)

Piano
Little Lullaby, piano (early: 1922?)
Jumping the Rope (Playtime), piano (early: 1922?)
Caprice, piano (early: 1922?)
Whirligig, piano (early: 1922?)
Mr. Crow and Miss Wren Go for a Walk - a little study in short trills, piano (early: 1922?)
Little Waltz, piano (1922)
Sonata, piano (1923)
Theme and Variations, piano (1923)
Five Canons, piano (1924)
Kaleidoscopic Changes on an Original Theme, Ending with a Fugue, piano (1924)
Five Preludes, piano (1924-25)
    - Andante tranquillo (Autumn 1924)
    - Allegro giocoso (Autumn 1924)
    - Semplice (Spring 1925)
    - Grave, mesto (?Spring 1925)
    - Lento (Spring 1925)
We Dance Together, piano (1926)
Four Preludes, piano (1927-28; pub. 1941) [1928-29?]
    - Andante Mystico
    - Intensivo
    - Leggiero
    - Tranquillo
Nine Preludes, piano (1928) [combination of "Five Preludes" and "Four Preludes"]
Piano Study in Mixed Accents (1930; pub. 1932) [three performance versions]
Nineteen American Folk Songs for Piano (1936-38)

Vocal
The Adventures of Tom Thumb, piano and narrator (1925) [w/additional lyrics by Peggy Seeger]
    - Tom sets out
    - Tom's first adventure: Chased by the angry tailor's wife
    - Tom's second adventure: Stealing the king's dollars
    - Tom's third adventure: Sleeping in a mousehole
    - Tom meets the mouse
    - Tom recounts his adventures
Five Songs, contralto and piano (1929) [text: Carl Sandburg]
    - Home Thoughts
    - White Moon
    - Joy
    - Loam
    - Sunsets
Three Songs, contralto, oboe, percussion and piano, with or w/o an orchestral ostinato (1930-32; pub. 1933) [text: Carl Sandburg]
    - Rat Riddles
    - Prayers of Steel
    - In Tall Grass
Two Ricercare, voice and piano (1932) [text: H.T. Tsiang]
    - Sacco, Vanzetti [also arr. by Larry Polansky for soprano, mandolin, mandola, mandocello and guitar]
    - Chinaman, laundryman [also arr. by L. Polansky for soprano, mandolin, mandocello and troubadour harp]
The Love at the Harp, [????] (1932) - ????

Folk Song Collections
The American Songbag (1927) [collected by Carl Sandburg; Ruth Crawford Seeger contributed some of the arrangements]
American Folk Songs for Children (1948)
Animal Folk Songs for Children: Traditional American Songs (1950)
American Folk Songs for Christmas (1953)
Nineteen American Folk Songs, piano (pub. 1995)

RUTH CRAWFORD SEEGER  LINKS                                    Works by Genre    ~ ~ ~    Seeger on Seeger      ~ top of page ~
Celebrating Ruth Crawford Seeger (Ellie M. Hisama, ISAM Newsletter)
Employing Music in the Cause of Social Justice (Julia Schmidt-Pirro & Karen M. McCurdy, New York Folklore Society)
Envisioning Ruth Crawford Seeger’s "Piano Study in Mixed Accents": Statistical & Morphological Measures (Larry Polansky)
Judith Tick: Ruth Crawford Seeger: A Composer's Search for American Music (Sharon Mirchandani, IAWM Journal)
The Music of Ruth Crawford Seeger - excerpt (Joseph N. Straus, Oxford Univ Pr)
The Poetic Sensibility of Ruth Crawford Seeger’s Diaphonic Suite No. 1 (David Pearson)
The Reception of an Ultramodernist (Melissa J. de Graaf)
Reminiscing on Ruth (Bess Lomax Hawes, ISAM Newsletter)
A Review of "Ruth Crawford Seeger: Memoirs, Memories, Music" by Matilda Guame (Larry Polansky)
Ruth Crawford: American Master Series (Carolyn Bremer, IAWM Journal)
Ruth Crawford Seeger Biography [a biography in 600 words by David Lewis]    also    here
Ruth Crawford Seeger - A Composer's Search for American Music (Judith Tick, Oxford Univ Pr)    see also  here
Ruth Crawford Seeger: A Virtual Autobiography (Judith Tick, ISAM Newsletter)
Ruth Crawford Seeger's Contributions to Musical Modernism (Joseph N. Straus, ISAM Newsletter)
Ruth Crawford Seeger's Different Tunes (Judith Tick, ISAM Newsletter)
Ruth Crawford's "Spiritual Concept" (Judith Tick, Northeastern University)
Ruth Crawford Seeger's Worlds: Innovation and Tradition in 20th Century American Music (Arnold Whittall, Project Muse)

Composer website   . . .   inquire about Ruth Crawford Seeger:  here

Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Wikipedia
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ AllMusic
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ AmoeBlog
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Answers.com
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Ariama
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Art of the States
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Boston Modern Orchestra Project
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ The Children's Music Network    also    here
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Classic Cat
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Classical Archives
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Classical Composers Database
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Classical Music Review
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Classical Net
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ ClassicsToday
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Composers' Forum
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ East Liverpool Historical Society
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Facebook
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Find a Grave
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Feminists in the Concert Hall
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Celeste Hutchins
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ InstantEncore
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ ISAM Newsletter    also    here
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ The Library of Congress
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ MusicWeb International
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Naxos
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ The New York Times
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ NNDB
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ W.W. Norton/A History of Western Music
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ REC Music Foundation /The Lied and Art Song Texts Page
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Richmond Symphony
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Song of America
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Utah Symphony    also    here    or     here    and Part II   here
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Wisconsin Conservatory of Music

Publisher
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ A-R Editions
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Arsis Press
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ A. Broude Bros.
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Continuo Music Press
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Frog Peak Music
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ New Music Edition
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ New Music Society of California
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ C.F. Peters
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Theodore Presser

Streaming Audio
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Art of the States
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ BBC Radio 4/Women's Hour
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Classical Archives
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Internet Archive
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ last.fm
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ MySpaceMusic
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Rhapsody.com

Recordings
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Amazon.com
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ ArkivMusic
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ CD Universe
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ ClassicsOnline
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Discogs
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ ISAM Newsletter
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ itunes
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Naxos
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Peggy Seeger    also    here

Video
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ YouTube
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ Google Video
Ruth Crawford Seeger @ The Library of Congress    also    here
                                                                                                                                                                                ~ top of page ~
Seeger on Seeger: Forgotten American Comoser/BBC Radio 4 (streaming audio)
Composers Speak on the Web at Pytheas
                            ~ click on composer picture to listen ~








From the "Peggy Seeger Website" . . .
Ruth Crawford Seeger Biography [a biography in 600 words by David Lewis]

Ruth Crawford was born to an itinerant Methodist minister and his wife. The family resided in Jacksonville, Florida when Crawford's father died in 1914. Upon graduating high school Crawford entered Foster's School of Musical Art, studying piano. The Foster School relocated to Miami in 1921, and Crawford enrolled in the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. Originally planning to take a one-year teaching certificate in piano, she stayed until 1929, studying composition and theory with Adolf Weidig. Weidig encouraged her early efforts, and with her first Piano Preludes of 1924 Crawford had already developed her own unique, "ultra-modern" voice.

In 1926 Crawford composed her Sonata for Violin and Piano, performed often at modern music concerts in the late twenties; critics remarked that Crawford could "sling dissonances like a man". She was recognized early on as a woman composer who did not fit the sentimental stereotypes associated with the standard profile. In Chicago, Crawford joined the circle of Djana Lavoie Herz, pianist and ex-follower of Scriabin; through Herz she met Dane Rudyhar, Henry Cowell and pianist Richard BŸhlig. Cowell quickly enjoined Crawford's cause, arranging for performances of her music in New York and publishing it in the periodical New Music Quarterly. Crawford worked as a piano teacher for the children of poet Carl Sandburg; it was he who first interested her in American folksongs. She contributed arrangements to his 1927 book The American Songbag, and later created significant original settings to eight of his poems.

By 1930, Ruth Crawford was a force to be reckoned with in American modernism. Stylistically her work stood out in its uncompromising use of dissonance, contrapuntal ostinati, striking choice of texts and tidy formal construction. In March 1930 Crawford won a Guggenheim Fellowship to travel to Europe; the first woman so honored. In Berlin Crawford composed Three Chants set to a wordless text for women's chorus; this eerie, experimental work has no obvious parallels to any music written before the 1960s. The following year witnessed her most famous work, String Quartet 1931, and with its publication Crawford provided the definitive foil to the old maxim that women "just can't write" classical music with the strength and seriousness of male composers.

In 1929 she began study with Charles Seeger, a key figure in American music as a composer, theorist and musicologist. They married in 1932, with Ruth assuming responsibility for his children of a previous marriage, including son Pete, soon to become America's best known folksinger. She likewise adopted several of Seeger's theoretical methods that mark the works of her most productive period, 1930-33, however her composing comes to a virtual standstill after 1934.

Among her children with Seeger were daughter Peggy and son Mike, both to become renowned folksingers and teachers in adulthood. In 1936 the Seegers moved to Washington, D.C. to work in folksong collecting for the Library of Congress. Crawford acted as transcriber for the book Our Singing Country and, with Charles Seeger, Folk Song USA, both authored by John and Alan Lomax.

As Ruth Crawford Seeger she published her own pioneering collection, American Folk Songs for Children, in 1948, designed for use in elementary grades. This and the other "Crawford Seeger" books of the kind are yet regarded as key texts in primary music education, and were widely adopted and imitated in the field. Crawford only returned to serious composition with the Suite for Wind Quintet in 1952. By the time it was completed, she learned she had cancer and Ruth Crawford died at the age of 52, ending prematurely a career that had begun with extraordinary promise.