Ruth Crawford Seeger's Worlds: Innovation and Tradition in Twentieth-Century American Music

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Publication Date: 
August, 2007

Ruth Crawford Seeger's Worlds, edited by Ray Allen and Ellie M. Hisama, offers new perspectives on the life and pioneering musical activities of American composer and folk music activist Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901-1953). Ruth Crawford developed a unique modernist style with such now-esteemed works as her String Quartet 1931. In 1933, after marrying Charles Seeger, she turned to the work of teaching music to children and of transcribing, arranging, and publishing folk songs. This collection of studies by musicologists, music theorists, folklorists, historians, music educators, and women's studies scholars reveals how innovation and tradition have intertwined in surprising ways to shape the cultural landscape of twentieth-century America.