This is the first complete publication of the late composer and scholar
Ruth Crawford Seeger's major work on American folksongs. It preserves
them as well as demonstrates how they should be played so that they
remain a living partof the American musical tradition.
This is the first publication of an annotated monograph by the noted
composer and folksong scholar Ruth Crawford Seeger. Originally written
as a foreword for the 1940 book Our Singing Country, it was considered
too longand was replaced by a much shorter version. According to her
stepson, Pete Seeger, when the original was not included "Ruth suffered
one of the biggest disappointments of the last ten years of her life. It
just killed her . . .She was trying to analyze the whole style and
problem of performing this music." Along with her children Mike and
Peggy Seeger, he has long desired to see this work in print as it was
meant to be read.
The manuscript hasbeen edited from several varying sources by Larry
Polansky, with the assistance of Seeger's biographer Judith Tick. It is
divided into two sections: I. "A Note on Transcription" and II. "Notes
on the Songs and on Manners of Singing." Seeger examines all aspects of
the relationship between singer, song, notation, the eventual performer,
and the transcriber. In Section I, Seeger develops a complex and
well-organized system of notation for these songs which is meant to be
both descritive [transcription as cultural preservation] and
prescriptive [she intended that others would be able to perform these
songs]. In Section II, she provides an interpretive theory for
performance of this music, and suggests how performers might make the
songs "their own" through a deep knowledge of the original styles. Ruth
Crawford Seeger considered this work to be both a major accomplishment
and a central statement of herownideas on the topic.
Larry Polansky is Associate Professor of Music at Dartmouth College, and
a well-known composer and theorist on American music.
Judith Tick is Professor of Music at Northeastern University and author
of the first major biography of Ruth Crawford Seeger.
