Ruth Crawford Seeger
Ruth Crawford Seeger ( born July 3, 1901 in East Liverpool, Ohio; † November 18, 1953 in Chevy Chase, Maryland) was an American composer.
Life
Ruth Crawford first visited the School of Musical Art in Jacksonville (Florida ) and studied from 1920 at the American Conservatory in Chicago (Illinois ) piano with Heniot Levy and Louise Robyn and composition with John Palmer and Adolf Weidig. She finished her studies at the Scriabin disciple Djane Lavoie Herz, who brought them together with some leading "ultra- modernists ". This group of American composers sought a completely new, experimental musical language and rejected the classical European tradition. Especially Henry Cowell and the mystical- theosophical circle around Dane Rudhyar influenced the young composer.
In the period from 1925 to 1929 taught piano at Elmhurst Crawford College of Music in Chicago and settled in New York City in 1929 to continue her studies in composition at the musicologist and composer Charles Seeger, the teacher Cowell. From 1930 to 1931 she held as a Guggenheim Fellow in Berlin, Munich, Vienna, Budapest and Paris and met the leading European composers. In 1931 she married her teacher Charles Seeger.
After 1933, her creative work almost came to a complete standstill. She devoted herself to her husband now of the collection, processing and exploration of American folk songs and children's education. It was not until shortly before her death from cancer in 1953, she turned back to the composition. Her style remained unchanged state; its usually quite short works are atonal, dissonant and perfectly structured. Many of its innovations were only taken up by later composers again.
Crawford -Seeger is the stepmother of the well-known folk singer Pete Seeger. Even her own four children (eg Peggy Seeger), the Folk Music devote.
Works
- 5 Preludes for Piano (1924 )
- Sonata for Violin and Piano ( 1926)
- Music for Small Orchestra (1926 )
- Suite No.1 for five wind instruments and piano (1927 )
- 4 Preludes for Piano (1928 )
- Suite No.2 for four strings and piano (1929 )
- 5 songs by Carl Sandburg for voice and piano (1929 )
- Piano Study in Mixed Accents for Piano (1930 )
- Diaphonic Suite No.1 for oboe solo ( 1930)
- Diaphonic Suite No.2 for bassoon and cello ( 1930)
- Diaphonic Suite No.3 for 2 clarinets (1930 )
- Diaphonic Suite No.4 for Oboe and Cello (1930 )
- String Quartet (1931 )
- 3 songs for alto, oboe, percussion, piano and orchestra ad. lib. ( 1930-32 )
- 2 Ricercari for voice and piano (1932 )
- Suite for Wind Quintet (1952 )