Judith Tick

This book tries to be a jack of all trades. Whether it is a master of any... I'm not sure.

The problem is that Ruth Crawford Seeger was noteworthy for three different things. One is as a composer of classical works with strong dissonant components. A second is as a transcriber and arranger of folk songs. And the third is for being part of the Seeger family -- mother of Mike and Peggy Seeger, wife of Charles Seeger, stepmother of Pete Seeger.

It seems pretty clear that author Tick is most intrigued by Seeger the composer. This was Seeger's first role, and in a way the one which made her most unique -- there weren't many female composers in the early twentieth century, and few of them were producing dissonant works. So Ruth Crawford's work stands out just by existing.

Which is kinda unfortunate, because, well... it's awful.

That's probably not fair. I was brought up on folk music; I also listed to standard classical music. That is consonant music. Ruth Crawford's music is deliberately not in that vein. Someone with the right training might enjoy it. Most people -- ugh. Even daughter Peggy called it "very strange music." And I really don't think this book brings out just how different it is, and how much preparation it takes to listen to it. Frankly, the first time I heard one of Crawford's pieces, I thought it just sounded like noise.

What's more, Tick spends a great deal of energy explaining that music, which will make no real sense to readers who are interested in Ruth the Folk Musician or Ruth the Mother of the First Family of Folk. Many folk musicians don't even read music, and even the ones who do won't understand the terminology.

Ruth's work as a transcriber get decent coverage, in a way that clearly brings out her perfectionism and her rigidity; this is the best part of the book. But, here, Tick's background is a little bit of a problem; she doesn't really address the fact that folk transcription can be overly accurate, and she doesn't stress that Ruth sometimes rewrote pieces -- a no-no in strict folk circles.

The weakest area is the discussion of Ruth as a parent. We don't see her relationships with Mike and Peggy (or Barbara or Penny, the two younger children of Charles and Ruth) very clearly, and so we don't get much insight into how she influenced these two tremendously important musicians.

This isn't a bad biography -- indeed, if you're interested in Ruth Crawford the Composer of Things You Don't Want to Listen To, it's probably ideal. It's just not very definitive. This is the biography of Ruth Crawford the Classical Composer. If you want the biography of Ruth Crawford Seeger the Folk Musician (and I have to suspect that that is the larger audience), you will have to do some looking on your own.… (altro)