Larry Polansky is Associate Professor of Music at Dartmouth College, and a well-known composer and theorist on American music. Ruth Crawford Seeger considered this work to be both a major accomplishment and a central statement of her own ideas on the topic. 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. 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). Seeger examines all aspects of the relationship between singer, song, notation, the eventual performer, and the transcriber. 'Notes on the Songs and on Manners of Singing.'

The manuscript has been edited from several varying sources by Larry Polansky, with the assistance of Seeger's biographer Judith Tick. 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. Originally written as a foreword for the 1940 book Our Singing Country, it was considered too long and was replaced by a much shorter version.Īccording 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. This is the first publication of an annotated monograph by the noted composer and folksong scholar Ruth Crawford Seeger. Ruth Crawford Seeger & Larry Polansky, Judith Tick

'The Music of American Folk Song' and Selected Other Writings on American Folk Music Ruth Crawford Seeger & Larry Polansky with Judith Tick

Ruth Crawford Seeger by Judith Tick