Ruth Crawford in Chicago
November 10-11, 2001
An Interdisciplinary Conference Sponsored by
Keynote Speaker—Judith Tick
Musical Performances by—
Peggy & Michael Seeger
Patrice Michaels & Rebecca Rollins
Contact Persons:
Charles Henderson—charleyh@elmhurst.edu
630-617-3033
Dr. Mark Harbold—markh@elmhurst.edu
|
from The 1927 Elms
Elmhurst, Ill.: Elmhurst College, 1927
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Ruth Crawford in Chicago
Ruth Crawford in Chicago celebrates the 100th anniversary of the
birth of Ruth Crawford Seeger, one of the most remarkable composers in
the history of American music. Chicago served as the springboard for her
musical career. She pursued her musical education and early career in 1920s
Chicago, then moved to New York where she studied with and later married
Charles Seeger, the eminent composer and musicologist who became a founding
member of the Society for Ethnomusicology. In 1930, on the strength of
her unflinchingly modernist music, she was awarded a Guggenheim Foundation
Fellowship in composition, the first ever for a woman. Crawford Seeger
is best known to musicians for her String Quartet, one of the first American
compositions to incorporate proto-serial techniques.
Ruth Crawford Seeger's life encompassed more than modernism, however,
and this interdisciplinary conference celebrates the full range of activities,
interests, and relationships that made up her life.
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A close friend of the Carl Sandburg family during her Chicago years, she
gave the Sandburg children piano lessons, set many Sandburg poems to music,
and contributed four arrangements to Sandburg's American Songbag
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With her husband, Charles, she collected numerous American folk songs and
arranged and edited several folk song anthologies
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She produced one of the earliest anthologies of children's songs published
in the United States
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She was a strong advocate for the
working class, and she was not shy about expressing her populist beliefs
(see the texts for her Two Ricercare—“Sacco, Vanzetti” and “Chinaman,
Laundryman”)
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Her stepson, Pete Seeger, and her children, Michael and Peggy Seeger, went
on to become respected folk musicians and political activists in their
own right
Whether your interest is in music, folklore, literature, ethnomusicology,
or cultural history, we invite you to join us November 10-11, 2001, at
Elmhurst College as we celebrate the the life and music of Ruth Crawford
Seeger.
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Conference Schedule
Saturday, November 10, 2001
- 9 a.m.—Buik Recital Hall, Irion Hall
- 10:30 a.m.—Buik Recital Hall, Irion Hall
- Morning Paper Session—Ruth Crawford Seeger as Teacher and Composer
- Ruth Crawford and Vivian Fine in Chicago—Successful Mentoring and Networking, Heidi Von Gunden, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Serial Rotation and Rondo Form in Movement Three of Ruth Crawford Seeger’s Suite for Wind Quintet (1952), Amy Lynne Engelsdorfer, Indiana University
- Gender Issues in Ruth Crawford’s Five Songs, Sharon Mirchandani, Westminster Choir College of Rider University
- 1:30 p.m.—Buik Recital Hall, Irion Hall
- Afternoon Paper Session A—Ruth Crawford Seeger’s Contemporaries
- Edward Joseph Collins, American Composer (1886-1951): Chicago, Irish Music, and the Modernist Movement, Jon Becker, Madison, WI; Patrice Michaels, Lawrence University; Jeffrey Sykes, Madison, WI; Erik Eriksson, Egg Harbor, WI
- An Overview and Brief Analysis of the Three Bagatelles by Louise Talma, Eunice Wonderly Stackhouse, Montreat College
- Afternoon Paper Session B—Ruth Crawford Seeger and Folk Music
- "Cultural Strategy": The Seegers and the Botkins as Friends and Allies, Jerrold Hirsch, Truman State University
- Ruth Crawford Seeger: Children’s Folk Songs Then and Now, Martina Miranda, Crane School of Music, State University of New York College at Potsdam
- 3:30 p.m.—Buik Recital Hall, Irion Hall
- 4:30 p.m.—Faculty Lounge, Frick Center
- 7:30 p.m.—Buik Recital Hall, Irion Hall
Sunday, November 11, 2001
- Morning and Afternoon—Free Time to explore Chicago
- 7:30 p.m.—Founders Lounge, Frick Center
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Concert Information
Saturday, November 10, 2001, 7:30 p.m., Buik Recital Hall, Irion Hall
The Saturday evening concert, Music of Ruth Crawford Seeger, will feature soprano Patrice Michaels and pianist Rebecca Rollins. A special highlight will be the modern premiere of one of Ruth’s favorite works, Adventures of Tom Thumb, in a new edition by Rebecca Rollins.
Program
Preludes for Piano 1-5 (1924-25)
- 1 Andante tranquillo
- 2 Allegro giocoso
- 3 Semplice
- 4 Grave, mesto
- 5 Lento
Five Songs to Poems by Carl Sandburg (1929)
- “Home Thoughts”
- “White Moon”
- “Joy”
- “Loam”
- “Sunsets”
Preludes for Piano 6-9 (1927-28)
- 6 Andante mystico
- 7 Intensivo
- 8 Leggiero
- 9 Tranquillo
“A Russian Lullaby” (text—Louis Untermeyer, 1928-29)
Two Ricercare for Mezzo Soprano and Piano (texts—H. T. Tsiang, 1930-32)
- “Sacco, Vanzetti”
- “Chinaman, Laundryman”
Intermission
from Nineteen American Folk Tunes for Piano (1936-38)
- The Higher Up the Cherry Tree
- Frog Went A-Courtin’
- Turtle Dove
- Sweet Betsy from Pike
- Three Ravens
- Cindy
- Darby’s Ram
- I Ride an Old Paint
- Ground Hog
Three Piano Teaching Pieces
- Whirligig—Study in Triplets (1919)
- Mr. Crow and Miss Wren Go for a Walk (1927-28)
- Jumping the Rope—Playtime (1927-28)
from American Songbag, ed. Carl Sandburg (1927)
- Lonesome Road
- Those Gambler’s Blues
- There Was an Old Soldier
Adventures of Tom Thumb, for piano and narrator (1925)
- Tom Sets Out
- Tom’s First Adventure: Chased by the Angry Tailor’s Wife
- Tom’s Second Adventure: Stealing the King’s Dollars
- Tom’s Third Adventure: Sleeping in a Mousehole
- Tom Meets the Mouse: They Gallop Home
- Tom Recounts His Adventures
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Sunday, November 11, 2001, 7:30 p.m., Founders Lounge, Frick Center
The Sunday evening concert will feature Ruth’s children, Peggy Seeger
and Michael Seeger, in performances of folk music.
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Related Events
Friday, November 9, 2001, 8:00 p.m.
Chicago Humanities Festival will host a concert of music by Chicago composer John Alden Carpenter, performed by David Taylor, Howard Pollack, and Patryk Wroblewski with the Park Ridge Civic Orchestra. Concert highlights include the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Concertino For Piano and Orchestra, Krazy Kat, Adventures in a Perambulator, and various song settings. The concert will take place at Chicago’s First United Methodist Church, 77 W. Washington Street. For more information, call (312) 494-9509 or click here to visit the Chicago Humanities Festival website.
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Featured Guest Bios
Judith Tick
Judith Tick is a music historian who specializes in women's history and American music. Her publications include Women Making Music: The Western Art Tradition 1150-1950 (University of Illinois Press, 1986), and articles on Charles Ives, one winning a “distinguished scholarship” award in 1993. She has been an Associate Editor for Musical Quarterly since 1991. Her biography of Ruth Crawford Seeger, Ruth Crawford Seeger: A Composer's Search for American Music (Oxford University Press, 1997) is the first full-scale biography of any American female composer. (From Judith’s Northeastern University web page—
www.music.neu.edu/Faculty/Tick/Judith_Tick.html)
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Peggy Seeger
Peggy Seeger began to play the piano at seven years old. By the age of eleven she was transcribing music and becoming conversant with counterpointand harmony. Between the ages of 12 and 35 she learned to play guitar, five-string banjo, autoharp, Appalachian dulcimer and English concertina. She majored in music at Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she began singing traditional songs professionally. Her career has taken her around the world. With Ewan MacColl, she was one of the theorists of the British folksong revival—she and Ewan toured Britain for thirty-five years singing, lecturing and pontificating (sometimes not too diplomatically) on the role of folksong in the modern world. Peggy has collaborated on books of folksongs with Edith Fowke, Alan Lomax and Ewan MacColl. Peggy has made seventeen solo LP's and has lost count of the work she has done with other performers. Probably over 100 recordings, she says . . . She is considered to be one of North America’s finest singers of traditional songs and took a leading role in the British folkmusic revival, not only as a singer and instrumentalist but as a songwriter and activist. She is best known for her songs on nuclear and feminist issues. Recent publications include The Peggy Seeger Songbook, Warts and All (Music Sales, 1999) and The Essential Ewan MacColl Songbook (published Summer 2001). In 1995 she won the Sony Silver award for a 6-part BBC series of half-hour shows in which Peggy talked about her life. (Adapted from bio at Peggy’s website—http://www.pegseeger.com/—click here for more information.)
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Michael Seeger
Mike Seeger was born in 1933 and reared in Maryland, near Washington, DC. His parents raised Mike and his three sisters, Peggy, Barbara, and Penny, with traditional folk music. As a child, Mike listened to early field recordings of traditional folk music, and family singing was daily musical fare. At age 18, Mike started teaching himself to play string instruments, and at about age 20 began collecting songs and tunes on a tape recorder from nearby traditional musicians. By the time he was 23 he had produced his first Folkways documentary recording. Over the years, he has absorbed traditional styles of music through direct association with master traditional musicians such as Elizabeth Cotten, Maybelle Carter, Dock Boggs, and many others. He is a founding member of the vanguard old time string band the New Lost City Ramblers, which was formed in 1958. As a full-time musician and collector since 1960, Mike has toured throughout the United States, Europe, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. He sings a wide variety of traditional rural songs and plays a number of styles on banjo, fiddle, guitar, mandolin, autoharp, lap dulcimer, trump (jew's harp), harmonica, and quills (pan pipes). Mike has produced 30 documentary recordings of traditional music and another 38 of his own music. He has also produced several instructional audio and video tapes for instrumentalists and a documentary videocassette/book, "Talking Feet," on Southern traditional step dance. Mike has received five Grammy nominations. He has served as an advisor or consultant for government agencies, a record company, and many folk festivals. He has won a couple of banjo contests. He is recipient of four grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Smithsonian Research Fellowship grant, a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, and an award from the Grateful Dead's Rex Foundation. (Adapted from bio at Mike’s website—http://mikeseeger.pair.com/—click here for more information.)
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Patrice Michaels
Patrice Michaels, soprano, has performed in recent seasons with the Phoenix,
Shanghai, Czech National, St. Louis, Atlanta, Milwaukee and Minnesota Orchestras,
the Maryland Handel Festival, the Boston Early Music Festival, the Dallas
Bach Society and in recital in Asia, South and Central America and throughout
the United States. Appearances in 2001-2002 include recitals in Havana,
Cuba, and Washington DC, as well as performances with the Chicago Chamber
Musicians and Bella Voce (formerly His Majestie's Clerkes). Her recordings
on the Cedille label include recent releases of Handel cantatas, songs
of Lili Boulanger, and many other critically acclaimed discs. Ms. Michaels
is Associate Professor of Opera Theater and Voice at Lawrence University
in Appleton, Wisconsin. (Click here for more information from Patrice’s Lawrence University web page.)
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Rebecca Rollins
A specialist in the field of women in music, Rebecca Rollins is in great demand as a performer and lecturer. Since 1989, she has traveled throughout the United States, Canada and Europe, lecturing on and performing the music of women composers. A versatile musician, she performs in solo and duo piano recitals, and with singers, instrumentalists and spoken word artists. Rebecca Rollins has a Master of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota and a Doctor of Musical Arts from Claremont Graduate University, where she studied with John Steele Ritter. Rebecca Rollins has a recording of solo piano music by six women composers called “Playing the Ivory Moon.” Her research on the singing of women in the early Christian church is published in an anthology by Harmonie Park Press. Her newest recording, “Clearings in the Sky,” features vocal music by Lili Boulanger, with soprano Patrice Michaels, released by Cedille Records. Dr. Rollins is a professor of music at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, CA. (Click here for more information from Rebecca’s Saddleback College web page.)
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Conference Registration
You can now register online for Ruth Crawford in Chicago. Click here to go to the online registration form. Due to the importance of this event, there will be no registration fee for the Ruth Crawford in Chicago Conference. Consider this Elmhurst College’s gift to all friends of Ruth Crawford Seeger.
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Where to Stay
If you would like to stay near Elmhurst College, we have reserved a block of rooms at the Sheraton Four Points Hotel in Oakbrook Terrace. The conference rate is $59.00 per night. The hotel offers a very nice breakfast buffet, and is located in the heart of a shopping district that includes Oakbrook Mall, Borders Books & Music, and so on. When you make your reservation, identify yourself as a participant in the Ruth Crawford in Chicago Conference at Elmhurst College. Use the address, phone numbers, or web link below to make your reservation or obtain further information.
SHERATON FOUR POINTS HOTEL
17 W 350 22nd Street
Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181 |
Toll-free phone—1-800-325-3535
Local phone—630-833-3600
Hotel website—www.fourpoints.com |
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Conference-Related Web Links
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Contact Information
Address
|
Charley Henderson
Director of Public Relations
Elmhurst College
190 Prospect
Elmhurst, IL 60126 |
Dr. Mark Harbold
Music Department
Elmhurst College
190 Prospect
Elmhurst, IL 60126 |
| Email |
charleyh@elmhurst.edu |
markh@elmhurst.edu |
| Phone |
630.617.3033 |
630.617.3521 |
| Fax |
630.617.3657 |
630.617.3738 |
| Website |
|
mark-harbold.elmhurst.edu/ |
Page created by Mark Harbold 4/04/01—last updated 8/24/04.