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9780195137927

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An exceptional new biography. --The Los Angeles Times Fascinating and compelling. --American Quarterly This long-awaited book is more than a biography of a neglected American musician. It is an eloquent and subtle portrait of music and culture in twentieth-century America. It is a beautifully written, exemplary work of scholarship and biography. --Leon Botstein, President, Bard College, and Editor of The Musical Quarterly A wonderful book, which will be an inspiration to women musicians in many countries and languages. It will be of interest to many--not just women, and not just musicians or teachers or collectors of folk music. --Pete Seeger This brilliant and lyrically written biography confronts the question that has long perplexed Ruth Crawford Seeger's admirers: why did such a gifted twentieth-century American composer produce so few works? Judith Tick...reconstructs a complex life--illuminating not only the creative artist but also the folksong scholar, teacher, wife, and mother. --Carol J. Oja, Director, Professor of Music, The College of William and Mary ....Judith Tick dances gracefully through copious sources....to reveal the independent, complex, innovative, and humane composer.... It is Tick, however, and her subject Ruth Crawford who shed light on the real possibilities for women who explored and created music for the masses as well as the musical elite. ---National Women's Association Journal It is the singular achievement of Judith Tick to present, in her wide-ranging and insightful new biography of this remarkable woman, a compelling case for positioning Ruth Crawford Seeger directly at the center of crucial issues--not just for women's music, and not just for American music, but for twentieth-century music as a whole...Thanks to Judith Tick, we may now fully apprecaite the contributions of this outstanding woman in her many complementary roles as composer, arranger, transcriber, teacher, and mother, and look toward a time when it may be easier to view such roles as mutually reinforcing. --Journal of the American Musicological Society ...[a] superb achievement....congratulations to Judith Tick--herself one of our pioneers--and welcome to this splendidly accomplished biography. --Women and Music An exceptional new biography. --The Los Angeles Times Fascinating and compelling. --American Quarterly A great book. --Musical Times A magisterial biography [that] explores the many-sided life of one of America's most influential musical figures, while recounting the diversity of American musical culture in the period from the 1920s to the early 1950s....[A] connecting theme is the use of folk music: as compositional source material, as a research subject, as an energizing force in political and social movements. --Institute for Studies in American Music Newsletter Tick followed where Crawford's life has taken her, and has done so brilliantly....Informed by rich resources of letters, diaries, interviews, and domestic manifestos, and enriched by her grasp of the cultural tapestry against which Crawford's life took place, Tick has written an engaging narrative....With this absorbing book, readers may become familiar with a not-so-thoroughly modern composer whose life and work should now take a central place in the continuing debate over the nature of twentieth-century modernism. --Women's Review of Books A magnificent study that is exquisitely readable--almost literary in style--and meticulously researched. It is as if P.D. James or Jane Smiley melded her brand of novelistic observation with a scholar's affinity for detail and context .... Tick thinks thematically and weaves together the large and the small in a way that is almost literary. This readerly conceit keeps us engrossed. We find ourselves eager to take in the details of Crawford Seeger's life and times because they make sense in a larger picture....Tick's study joins the ranks of great biographies of composers. --Signs Elegantly written and richly textured....Essential for all libraries. --Choice Deriving insights from new sources and interviews and providing fresh analyses of many of Seeger's compositions, this lively but scholarly book grapples with its subject's several identities....Recommended to those seriously interested in women's studies, classical and folk music and music education, and American studies. --Library Journal This long-awaited book is more than a biography of a neglected American musician. It is an eloquent and subtle portrait of music and culture in twentieth-century America. It is a beautifully written, exemplary work of scholarship and biography. --Leon Botstein, President, Bard College, and Editor of The Musical Quarterly A wonderful book, which will be an inspiration to women musicians in many countries and languages. It will be of interest to many--not just women, and not just musicians or teachers or collectors of folk music. --Pete Seeger This brilliant and lyrically written biography confronts the question that has long perplexed Ruth Crawford Seeger's admirers: why did such a gifted twentieth-century American composer produce so few works? Judith Tick...reconstructs a complex life--illuminating not only the creative artist but also the folksong scholar, teacher, wife, and mother. --Carol J. Oja, Director, Professor of Music, The College of William and Mary A stunning achievement....Judith Tick's biography and detailed loving assessment of Crawford's life and creative work should go a long way towards restoring this important but unfortunately rather neglected composer to her rightful place in the American musical firmament. --Gunther Schuller, composer/conductor This important biography vividly presents Ruth Crawford Seeger caught between the conflicting demands of composing, folksong collecting, and her responsibilities as wife and mother. Without these conflicts she no doubt would have produced even more masterpieces. --Elliott Carter, composer This vibrant, meticulously researched study rewards anyone eager to map American modernism in all its art forms and to grasp crucial connections to folk traditions. --Cecelia Tichi, author, High Lonesome: The American Culture of Country Music Judith Tick does a wonderful job of recreating the life Ruth Crawford lived through Crawford's diaries and letters and through the recollections of those who knew her....This will stand as the definitive biography of one of America's most interesting and significant composers. --J. Peter Burkholder, Indiana University Honors an innovative composer whose life itself served as a metaphor for American polarities: music--avant garde or traditional; family role--creative or constricted; politics-- mainstream or radical; folk culture--authentic or popularized. Seeger's musical legacy remains secure as we plumb its depths. In her modern sonatas and suites, vernacular declamations and ditties, we find our own journey markers. --Archie Green, folklorist; author of Only a Miner Tick's excellent biography will help insure that Ruth Crawford Seeger is placed alongside other major women composers in the annals of music history. --Joan Tower, composer, Bard College A splendid book...a delicate sensibility and sensitivity to the ironies of human life threads through this well-documented biography of the remarkable Ruth Crawford Seeger --Bess Lomax Hawes, former Chief, Folk Arts Division, NEA A triumphant contribution on several fronts. This book outlines the history of the cultural, political, and musical life of early twentieth century America. It is painted on a large canvas and presented in novel-like prose....Simply stated, it is a book one cannot put down. --Pan Pipes ...this superb new biography of Ruth Crawford Seeger, is the remarkable dichotomy of the musician's career....[Judith] Tick's history is meticulously documented. --Fanfare ...a book one cannot put down....Tick's ability to place the reader in the midst of a life so scattered, an existence so harried, a cultural spectrum so vivid, and a sensibility so mystical is remarkable and full of sympathetic insight....This biography will be fascinating to many kinds of readers... --Pan Pipes Tick's captivating and vivid portrayal of Crawford is meticulously documented....I highly recommend [this] biography for both women and men; it is exhaustive, clearly-written, and satisfying to read. Crawford's life story as told by Tick will certainly serve as an inspiration for many of today's composers and musicians. --IAWM Journal ...magisterial...Judith Tick makes Crawford and the supporting cast seem very much alive....A fascinating story, this is also a work of very solid scholarship, documenting carefully every assertion and every conjecture.... --I.S.A.M. Newsletter ....Judith Tic dances gracefully through copious sources....to reveal the independent, complex, innovative, and humane composer....It is Tick, however, and her subject Ruth Crawford who shed light on the real possibilities for women who explored and created music for the masses as well as the musical elite. ---National Women's Association Journal

""An exceptional new biography."" --The Los Angeles Times ""Fascinating and compelling."" --American Quarterly ""This long-awaited book is more than a biography of a neglected American musician. It is an eloquent and subtle portrait of music and culture in twentieth-century America. It is a beautifully written, exemplary work of scholarship and biography.""--Leon Botstein, President, Bard College, and Editor of The Musical Quarterly ""A wonderful book, which will be an inspiration to women musicians in many countries and languages. It will be of interest to many--not just women, and not just musicians or teachers or collectors of folk music.""--Pete Seeger ""This brilliant and lyrically written biography confronts the question that has long perplexed Ruth Crawford Seeger's admirers: why did such a gifted twentieth-century American composer produce so few works? Judith Tick...reconstructs a complex life--illuminating not only the creative artist but also the folksong scholar, teacher, wife, and mother.""--Carol J. Oja, Director, Professor of Music, The College of William and Mary ""....Judith Tick dances gracefully through copious sources....to reveal the independent, complex, innovative, and humane composer.... It is Tick, however, and her subject Ruth Crawford who shed light on the real possibilities for women who explored and created music for the masses as well as the musical elite.""---National Women's Association Journal ""It is the singular achievement of Judith Tick to present, in her wide-ranging and insightful new biography of this remarkable woman, a compelling case for positioning Ruth Crawford Seeger directly at the center of crucial issues--not just for women's music, and not just for American music, but for twentieth-century music as a whole...Thanks to Judith Tick, we may now fully apprecaite the contributions of this outstanding woman in her many complementary roles as composer, arranger, transcriber, teacher, and mother, and look toward a time when it may be easier to view such roles as mutually reinforcing."" --Journal of the American Musicological Society ""...[a] superb achievement....congratulations to Judith Tick--herself one of our pioneers--and welcome to this splendidly accomplished biography.""--Women and Music ""An exceptional new biography."" --The Los Angeles Times ""Fascinating and compelling."" --American Quarterly ""A great book."" --Musical Times ""A magisterial biography [that] explores the many-sided life of one of America's most influential musical figures, while recounting the diversity of American musical culture in the period from the 1920s to the early 1950s....[A] connecting theme is the use of folk music: as compositional source material, as a research subject, as an energizing force in political and social movements."" --Institute for Studies in American Music Newsletter ""Tick followed where Crawford's life has taken her, and has done so brilliantly....Informed by rich resources of letters, diaries, interviews, and domestic manifestos, and enriched by her grasp of the cultural tapestry against which Crawford's life took place, Tick has written an engaging narrative....With this absorbing book, readers may become familiar with a not-so-thoroughly modern composer whose life and work should now take a central place in the continuing debate over the nature of twentieth-century modernism.""--Women's Review of Books ""A magnificent study that is exquisitely readable--almost literary in style--and meticulously researched. It is as if P.D. James or Jane Smiley melded her brand of novelistic observation with a scholar's affinity for detail and context .... Tick thinks thematically and weaves together the large and the small in a way that is almost literary. This readerly conceit keeps us engrossed. We find ourselves eager to take in the details of Crawford Seeger's life and times because they make sense in a larger picture....Tick's study joins the ranks of great biographies of composers."" --Signs ""Elegantly written and richly textured....Essential for all libraries.""--Choice ""Deriving insights from new sources and interviews and providing fresh analyses of many of Seeger's compositions, this lively but scholarly book grapples with its subject's several identities....Recommended to those seriously interested in women's studies, classical and folk music and music education, and American studies.""--Library Journal ""This long-awaited book is more than a biography of a neglected American musician. It is an eloquent and subtle portrait of music and culture in twentieth-century America. It is a beautifully written, exemplary work of scholarship and biography.""--Leon Botstein, President, Bard College, and Editor of The Musical Quarterly ""A wonderful book, which will be an inspiration to women musicians in many countries and languages. It will be of interest to many--not just women, and not just musicians or teachers or collectors of folk music.""--Pete Seeger ""This brilliant and lyrically written biography confronts the question that has long perplexed Ruth Crawford Seeger's admirers: why did such a gifted twentieth-century American composer produce so few works? Judith Tick...reconstructs a complex life--illuminating not only the creative artist but also the folksong scholar, teacher, wife, and mother.""--Carol J. Oja, Director, Professor of Music, The College of William and Mary ""A stunning achievement....Judith Tick's biography and detailed loving assessment of Crawford's life and creative work should go a long way towards restoring this important but unfortunately rather neglected composer to her rightful place in the American musical firmament.""--Gunther Schuller, composer/conductor ""This important biography vividly presents Ruth Crawford Seeger caught between the conflicting demands of composing, folksong collecting, and her responsibilities as wife and mother. Without these conflicts she no doubt would have produced even more masterpieces.""--Elliott Carter, composer ""This vibrant, meticulously researched study rewards anyone eager to map American modernism in all its art forms and to grasp crucial connections to folk traditions.""--Cecelia Tichi, author, High Lonesome: The American Culture of Country Music ""Judith Tick does a wonderful job of recreating the life Ruth Crawford lived through Crawford's diaries and letters and through the recollections of those who knew her....This will stand as the definitive biography of one of America's most interesting and significant composers.""--J. Peter Burkholder, Indiana University ""Honors an innovative composer whose life itself served as a metaphor for American polarities: music--avant garde or traditional; family role--creative or constricted; politics-- mainstream or radical; folk culture--authentic or popularized. Seeger's musical legacy remains secure as we plumb its depths. In her modern sonatas and suites, vernacular declamations and ditties, we find our own journey markers.""--Archie Green, folklorist; author of Only a Miner ""Tick's excellent biography will help insure that Ruth Crawford Seeger is placed alongside other major women composers in the annals of music history. ""--Joan Tower, composer, Bard College ""A splendid book...a delicate sensibility and sensitivity to the ironies of human life threads through this well-documented biography of the remarkable Ruth Crawford Seeger""--Bess Lomax Hawes, former Chief, Folk Arts Division, NEA ""A triumphant contribution on several fronts. This book outlines the history of the cultural, political, and musical life of early twentieth century America. It is painted on a large canvas and presented in novel-like prose....Simply stated, it is a book one cannot put down.""--Pan Pipes ""...this superb new biography of Ruth Crawford Seeger, is the remarkable dichotomy of the musician's career....[Judith] Tick's history is meticulously documented.""--Fanfare ""...a book one cannot put down....Tick's ability to place the reader in the midst of a life so scattered, an existence so harried, a cultural spectrum so vivid, and a sensibility so mystical is remarkable and full of sympathetic insight....This biography will be fascinating to many kinds of readers...""--Pan Pipes ""Tick's captivating and vivid portrayal of Crawford is meticulously documented....I highly recommend [this] biography for both women and men; it is exhaustive, clearly-written, and satisfying to read. Crawford's life story as told by Tick will certainly serve as an inspiration for many of today's composers and musicians.""--IAWM Journal ""...magisterial...Judith Tick makes Crawford and the supporting cast seem very much alive....A fascinating story, this is also a work of very solid scholarship, documenting carefully every assertion and every conjecture....""--I.S.A.M. Newsletter ""....Judith Tic dances gracefully through copious sources....to reveal the independent, complex, innovative, and humane composer....It is Tick, however, and her subject Ruth Crawford who shed light on the real possibilities for women who explored and created music for the masses as well as the musical elite.""---National Women's Association Journal

Judith Tick's sympathetic and vastly detailed study of her protagonist's works, life and times already reads like a classic. BBC Music Magazine

Author Information

Judith Tick is Professor of Music at Northeastern University. She is co-editor of Women Making Music: The Western Art Tradition, 1150-1950 and author of American Women Composers Before 1870.

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