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On May 12, 1975, I spent a memorable day with Charles Seeger (1886-1979) on the Yale University campus. We met as he walked across the campus green with his elegant, long stride, carrying a first edition of The Social Harp that he donated to the Yale Music Library. Seeger generously agreed to do an interview with me during which he recalled the history of his family and his discovery of American folk music. At the age of 89, both his eloquence and his vivid memory were striking.
Charles Seeger holds a truly unique place in the history of American music. A distinguished composer, scholar, and teacher, his long career transformed our understanding of how folk and classical music interact and define American culture. Seeger graduated from Harvard University in 1908, and then taught at the University of California at Berkeley, Juilliard, the Institute of Musical Art in New York, the New School for Social Research, the University of California at Los Angeles, and Yale University. He also worked for the federal government's Resettlement Administration, Works Projects Administration (WPA ) Federal Music Project, and the Pan American Union.
Seeger's second wife Ruth Crawford Seeger was a distinguished composer and musician who worked closely with him throughout her life. Three of his children- Pete, Mike, and Peggy-are beloved figures who are known for both their collecting and their performance of folk music. Seeger worked closely with folk music collectors John and Alan Lomax, composer Henry Cowell, and artist Thomas Hart Benton.
As a scholar and composer, Charles Seeger is best known for his writings on "dissonant counterpoint," a classical music concept that describes how musical lines that are very different from each other sound harmonious when they are played together. The greatest composer of dissonant counterpoint was Johan Sebastian Bach, and Seeger was understandably drawn to Sacred Harp hymns composed by William Billings, a tanner of hides who lived in Boston during the colonial period and developed shaped notes to assist music teachers. Considered the first American composer, Billings is known for his four-part "fuguing tunes" that use dissonant counterpoint with striking effect.
While John and Alan Lomax are remembered for the vast body of field recordings they collected, Charles Seeger's great contribution is that he embraced...