Author Archives: Jaclyn Duellman

Ruth Crawford Seeger and American Identity

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Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901-1953) was an American Musicologist and a pioneer of Women Composers in America.1  Her compositions shaped the track of American musical identity with atonal avant-garde American music. 

Her music was written with a particular kind of dissonance that used open 5ths in parallel. Scholars say that this is influence taken from composers like Béla Bartok and Igor Stravinsky. 3 Her interest in ultramodernist music and serialism 2 come across clearly in the clip above of String Quartet (1931), which is described as the masterpiece and peak of her career as a composer. 1

In 1930, Ruth Crawford Seeger was the first woman to win a Guggenheim Fellowship in composition and travels to Europe to complete that work. 1 When she arrives back in the U.S. in 1931 her life changes. When Ruth Seeger returned from Europe she faced hardship that came from the Great Depression and the stock market crash. Below are headlines were collected by Matilda Gaume and listed in the book, Ruth Crawford Seeger: memoirs, memories, music by Matilda Gaume4: 

“Julliard benefit for Unemployed Musicians” (January 17, 1931), 

“London Orchestra in Trouble” (April 2, 1932), 

“Metropolitan Opera Prospects Uncertain for 1932-33” (April 2, 1932), 

“Economy the Watchword in Vienna” (April 11, 1931), 

“Bush Conceervatory in Bankruptcy” (August 27, 1932). 4

Due to the position that America is in when she comes back, she is unable to compose. She gets married to Charles Seeger, and becomes a mother.3 She writes about feeling fulfilled by her family life, but also feeling too guilty to make any time for composing.3 Her family falls into poverty in the great depression, until Charles Seeger takes a job with the U.S. government doing fieldwork in the Appalachian region of America collecting folk music. 5 She publishes this work, which is recognized as groundbreaking, and provides for her family and the larger educational continuum. However, while Ruth Crawford Seeger recognizes great importance for collecting this folk music, she still expresses a deep calling to compose.

She composes again in 1952, writing Wind Quintet, for a competition (which she wins). That is her last competition, she died the following year 5

3 https://nationalphilharmonic.org/media/video/composers-in-crisis-ruth-crawford-seeger-the-great-depression/ 

4Gaume, Matilda. Ruth Crawford Seeger: Memoirs, Memories, Music. Scarecrow Press, 1986.

5 The New York Times, The New York Times, 13 Oct. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/10/13/arts/music/ruth-crawford-seeger-jack-quartet.html.

Rattling America – Indigenous Peoples’ Instruments of Connection

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Music is something that connects humanity. Across the entire world, people sing and dance together. In American history, the first people to make music across their homelands were here hundreds of years ago, and their story and history has been erased by colinization and greed of U.S. expansion. The indigenous tribes that occupied (and still occupy to some degree) these lands that we call America danced and celebrated in song and dance for thousands of years before a genocide caused their traditions to be forcibly lost and forgotten. Of the records that remain of the indigenous peoples’ music we see similarities across a large range of people who had separate communities in isolation from one another, and yet related in many aspects. The one aspect that I want to focus on is an instrument that has history in all corners of the North American Continent–the rattle.

Staff, S. F. A. (2015, November 9). Gourd Rattle, Connector of Native American Tradition. Borderlore. https://borderlore.org/gourd-rattle-connector-of-native-american-tradition/

This instrument is percussive in nature, used to accompany singing and dancing. Rattles are made out of a variety of materials. The materials used should include animal, plant and mineral components to be symbolic of the three kingdoms.1 The top of rattle, or container, can be made from a variety of natural materials, including: gourds, calabashes, turtle shells, cocoons, wood, bark, sections of animal horn, hide pouches, coconut shells, and woven fibres. 2 The handle compoentent is often made of wood, bone, or stone. The pieces inside may be seeds, clay pieces, small pebbles, or animal bones/teeth.

In part with these symbolic components used to create each instrument, the overall meaning behind the rattle as an instrument varies. Some tribes from the Eastern Woodlands region believe that rattles make the sound of creation, while some tribes from the tropical south believe they are for communication between living and spirit beings.2 For the Northwestern region, people believe that rattles represent voices from the spirit world.2 While the history and meaning behind rattles can vary from tribe to tribe, they are consistently used in ceremonies and rituals to bring peace, harmony, and healing.3

Image taken by Jaclyn Duellman on Sept. 21st, 2024

This image is of a rattle I saw at the Mahkato Wacipi. I asked the man who was playing this rattle for the moccasin game if I could take this picture. I also asked him what his rattle was made of and he told me, “I don’t know, I got it so long ago.” When I asked him to take a picture he handed me the rattle, after I took the picture and handed him his instrument back he firmly told me to shake the rattle. I shook it, and smiled at the man. He accepted my thanks for letting me see his instrument, and went back to the game. Upon further research into the history of Gourd Rattles, it is considered rude to not play a rattle, and communicates that the rattle is not nice enough or worthy of being played.4 In comparison with the rattle I was able to photograph, below is a sketch from 1851 of an American Indian man holding a gourd rattle.

[Sketchbook by F. B. Mayer, 5 of 6] – Indigenous Histories and Cultures in North America. (2024). Amdigital.co.uk. https://www.indigenoushistoriesandcultures.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/sketchbook-by-f.-b.-mayer-5-of-6/7029037?item=7029060