PUBLISHED REVIEWS

• Mark Swed, L.A. Times: a "riveting" and "fascinating biography"

• Richard Dyer, Boston Globe: "the best possible introduction to her [Ruth Crawford Seeger's] music."

• Wilfrid Mellers, November 1997 issue of The Musical Times (UK): Judith Tick, author of this great book, has qualities comparable with those of its subject, being clever, perspicacious, wide-eyed and open-eared, yet also "plain" like Ruth Crawford and Aaron Copland. The book, cool yet committed, proffers the information one needs, remains scrupulously fair in discussing divided loyalties, never proselytizes, always remembers Pilate's unanswered question: "What is Truth?". It is incumbent upon Oxford University Press to issue an English edition without delay: for although Crawford is a quintessentially American phenomenon, no subject could more powerfully reveal how "America" is germane to us all.

   

• Los Angeles Times on December 21, cited as one of three "exceptional biographies" in American music published during 1997. The article called Year in Review by Mark Swed. "The American Century, Life to Life: Three exceptional new biographies of American composers were published that go a long way toward helping us understand not only the kind of music we make but the kind of people we are and the kind of society we enjoy. ...Judith Tick's Ruth Crawford Seeger " is both a startling reminder of what a fine composer Pete Seeger's stepmother was and of all the social issues, from gender to radical politics, that affected music and life in the first half of the twentieth century."

COMMENTS FROM OTHERS

"A wonderful book, which will be an inspiration to women musicians in many countries and languages. And 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, Institute for Studies in American Music, Brooklyn College

"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 stunning achievement. . . Judith Tick's 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 composer, 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

"Tick's excellent biography will help insure Ruth Crawford Seeger is placed alongside other major women composers in the annals of music history." Joan Tower, composer, Bard College

This web page is maintained by Kristine H. Burns.
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