Charles Seeger (1886-1979)

The following article is reprinted from Sing Out!
magazine (Vol. 27, No. 3), 505 Eighth Avenue, NYC

10018, Sing Out!,,tounded in the early fifties, is devoted: ~ had seen when.a burly voice from the audience said, -

to the promotion of peoples’ music.

’- Pete Seeger, internationally acclaimed peopie’s
musician and a founder of Sing Out!, is one of the sons
of the late Charies Seeger. es

By Pete Seeger

On his desk, when he died of a heart attack in Feb--

ruary, musicologist Charles Seeger had letters going
to half a dozen countries, and a folder on which he
had noted “Take to Yale to discuss next week.’’ Al-
though he was 92, he was living life as fully as anyone
could, doing what he loved best, discussing and
theorizing with other musicologists and folklorists.

His seven children, 18 grandchildren, and hun-
‘dreds of devoted colleagues on several continents are
sad that he did not keep on for another 10 or 20 years,
as he gave indications of doing, but know that his
long active physical and intellectual life sets a good
example for them. For most of the last 20 years he
lived alone, cooking for himself and keeping his
kitchen, like his desk, neat as a pin. :

He came from a long line of New Englanders,
ranging from abolitionists to sea captains, except for
a German great-grandfather, Dr. Carl Ludvig
Seeger (Zay-gair’’) who eagerly emigrated from
the Neckar River Valley to join the country of
Thomas Jetferson jn 1787. Charles Seeger was born a
century later in Mexico City, where his father was in
business. When he entered Harvard in 1904 he was
protected against Harvard snobberv by already hav-
‘ng a streng inoculation of what he later called
‘Seeger snobbery.”’ And when he was appointed to
ead the musie department of the University of
Calitornia at Berkeley, at age 25, he self-confidently
revamped things, including teaching the nation’s
first course in musicology:

He also go in hot water politically. To broaden his
own education he monitored: courses. by an-
thropojogist Alfred Kroeber (who worked with the
American Indian, Ishi), A socialist colleague took
him to visit the migratory labor conditidhs in the

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUGUST 10, 1979— Page 6

.

*

&
& Charles

Seeger:
pioneer

“When he was appointed
to head the music depart-

age 25, he self-confidently
revamped things, including
teaching the nation’s first
course in musicology.”’

iNC Burg jo Asano

huge California valleys. Deeply shocked, Seeger
came back and was giving a speech about what he

“Sit down, you lily livered bastard: You've just found
out about these things. We’ve known them all our
lives.” .

Seeger searched out the speaker afterwards and.

said, **You’re absolutely right. I am just learing.”’
The man was a Wobbly (member of the International

Workers of the World organization), and became a

good friend. Soon Seeger was joining others in pub-
licly denouncing WWI as an imperialist war, and

when one October evening he read the headlines _

about Lenin’s followers storming the winter palace
he whooped with delight. ‘‘Of course Seeger
whoops,’’ said Robert Minor, the San. Francisco
socialist cartoonist, who was present. ‘‘He’s an ar-
tist.””

So the following year he took a sabbatical, realiz-
ing that it was probably a permanent separation.
(Fifty years later he got an honorary degree at Ber-

keley.) Back East, he meticulously built one of the —

U.S.’s first automobile trailers, and with his wife
Constance, a concert violinist, set out for a tour ‘to
bring good music to the people.” With a portable
pump organ to serve as accompaniment, and a big
iron pot to boil laundry over an open fire, a baby still
in diapers and two small boys, they set out for
Florida.

They only got as far as Pinehurst, North.
‘Carolina, before the impossibly muddy roads of 1920

brought the tour to a dead stop. Camped out in the
woods of the MacKenzie family, local farmers, they
played some Bach and Handel one evening at the
farmer’s house.*Afterwards the MacKenzie family
reciprocated, unlimbered banjoes and fiddles. and
Seeger realized that “the people” already had some
pretty good music. Next spring the Model T Ford

sadly hauled the trailer back to New York State and .

the two musicians got jobs teaching at Damrosch’s
institute For Musical Art. later Juilliard Institute.
During the 1920s Seeger encouraged his student
Henry Cowell to tour the Soviet Union and bring back
recordings of Asiatic people's music, which en-
thusiastic Soviet ethnclogists were documenting.
And in 1928 Cecil Sharp and Maud Karpeles were col-

lecting Appalachian ballads. Seeger shrewdly picked

musicologist

ment of the University of
California at Berkeley, at

-anything about anyone else.’’ This was not enoug

‘clearly what they were arguing about.

‘communication. “If the human race fails to surviV®

-a large part of the blame should go to an overdep {
* dence on one form of communication — words.” |
_ believe I am quoting him correctly.) In his 80s, nis

-his musicological theories, and in his 90th yé

out some of the best to show to his youngest boy, wht)
at age nine was learing the ukelele and would repeal)
any sort of song that caught his fancy. = o
_In 1931, his first marriage having broken up
Seeger married the talented composer Ruth Craw)
ford, and started raising a new family. In those d&
pression days it seemed to many that the capitalist
economic system was on the verge of permanent col
lapse. Seeger joined with other radical musicians
start the Composers Collective of the Pierre DeGey”
ter Club in lower Manhattan. Bertolt Brecht and).
Hanns Eisler Were having great success in Germall}
with a starkly modern style of proletarian marchife,
song, and attempts were made to transplant it in thé
USA. But outside narrow circles it didn’t catch on. |
By 1935 most political radicals felt that only 4
broad coalition could defeat worldwide fascism, ane)
Seeger took a job as assistant director of the WP#
music project in Washington. Soon he was workin
with young Alan Lomax, trying to plan how a revivd)
of interest in folk music could.avoid the mistake)
which had bogged down the European folk music tT
vival.
In Europe, folklorists had selected what they fell
were the ‘best’ melodies, arranged them [0
‘pianoforte. orchestra, and chorus, and told youl,
people, in effect, “Now don’t change a note.” Nothing
was left for improvisation. Lomax and Seeger fell
that it would be better ‘to let young people learn bY
ear, listening and seeing authentic original perf
mers, and generally preserve the spirit of improviS®
tion. As we know now, their theories worked. A Cc
eague complained, ‘Charlie, your son will ruin his
voice unless he gets vocal training:”’ eS
“If I catch him taking voice lessons I’ stop)
immediately,’’ Seeger replied. 4
In 1952 the Cold-War was closing in on radicals of
all sorts. The FBI asked Seeger to tell them all abotl!|
his past affiliations. He said, *‘I’m willing to undres®:
figuratively speaking, myself. But I will not tell you)

for the FBI. Seeger resigned from his job as musié
coordinator for the Pan-American Union. A yea!)
later his wife died tragically just as her own careél)
as a composer was getting underway again afte!)
raising four children. :
Seeger was soon in California, working with thé
Institute for Ethnomusicology at UCLA. In his 70s, 8)
was still going strong, increasingly deaf but able 10)
hear with a powerful hearing aid. His circle of CF
leagues and students continued to expand worldwide
He worked with his oldest son, a scientist, to devel0P)
a machine called a Melograph. Into one end of it
melody could be played. Out the other end came #
sheet of graph paper with the exact melody recordet
as a wiggling line, showing exact pitch, all slurs and
wavers. For the first time musicians could

Seeger increasingly centered his interest on the
relationship of speech communication to musio”

ob
at

Studies In- Musicology was finally published by the :
University of California Press.
He was in constant demand to attend confer
ences and seminars, and every few months was fly” 3
ing to some corner of the world. He had lived 109% |
enough to see many of the ideas which he had helpé
start off gain general acceptance. His good heal f
was no accident, but came from a combination “
yoga exercieses, careful diet, and daily afternoy,
walks, often of several miles. A major biograph! a
him tentatively titled Seeger, Music, and Society iS” |.
preparation by Berkeley historian Ann Pescatello. Fe
_ All of us who knew him know how lucky we |
His enthusiasm was infectious. his self-discipline ™
spiring. I can.see him now, in these new times, P ig
ing his lips, gazing into space briefly, wrinkling ne
forehead reflectively. Then swinging his long SP4
frame around in his chair to his typewritel |.
straightens his back, gets to work putting words

their proper order.

colleagues insisted that he must prepare a volume