Charles Seeger
Charles Seeger (Mexico City, Mexico, 1886 - 1979) was musicologist, composer, and teacher.
He graduated from Harvard in 1908, teaching at the Institute of Musical Art in New York from 1921 till 1933, the New School for Social Research from 1931 till 1935, and the University of California Los Angeles from 1957 to 1961. From 1961 till 1971 he was a research professor at the Institute of Ethnomusicology at UCLA. From 1935 to 1953 he held positions in the federal government's Resettlement Administration, Works Projects Administration (WPA), and Pan American Union, including serving as an administrator for the Works Projects Administration Music Project, for which his wife also worked, from 1938 to 1940. He suffered an emotional breakdown in 1918.
His first wife was the violinist Constance Edson, they divorced in 1927. One of their sons is Pete Seeger, the folk singer. His second wife was the composer and musician Ruth Seeger (née Ruth Porter Crawford; by her, he had two children who also achieved musical renown, Peggy Seeger and Mike Seeger.
He is best remembered for his formulation of dissonant counterpoint. According to ethnomusicologist Bruno Nettl, "Seeger played a unique and central role in tying musicology to other disciplines and domains of culture. This collection shows him to be truly a musical 'man for all seasons,' for what comes across most is the many-sidedness of the man." ([1])
External links
- Folk Scene: Charles Seeger obituary by Jim Capaldi, April 1979