Ruth Crawford Seeger’s composition, “Rissolty Rossolty”: Ultra-modernism mingles with American Folk Music
I know, I know, you’re first question is “Ruth… who??”
This is one the wonderful aspects of taking a 20th century music history class! I am learning about many composers who were previously unknown to me. And I have the opportunity to introduce these very talented composers to Medium.com readers!
In perusing a brief summary of Ruth Crawford Seeger’s life, I discovered that she became the first female composer to be awarded a Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship in 1930. This fellowship is a major accomplishment and honor. With this information in hand, I decided that I must explore more about Ruth Crawford Seeger’s life, her compositions and her contributions to the field of music.
Ruth Crawford Seeger’s first compositional style: ultra-modernism
Ruth Crawford began her piano studies early in life at the age of six years old. She earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Music with a focus in music composition at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. During her time at the Conservatory, she developed her modernist compositional style, earning her the Guggenheim fellowship.
Prior to receiving the fellowship, Ruth had also relocated to New York City and began composition studies with Charles Seeger. Charles specialized in dissonant counterpoint, adding to Ruth’s already impressive compositional talent.
Ruth composed one of her most famous modernistic works in 1931, the “String Quartet”. Here is movement number four, if you’d like to take a listen!
Then the transition to American folk music
When Ruth returned to America from her travels to Paris for the Guggenheim fellowship, she married her composition teacher, Charles Seeger. They moved to Washington, DC, and it is at this point that Ruth transitions to an interest in American folk music.
The original folk song, “Risseldy Rosseldy”
“Risseldy Rosseldy” is an American folk song. B.A. Potkin in his 1945 article, “American Songs for American Children” published in the Music Educator’s Journal writes this about Risselty, Rosselty: “The lilting nonsense of Risselty, Rosselty makes light of a serious subject-the slatternly wife… The present version-Mr. Denoon’s-was transcribed from a record in the Archive of American Folk Song by Charles Seeger.” Ruth’s husband, Charles, was also active in exploring American folk songs.
“Risseldy Rosseldy” has some interesting lyrics! Here’s a recording of the song:
Ruth Crawford Seeger’s ingenious version, “Rissolty Rossolty” (1939)
As I searched around Youtube for various compositions by Ruth Crawford Seeger, I happened upon her piece, “Rissolty Rossolty”. I was delighted with how Ruth interwove pieces of different folk tunes with a 20th century contemporary feel!
Take a listen and then I’d like to point out a few features of this creative work:
The first item to notice is that Ruth changes the title slightly from the original of “Risseldy Rosseldy” to her composition’s title of “Rissolty Rossolty”, I’m assuming to brand her own version.
I love how Ruth begins the piece with a 20th century flair, the first few notes slightly similar to the beginning of the fourth movement of her 1931 “String Quartet”. Woven throughout this piece are American folk songs interspersed with decidedly dissonant harmonies. She bonds the piece together with ostinatos and repeated short motives along with the return of the folk melodies.
For me, the highlight of “Rissolty Rossolty” begins at approximately timestamp 2 min, 14 seconds… the texture deepens, polyphony becomes very evident and chaotic along with a lot of dissonance. The horns become quite intense in dynamics as if announcing an upcoming musical event which does indeed occur with the triumphant tonal entrance of the trumpets with a folk song melody at the 2 min, 32 second timestamp. I feel the Ruth even has some “Haydn wit” in her piece, ending “Rissolty Rossolty” in the same way that she began, with a very short 20th century style rhythmic motive.
Author Judith Tick in her concert notes on “Rissolty Rossolty” also has some interesting analytical insights. She notes that Ruth includes three different folk songs in “Rissolty Rossolty”: “Equinoxial and Phoebe”, “The Last of Callahan” and the original folk tune “Risseldy Rosseldy”.
Here are recordings for “Equinoxial and Phoebe” and “The Last of Callahan”… I’m sure you’ll be able to hear these songs in Ruth Crawford Seeger’s version of “Rissolty Rossolty”.
You’ll notice that the youtube video for “Equinoxial and Phoebe” features Ruth Crawford Seeger’s daughter, Peggy Seeger. Peggy has a wonderful biography on her mother and you can read the bio here. Another famous family member is the musician, Pete Seeger.
Unfortunately, Ruth Crawford Seeger lived a relatively short life, dying at the age of 52 from intestinal cancer… just as she was starting to return to her compositional roots of modernism. One of her last pieces was the “Wind Quintet” (1952).
The Importance of Ruth Crawford Seeger’s “Rissolty Rossolty”
“Rissolty Rossolty” is a wonderful example of a musical composition that blends two different genres of music and compositional style. I also find this fascinating as these two different styles, modernism and folk songs, were the two avenues of Ruth’s musical career. A very fitting piece for an amazing composer of her time.
