Ruth Crawford

Ruth Crawford Seeger (July 3, 1901 – November 18, 1953), born Ruth Porter Crawford, was an American modernist composer active primarily during the 1920s and 1930s and an American folk music specialist from the late 1930s until her death. She was a prominent member of a group of American composers known as the "ultramoderns," and her music influenced later composers including Elliott Carter (Shreffler 1994).

Ruth Crawford was born in East Liverpool, Ohio, the second child of Clark Crawford, a Methodist minister, and Clara Graves Crawford. The family moved several times during Crawford's childhood, living in Akron, Ohio, St. Louis, Missouri, and Muncie, Indiana. In 1912 the family moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where Clark Crawford died of tuberculosis two years later. After her husband's death Clara Crawford opened a boarding house and struggled to maintain her family's middle class lifestyle (Tick 1997, 8–11). Ruth began writing poetry at an early age and as a teenager had aspirations to become an "authoress or poetess" (Tick 1997, 12). She also studied the piano beginning at age six. In 1913 she began piano lessons with Bertha Foster, who had founded the School of Musical Art in Jacksonville in 1908. In 1917 Ruth began to study with Madame Valborg Collett, who was a student of Agathe Grøndahl and the most prestigious teacher at Foster's School of Musical Art (Tick 1997, 15–19). After her graduation from high school in 1918, Crawford began to pursue a career as a concert pianist, continuing her studies with Collett and performing at various musical events in Jacksonville. She also became a piano teacher at Foster's school and wrote her first compositions for her young pupils in 1918 and 1919 (Tick 1997, 22–23).

Crawford moved to Chicago in 1921 where she enrolled at the American Conservatory of Music, initially planning to stay for a single year, long enough to earn a teaching certificate. In Chicago she attended symphony and opera performances for the first time as well as recitals by eminent pianists including Sergei Rachmaninoff and Arthur Rubinstein (Tick 1997, 28–29). At the Conservatory, she studied piano with Heniot Levy and Louise Robyn. Crawford's focus at the Conservatory quickly shifted from piano performance to composition. During her second year there she began composition and theory studies with Adolf Weidig and wrote several early works, including a Nocturne for Violin and Piano (1923) and a set of theme and variations for piano (1923). Clara Crawford moved to Chicago to live with her daughter in 1923. The next year, Ruth received her bachelor's degree in music from the Conservatory and subsequently enrolled in the school's master's degree program (Tick 1997, 41–43).

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