Charles Seeger: A Life in American Music

This superb account pays fitting tribute to a seminal figure in the history of American music and in the field of ethnomusicology, placing his accomplishments within their social and historical contexts to underscore their significance. A tireless advocate of American folk music, Seeger (1886-1979) established the first musicology curriculum in the U.S. in 1913, at the University of California at Berkeley, and helped found the American Musicological Association. In the '30s, he developed music programs for the federal Resettlement Administration and the WPA; in the '40s, he served as director of the Pan American Union's Inter-American Music Center. In addition to his involvement in folk music and education, Seeger wrote criticism--which appeared under a pseudonym in the Communist Daily Worker --and numerous theoretical treatises. Pescatello, director of the national Scholars in the Schools program and a friend of Seeger's in his later years, presents masterly analyses of his complex theories as well as an admiring portrait of the man himself. Photos not seen by PW. (Dec.)