Suite for Wind Quintet (Crawford Seeger)
Movements
i Allegretto, ii Lento rubato, iii Allegro possibile – Andante – Allegro – meno mosso – Tempo primo
Notes
Crawford-Seeger is notable not just for the gender barries she overcame as a female composer of her era, but also for her pioneering modernism, effectively linking the idioms of Charles Ives and Elliot Carter, and her championing of folk music. Born in Ohio, Ruth Crawford trained as a pianist before her composition talent was spotted by fellow composer Henry Cowell, who arranged for her lessons in New York with Charles Seeger, who she later married. After travelling to Europe in 1931-32 on the first Guggenheim fellowship for composition awarded to a woman, she worked transcribing and publishing field recordings of folk songs by John and Alan Lomax in addition to teaching and raising four children. She however produced few compositions during this period. The suite for wind quintet dates from her “late period” after her composition break ended in the late 1940s and is a good reflection of her modernist methods such as serialism in practice earlier in her career.
The first movement is based off a single funky ostinato introduced in the first bar by the bassoon. After the other instruments have built up the textre, a ferocious sempre accelerando passage in unison without the horn provides the height of the movemement, after which the ostinato returns for a gradual wind-down.
Initiating with dramatic question and answer phrases, the short but rhythmically complex second movement features strained impassioned lyricism comparable to that of Alban Berg. This movement also climaxes with a unison ff passage, this time including the horn.
The third movement is arguably in a kind of rondo form, with the “theme” being a punchy and rapid unison passage for flute and bassoon. Between statements of this there are slower quieter interludes featuring the other three instruments in the ensemble.
