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Introduction

Ruth Crawford Seeger is a composer who played in Chicago Civic Orchestra for a season

where she gained experience from the association thus parting from the organization and trying

her hand on when she composed several songs (Dodd, pp. 111).

“Suite for Wind Quintet” by Ruth Crawford Seeger

The song “Suite for Wind Quintet” was the first movement sounds slow and pensive with

the inclusion of credibly constructed nocturne that is put together in a very limited range of

materials. The video of this song was performed in 1952 and the composer seemed to be

rigorously playful when presenting the timbre blends.

How the song “Suite for Wind Quintet” is reflected by the six elements of music?

Timbre- when you examine the movement carefully, timbre tends to be the most favored

parameter. This approach is highly enhanced by the striking instrumental impacts. The skeleton

of the ostinato in the video of this song is gradually fleshed out by the appearance of a new

timbre. Examining the music carefully, there were various degrees of timbral stability when the

instruments were either in constant binding or re-binding. The combination of the instruments in

this music tends to contribute to the timbre of the song. When you carefully examine the clarinet,

it tends to steal in pianissimo with the inclusion of the second statement of the ostinato with the
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suspension of the hangs just like the note of a resonance of a staccato bassoon. The timbral

markings tend to gradually become louder thus reaching their loudest at the climax hence

shifting at the end to PPP (Leonard).

Melody- it is very critical to mention that the combination of different instruments in the

song tends to be melodious as it brings some aspects of coloring motion. There is sustenance of

notes that work towards piece apex which seems to have a breakaway that is complete. The

melody of the song seems to be quiet, snuggling, sustained as well as semitones as it turns higher

and louder on the pitch. The melody of this music is then marked Cantando by the entrance of

the oboe to the fore. The clarinet progresses to attack as well as sustaining certain pitches that

tend to correspond to unfolding oboe melody (Rao, pp. 187).

Rhythm- this tends to be the time element in music. The rhythm of this video tends to last

for a long duration with the tempo that seems to be slow. When you carefully examine the video

of this song, you realize that there is an aspect of ritardando as well as accelerando. The tempo of

the music tends to gradually slow down at some point as it gradually speeds at another point.

Harmony- this is said to be the pitch verticalization. It tends to be an art of pitch

combination to form chords which are then arranged to patterns that look like the sentence that is

known as progressions. When you examine this video keenly, you realize that the harmonies are

neither conceived nor meant for the aim of being viewed as vertical segments due to lack of the

instruments failing to either enter or exit in either of the regular order.

Texture- this is an element of the music that is referred to as the individual musical lines

number and how the lines are related to another. There exist two categories of texture;

monophonic which implies one melody without harmony while homophonic which has two or
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more tones that sound at the same time. When you examine this song keenly you will realize that

the notes of different lines of the song tend to be presented by a tenuto that eventually

differentiates them from the texture that exists in the song. The notes of the lines also provided

by the four instruments which are albeit in a certain way that is non-system (Leonard, 2014).

“The String Quartet” by Ruth Crawford

This is the best-known work of Ruth Crawford. This song is the second movement of her

song “Music for Small Orchestra”. This piece is said to be somewhat special because Ruth used

serialism in a way other composers had failed to try before.

Rhythm- in terms rhythm, both the voice 1 and voice 11 of the song seem to be in stark

antithesis. A voice I tend to be free and rhapsodic whereby voice 11 seems to be rigid and strict.

When you examine this music video keenly, you realize that the rhythm of the is somewhat

contributed by the exclusive of notes that are of equal value ie, quavers as well as deletion of one

note from each phrase. To make the rhythm more effective the quavers present in voice 11 are

then grouped into two sets, three, four, five or sometimes six sets. On the part of voice 1, there is

a utilization of quintuplets as well as triplets which leads to the more varied adoption of

groupings due to the phrase becoming long (Rao, pp. 184).

Form- this is an element that is largely associated with or else is built from the

combination of melody, harmony as well as rhythm. In the case of this music video, the

composer tends to cooperate each of the instruments in which the mood of the song is created

through separating violin I from the viola, violin II as well as violoncello. Furthermore, the violin

I tend to be independent of other instruments completely (Dodd, pp. 117). In addition, when you
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view the music video keenly you will realize that violin I tend to begin with three ffzs thus

followed by the other instruments that play in a double-octave-unison that is marked pp.

Melody- the aspect of melody in this peace was portrayed through serialization of the

pitches of every four movements of the quartet. To make this piece more unique and effective,

the composer created very contrasted volume levels that changed constantly thus shifting to

enable listeners to hear certain pitches more loudly than other pitches. This created a melody that

shifted between different instruments from the begin till the end of a movement. In the third

movement of the piece, there are series of sustained lines that are overlapping. The pitch distance

between the different lines tends to increase due to the indirect upward movement of the lines.

This overlapping of lines tends to bring different pitches in and out of the texture that is

harmonic throughout the movement.

Texture- the texture of this piece is illustrated by throughout the movements of the song.

The texture of this song seems to be tight and thick due to the melodious procedures followed by

the four instruments that tend to begin the movement whole step or half-step away from one

another (Rao, pp. 184). When you examine this piece keenly, you will realize that at m. 57, there

is a transformation of the texture because of the cello and viola tend to end their duet with violins

placed in a stratosphere that is above the whole staff as the cello and viola tend to shift into the

section of pizzicato. This changes the texture of the music even though the stop/start sensation is

absolutely preserved.

Harmony- this is an art of combining pitches to form chords which are then arranged to

progressions. Throughout the movements in the piece, the repeated pitches tend to enter as the

low point as well as the high point of the texture of the piece. In addition, the seems to be

subsumed in the harmony as lower/ higher pitches tend to supplant them (Dodd, pp. 112). When
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you examine the video clip keenly you will realize that the width of the harmony at one point is

indicated by the image width at any point in the graph of pitch that is in semitones (Dodd, pg.

110).

Timbre- in the third movement of the piece there is a use of overlapping crescendo that is

very critical in bringing pitches in and out. The constant low throbbing of the decrescendo and

crescendo tend to keep any movement alive.

Conclusion

How the music reflects the culture and period linked to the video

Ruth Crawford was a key figure in contributing to the establishment of art music in

America especially in 1920’s and 1930’s. Ruth through her efforts to articulates the field of art

music to reflect in the society was fruitful since there existed subsequent generations of different

American composers (Dodd, pp. 110).

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Work cited

Dodd, Rose. "Louise Talma: A Life in Composition by Kendra Preston Leonard. Ashgate,

2014.£ 65.00." Tempo 70.275 (2016): 109-111.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hqz9Ch14Mpw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmYUq3Xx8Ic

Leonard, Kendra. "The Innovations of Ruth Crawford Seeger." http://www. the avid listener.

com/2014/12/the-innovations-of-Ruth-Crawford-Seeger. HTML (2014).

Rao, Nancy Yunhwa. "Allegro scorrevole in Carter's First String Quartet: Crawford and the

Ultramodern Inheritance." Music Theory Spectrum 36.2 (2014): 181-202.