Introduction
Current music has been shaped by our histories. For centuries, music has expanded and diversified to accommodate other types of art. Before the XX century, society’s culture and physical features characterized music in America. However, during the XX century, social and economic issues such as wars, diseases, and workers’ welfares characterize the music.
By embodying these features, music has communicated and provoked social change in societies. In this research paper, one composer from the XX century is highlighted. The composer chosen is Charles Louis Seeger, Jr. As such, the research paper investigates how the composer’s works of art were useful to the music industry during his era. To come up with a comprehensive research paper, several literature reviews are analyzed, and interviews are conducted.
During the XX century, Seeger became renowned for his composition. His compositions became very popular, reaching over to millions of audience in the English speaking nations. For instance, the growth and popularity of folk songs during the century is attributed to his contribution.
He helped to popularize and break new grounds to intimate acoustic performance associated with folk music in contemporary society. Ever since then, music students, songwriters, singers, and scholars have been looking for new ways to popularize and add value to folk music to attract a wide range of audience.
The topic is of interest because the composer is considered the father of modern American folk songs. Throughout his lifetime, Seeger made enormous contributions in the field of music. Currently, he is accredited to the revitalization of some genres of music in the USA. Like his father, Seeger had considerable understanding of the academic approach to music.
Compositions by Seeger are worth studying because they illustrate how American music, especially folk music, evolved over the 20th century. By studying it, it can be revealed how the 20th-century composers struggled with advancements in technology and changing audiences’ preferences.
Literature review
Several literature reviews have been documented on Charles Seeger. Three literature reviews were utilized in the research. Their reliability had to be checked to ensure that they were scholarly. Evaluating the reliability of these sources involved several processes, and one of them was to look at whether the article or source is peer-reviewed or not.
It should be noted that there are several other kinds of literature that focus on the composer such as Understanding Charles Seeger and Studies in Musicology: 1935-1975. One of the literatures asserts that the composer was born in Mexico City (Pescatello 3). He was born to American parents in the year 1886. His father was a musician and a composer. Seeger attended Harvard University during the early 20th century. He graduated from the institution during the year 1908 (Pescatello 3).
He later moved to Germany to advance his education in music. While in Germany, the author asserts that the composer developed hearing impairment. After the tragedy, he left Germany to the USA. Back in the USA, the composer became a music lecturer at the University of California.
At the university, he taught for more than four years before being dismissed for conflicting with the government’s views. Later, he taught at the Institute of Musical Art, New York, between the years 1920 and 1932 (Pescatello 3). Similarly, he taught music at the New School for Social Research between the years 1930 to 1936.
Like his father, Seeger composed several popular folk songs in America during the early 20th century (Hicks 186). As a professor of music, Seeger worked relentlessly to publicize folk music among American societies. Through his teachings, he asserted that the American societies, unlike their ancestors, were music illiterates. In a bid to enhance folk music in the community, Seeger came up with a folk a society that was supposed to compose and perform vernacular songs.
In all these songs, survival, revival, and arrival, elements of folk songs were paramount. Seeger lamented that through folk songs, Americans could appreciate colonization, industrialization, and urbanization.
Through the article Folk Music in the Schools of a Highly Industrialized Society, Seeger asserted that all folklorists are required to preserve and pass on folk songs to the future generations (Hicks 187). To achieve this, he postulated that educators should be involved in teaching children the significance of folk songs as any other type of music.
Another literature asserts that just like his father Seeger perceived music to be vivacious and part of the current events rather than past events (Edmondson 1033). Through his works, he composed a remarkable diverse collection of folk songs from the USA and around the world.
He would perform his compositions before his audience to illustrate the importance of music in society. His understanding of several cultures made him popular among the youths who considered folk music as the music of the past and the lower class members of the society. Similarly, through his diverse cultural understanding, he was able to bridge the gap between the urban and rural audiences. Both the young and elderly thinkers appreciated and enjoyed his works.
Through Dissonant Counterpoint, he became a living legend of American folk songs during the mid 20th century. Similarly, through these contributions, he managed to be considered as a folk revivalist in the 20th century. Seeger’s compositions such as Asleep, When We Two Parted, and Endymion became popular among American youths (Edmondson 1035).
Body of the research
A research design is a methodical plan to investigate a research problem. Usually, five types of research design are available. They are co-relational, field (survey), experimental, qualitative, and meta-analysis. For this type of research, field or survey research design is going to be utilized. As such, field research encompasses of compilations of data outside of a lab, stores, or formal set up. The means and processes used in the fieldwork differ across researches.
For research, the information will be obtained through face-to-face interviewing, questionnaires, and analyzing the existing literature. The questions will be directed at individuals in natural environments. Usually, fieldwork entails a variety of distinct or inconsistent methods. The methods may include casual meetings, direct inspection, and group discussions.
Even though the process usually is categorized as qualitative research, it should be noted that at times the method might comprise of quantitative dimensions. By analyzing the existing literature about the composer, the researchers are going to gather a lot of useful information about the composer.
For this study, the data will also be collected through field research. The method entails acquiring public data from secure and reliable music institutions, face-to-face interviews, and questionnaires. Music institutions will provide the researchers with crucial information such as the composer’s present and past successes and failures. The sources are very efficient since they are bias-free.
The face-to-face interview will require a participant to question the composer’s fans in person to collect their personal views. During the interview, the contributors will be asked to detail perception of the composer. The questions used during the interviews are open-ended. Equally, questionnaires will be used to collect private information from the participants.
Conclusion
During the research, it was noted that modern music had been shaped by our past. Over the last few decades, music has expanded and diversified to accommodate other types of art. Before the 20th century, society’s culture and physical features characterized music in America. However, during the 20th century, social and economic issues such as wars, diseases, and workers’ welfares characterize the music.
By embodying these features, music has communicated and provoked social change in societies. In the above research paper, one composer from the 20th century is analyzed. The composer chosen is Seeger. Like his father, Seeger composed several popular folk songs in America during the early 20th century. As a professor of music, Seeger worked relentlessly to publicize folk music among American societies.
The research paper investigates how the composer’s works of art were useful to the music industry during his era. To come up with a complete research paper, several literature reviews are evaluated, questionnaires are undertaken, and interviews are conducted. The literature reviews indicate that the public has little knowledge about the 20th-century composers. Although several scholars have tried to shed more light into the lives and works of these composers, it should be noted that only a few areas of their contributions have been uncovered.
Works Cited
Edmondson, Jacqueline. Music in American Life An Encyclopedia of the Songs, Styles, Stars, and Stories That Shaped Our Culture. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2013. Print.
Hicks, Michael. Henry Cowell, bohemian. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2002. Print.
Pescatello, Ann. Charles Seeger: a life in American music. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2002. Print.