A giant in the development of American musicology, Charles Seeger was a scholar- musician active in practically all areas of musical endeavor. This wide-ranging collection investigates Seegers writings on music, musical research, and the responsibility of the musician and musicologist to society. A social activist who played a leadership role in the "Composers Collective" in 1930s New York and in the founding of scholarly organizations including the American Musicological Society and the Society for Ethnomusicology, Seeger was a philosopher as well as a builder. His ideas about music and musicology, incorporating perspectives as wide-ranging as physics, philosophy, and anthropology, set the stage for the rise of modern ethnomusicology. Key to the establishment of formal musical scholarship in the United States, Seeger was also vitally interested in nurturing uniquely American musical forms and in bridging the gap between academia and the world outside the ivory tower.
By presenting new views of Seegers thought, incorporating in particular often neglected early writings, "Understanding Charles Seeger, Pioneer in American Musicology" provides a unique perspective on intellectual history in twentieth- century America.