Outstanding musicologist of the 20th century. Seeger worked in virtually every facet of
music, including composition, teaching, education, theory, ethnomusicology, and the
relationship between music and society and between music and language. He was
instrumental in the founding of many learned societies, including the American
Musicological Society and the Society for Ethnomusicology.
Seeger was born in Mexico City and divided his youth between Mexico and Staten
Island, New York. After graduating from Harvard University in 1908, he spent two and a
half years in Europe preparing for a career in composition.
In 1912 he joined the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley. During his six
years there, he developed a curriculum that included exposure to other musical cultures;
he also immersed himself in the study of philosophy and history, which influenced much
of his later writing.
In the early 1930s, Seeger realized the importance of folk music as a complement to
fine-art music. Beginning in 1935, he headed cultural programs within President Franklin
D. Roosevelt’s Resettlement Administration and later the Works Progress
Administration. These appointments gave him the opportunity to apply his theoretical
notions to solving social problems. He used vernacular music to help heal social tensions
and foster community goals. From 1941 to 1953, Seeger worked with the Pan American
Union to bring close ties between musicians throughout the Americas.
From 1961 to 1971, Seeger was associated with UCLA’s Institute of
Ethnomusicology. During these years, he wrote many theoretical articles. He spent his
final years in Bridgewater, Connecticut, where he continued to write.
Despite his considerable contributions to the field of musicology, he will undoubtedly
be best remembered as father to a number of children, including Pete, Michael, and
Peggy, all of whom made their mark as performers of folk and folk-like music.
Ed Kahn
References
Pescatello, Ann M. 1992. Charles Seeger: A Life in American Music. Pittsburgh: University of
Pittsburgh Press.
Reuss, Richard A. 1979. Folk Music and Social Conscience: The Musical Odyssey of Charles
Seeger. Western Folklore 38:221–238.
Seeger, Charles. 1977. Studies in Musicology, 1935–1975. Berkeley: University of California Press.