The Pete Seeger Reader by Cohen Ronald D. Capaldi James

Author:Cohen, Ronald D., Capaldi, James
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 2014-08-15T04:00:00+00:00

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Monty Muns: Pete Seeger: An Appreciation

Folk music in the United States is at present in a state of flux. Exponents of what was at one time the music of our national groups—the Irish, the English, the Poles, etc.—now concentrate their efforts in directions which are taking them to literally every country in the world. This international feeling on the part of folk artists has earned their special brand of art world recognition and a place of permanence in the musical literature of free countries.

Last Saturday night in Hollywood High’s auditorium, the folksinger Pete Seeger held a crowd of well over 1,000 spellbound, as he offered his songs in the way a “medicine” man passes around free samples of the “cure for all your ailments.” Indeed Seeger was the cure for many curious fans who had merely heard his name or had seen his picture on album covers. His presence was so individual, so compellingly unique, that it was difficult to really assess at times the full value of his vocal art. Looking more objectively, however, we knew we had seen a performer who had the grace and form and honesty to convey his songs in the manner that was established by his colorful forbear, Woodie Guthrie.

What is this artistic presence that Seeger possesses? It is a composition of three elements: knowledge of the value of free interpretation, profound love for the dignity of man, and an exacting technique in voice, guitar and banjo, the latter instrument being more closely associated with Seeger.

Seeger is one of the few people who can move an audience to tears or to joy through the exorcisms of hand movements, and a voice which is so carefully cognizant of mood and texture of the material being presented that it becomes as another instrument altogether. He sang workers’ songs, Union Songs (Preamble to the Constitution of the United Mine Workers of America); children’s songs and songs whose histories—in one or two cases—went back to the time of the first Elizabeth.

SOURCE The Parkside Journal [1955], reprinted in Sing Out! 11, no. 1 (February–March 1961), 4–5.

Audience participation at most concerts where vocal artists are on stage is, of course, unheard of. It would defy the unwritten law of concert-hall propriety to simply come out and follow the late Lanza, for instance, in “il Mio Tesoro,” as he faced 1,000 people. With Seeger it is different. Without ostentation he will “move” the audience into a mood of such “reluctance” to remain silent, that it follows that they join in the choruses.

This form of community singing is part of the greatness of this artist; and we felt that because of this greatness he (Seeger) is oftentimes misrepresented by some of us who would forbid our hearts from telling us that all men can—and by their birthright—sing in community the songs of their land; that all men, after all, are just men, as free in spirit, from time to time, as they are in their basic hopes for the liberty of their fellow man.

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