Folk singer Pete Seeger died this week. He leaves behind a profound, if mixed, legacy. He was instrumental in the folk music revival of the 1940’s, and yes, he was a Communist.
That last point is something people will never let go, but does it even matter anymore? He was hardly the only artist of his time affiliated with the movement.
His father was Charles Seeger, a musicologist who worked with Alan Lomax to preserve traditional American folk music. Seeger was also a respected conductor and composer who taught Henry Cowell and influenced the writing of New Musical Resources.
His mother was Ruth Crawford Seeger, an imaginative composer who studied under Nadia Boulanger. While largely unknown in her lifetime, her String Quartet 1931 is now considered a landmark in modern music.
Both Ruth and Charles belonged to the Composers’ Collective, an organization whose mission was to unite an artistic proletariat. Cowell belonged to the group, as did Hanns Eisler, Marc Blitzstein, and one Aaron Copland. Yes, that Aaron Copland, the all-American composer loved by Presidents and concert audiences for his bland if not evocative portraits of the mythical frontier.
Communism in the first half of the 20th century was just something young idealists did, like group sex or marijuana. If we’re going to judge artists by their political indiscretions, we might as well throw much of our art under the bus for the sake of political expediency.
Which is exactly what the Communist regime did. Seriously, get over it, folks.