Once known primarily as a collector and arranger of American folk songs with her husband, the musicologist, theorist, and composer Charles Seeger, as well as for being the step-mother and mother of renowned folk musicians Pete, Peggy, and Mike Seeger, Ruth Crawford Seeger (July 3, 1901 - November 18, 1953) has become better appreciated in recent years as a significant modernist composer, particularly through her vibrant chamber works. Although she wrote most of her music in the 1920s and ’30s, stopped composing completely in 1934, then died prematurely in 1953 at age 52, shortly after having resumed her career, Crawford Seeger nonetheless produced a substantial body of avant-garde work which is admirable for its integrity and bold originality, and notable for being utterly independent of stylistic trends in Europe at the time.

Below are some excerpts from Ruth Crawford Seeger’s key works.
 
Schoenberg Ensemble - Music for small orchestra
1. Slow, pensive
2. In roguish humor. Not fast
 
Schoenberg Ensemble - Suite for wind quintet
1. Allegretto
2. Lento rubato
3. Allego possible - Andante
 
Lucy Shelton, soprano - Three Songs on Poems by Carl Sandburg
1. Rat Riddles
2. Prayers of Steel
2. In Tall Grass
 
Pellegrini Quartet - String Quartet, 1931
1. Rubato assai
2. Leggiero
3. Andante
4. Allegro possible
 
Ensemble Adventure - Diaphonic Suite No. 1 for oboe solo
1. Scherzando
2. Andante
3. Allegro
4. Moderato, ritmico
 
Ensemble Adventure - Suite No. 1 for five wind instruments and piano
1. Adagio religioso
2. Giocoso - Allegro non troppo
3. Andante tristo
4: Allegro con brio