HPWG 7

Have Pig Want Gun #7
Frog Peak Newsletter
www.frogpeak.org

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PEAK PICKS (contents)
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* New score by Ruth Crawford Seeger
* Two new scores by Johanna Beyer
* Frog Speak: Texts by Ruth Crawford Seeger and Johanna Beyer

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THE ADVENTURES OF TOM THUMB, by Ruth Crawford Seeger
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FROG PEAK proudly announces the first-time publication of Ruth Crawford Seeger's "THE ADVENTURES OF TOM THUMB" (1925), for piano and narrator, with additional lyrics by Peggy Seeger. Until now this marvelous piece, intended to be performed for kids, has only been available in incomplete, rough manuscript form in the Library of Congress. It is presented now in an easy-to-read performance edition, along with numerous annotations and facsimiles of the manuscript sources. Published with cooperation of the Ruth Crawford Seeger estate, and edited by Amy Beal, Jenny Lin, (two pianists who have helped revive the performance of this piece in recentyears), Larry Polansky, Bruno Ruviaro, and Peggy Seeger (who wrote the text for the final section).

* The Adventures of Tom Thumb. For Piano and Narrator. See03. $25.

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SUITE FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO
&
MARCH for 30 Percussion,

By Johanna Beyer
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FROG PEAK continues its series of critical editions of the works of Johanna Magdalena Beyer with two new scores, her SUITE FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO and MARCH for 30 Percussion Instruments.

The SUITE FOR VIOLIN is available for the first time in a beautiful, meticulous edition by pianist, editor and engraver Kim Bastin of Australia, in collaboration with violinist Miwako Abe, an important performer of contemporary violin music (including this work, Ruth Crawford, and others). Annotated, with manuscripts, and violin part.

* Suite for Violin and Piano. Frog Peak/Johanna Beyer Project Number 10. Bey10. $15.

At long last, one of Beyer's great works for percussion, the MARCH for 30 Percussion Instruments appears in an elegant new edition by percussionist and teacher J.B. Smith. Beyer was one of the earliest composers for percussion ensemble, and certainly the first American woman composer to explore this form. Annotated, and including the original manuscript.

* March for 30 Percussion Instruments. Frog Peak/Johanna Beyer Project Number 11. Bey11. $15.
"
[Several new Beyer scores are forthcoming from Frog Peak, including Have Faith! for flute and soprano; the clarinet suites, and others].

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FROG SPEAK: Texts by Ruth Crawford Seeger and Johanna Beyer
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from "Pre-School Children and American Folk Songs," by Ruth Crawford Seeger

The traditional (folk) singer keeps his song going without interruption of the pulse at stanza ends (though measure lengths may occasionally be irregular). Neither the rhythm nor the mood of the song are broken into by artificial pauses, breaks, ritards, or "expression." This is straightforward music.
Though his tempo is fairly fast, the traditional singer is seldom in a hurry. If he likes a song he will want to sing it over many times. If it has only one stanza, he is likely to sing that stanza over and over without stopping. The children this morning wanted to go on turning around, wanted Old Joe Clarke again and again. So we kept it going. At one school a group of four-year-olds kept this up during an entire music period.
Most American traditional music is sung or played with strong rhythmic vitality. Much of it has been used for dancing, for game playing, for work. Children do not need to be urged to let their bodies find ways of moving to music like Jim Along Josie or All Around the Kitchen or Old Joe Clarke.
The traditional singer has not been "taught" this music. He has learned these songs through hearing them. It is my feeling that with small children there should be little or no urging to sing. Mothers of children who sing little or none at school tell me of vigorous and spontaneous singing at home. At school Margie just sat on a stool or stood listening in a corner (and occasionally criticizing) during the three weeks I sang with her group. At the end of the three weeks her mother told me: "We never talk at our house any more. We just sing. Margie won't put on her shoes or button her coat unless we sing about it."

(Reprinted from, Ruth Crawford Seeger, 'The Music of American Folk Song' and Selected Other Writings on American Folk Music. Larry Polansky, ed., University of Rochester/Eastman Musicology Series, 2003).

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HAVE FAITH!, by Johanna Beyer

Here is a song for you,
oh, nightingale!
a song of what!
of hope, of future, present, past?
it does not matter.
But essential is,
that you and I and all the others
have faith in things to come,
in things that passed, and are
and we must try to understand
and love and help each other,
have faith in things to come,
have faith!

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HPWG is named for a listing in
"It's Classified, " a weekly paper
in the Upper Valley of New
Hampshire and Vermont. The
exact text:

HAVE PIG WANT GUN. Grain
fed pig ready Nov.-Dec. approx.
200 lbs. dressed, will butcher, cut
and wrap or whatever. would like
good bolt or lever, heavy caliber
scope or mounts, depends. 802-
xxx-xxxx.

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