The Music of American Folk Song and Selected Other Writings on American Folk Music byRuth Crawford Seeger; Larry Polansky; Judith TickReview by: Julia C. BishopFolk Music Journal, Vol. 9, No. 2 (2007), pp. 258-260Published by: English Folk Dance + Song SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4522815 .

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REVIEWS - BOOKS 259

of American folk song and a commentary on the performance styles associated with it. It can be read as a kind of music transcription manual. The reason for its focus on transcription is that RCS is passionately concerned with trying to communicate to her readership the detail and subtlety - in short, the artistry - of the singing she heard on the recordings. She does so by discussing folk singing in relation to how one can represent stylistic features in Western staff notation and how folk artistry compares with the performance conventions of contemporary art music.

In a sense, she was in a bit of a cleft stick. One of her intended audiences was an elitist art music establishment whom she was keen to convince of the value of traditional music and to whom she could best convey her views by means of complex and unconventional notations which demonstrate the subtleties of the singing style. On the other hand, her work is also addressed to an urban audience who were just beginning to discover their American musical roots and to appreciate and perform American folk music as part of what became the folk revival. As RCS was well aware, the transcriptions needed to be accessible for this audience since they were, by and large, amateur musicians. Alive to the issues (which are still relevant today - for example, in the form of the needs of some performers who just desire the basic tune as a jumping-off point for their own recreation of the song, versus the needs of those interested in traditional singing style), RCS provides a balanced discussion of the levels of transcription. Most interestingly of all, she also gives examples of the same song transcribed to several different levels of detail.

This book should be essential reading for anyone who has to engage with the task of folk music transcription, for it contains much of relevance even today. It is comprehensive in its review of the many issues that arise in this undertaking, such as whether to use staff notation at all, the aim of transcription and intended audience(s), whether to transcribe all stanzas or a 'representative' stanza, how a representative stanza is arrived at, melodic and rhythmic variation, notating what happens 'between the notes' (such as what might be termed slides and grace notes), metrical 'irregularity', and so on. It provides an excellent starting point for debate about transcription practice and is inspiring in its attention to detail and unceasing search for accuracy. It also provides an entree into the study of singing style and prompts debate concerning the appropriateness of discussing it using terminologies and concepts borrowed from art music.

Most instructive of all would be to view RCS's transcriptions, especially the detailed ones, at the same time as listening to the actual recordings from which they were made. Although Polansky has made every effort to locate and reference commercially available recordings of the songs mentioned in the text, focusing particularly on the Rounder and Library of Congress releases, it appears (if I have understood him correctly on this point) that most of the specific recordings used by RCS are not commercially available at the moment. A CD of these recordings as part of this volume would have consolidated its value as a primer for transcription still further.

While many of RCS's views may be familiar now, they were groundbreaking for her time and in certain respects anticipated later developments. Because they remained unpublished, their sphere of influence was not as widespread as it might have been, although, as Tick points out, they were highly influential with Charles Seeger and contributed, for example, towards the formation of his important concept of

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