Crawford, Ruth: Two Ricercare

on poems by H.T. Tsiang

Ruth Crawford was a pioneering subversive in both American music and socioeconomic politics. In 1932 she discovered H. T. Tsiang’s polemic poetry in The Daily Worker (a NYC-based Communist journal), and two poems leapt out as dramatically expressing oppression of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie, showing internal class struggle even within immigrant communities. This is the genesis of the songs “Sacco, Vanzetti” and “Chinaman, Laundryman.” Musically, Crawford’s rigorous modernism not only serialized pitches, but other elements as well. This explains the slightly surprising title Two Ricercare, a reference to the Renaissance precursor of fugue.