Ruth Crawford-Seeger - Diaphonic Suite #1 (Oboe)

Diaphonic Suite No. 1 for Flute or Oboe (1930)

Joseph Ostryniec - Oboe

CRI American Masters - Music of Ruth Crawford
CRI CD 658

1. 0:00
2. 0:36
3. 3:14
4. 4:08

Liner notes from a different CD (CPO 999 670-2):

The four Diaphonic Suites of 1930 and 1931 already demonstrate the full influence of Seeger's theory of dissonant counterpoint. In one-part and two-part "inventions," some of variable instrumentation, Crawford systematically explored the possibilities of nonrepetitive melody and rhythm freed from tonal and metrical emphases, thus filling the course of the individual voices as well as their common contrapuntal effect with the highest degree of "diaphonic tension." In order to work against the centrifugal forces and to achieve a comprehensible representation of larger connections, she projected the motivic transformation procedures effective in progressions of small space onto longer musical courses of events as well. Furthermore, in the Suite No. 1 she picked up on [Charles] Seeger's idea of a musical "verse form," in which the placement of related melodic or rhythmic figures at formally important junctures such as the beginning, middle, or end of the phrases, which are ordered in the manner of lines or verses, creates the impression of "assonances" and "rhymes." Here richness of design on the musical surface and deep-structural coherency thus make for a captivating balance, and it is not least for this reason that the four suites are not at all simple "learning pieces" but fully valid compositions demonstrating a considerable technical and intellectual level.