Ruth Crawford’s Three Songs on Poems of Carl Sandburg: Contexts and Commentary—preface in the study score published by Theodore Presser Company (2022). An in-depth look at a too-little-known work of avant-garde Americana from historical and analytical perspectives. The essay’s first portion focuses on the composer’s lifelong affinity for poetry (she was a fine amateur poet herself), her relationship with Carl Sandburg (eight of the ten songs in Crawford’s mature oeuvre are on Sandburg poems) and the American “ultra-moderns” composers, and the development of her musical language up through the completion of the Three Songs. The second part is an analysis of the first song, “Rat Riddles,” highlighting rarely discussed quasi-tonal features of Crawford’s music, in connection with an essential tension of her concert-music life, namely, her seemingly polarized desires for a music that would both boldly break with tradition and readily engage the hearts and minds non-expert listeners.

Rissolty Rossolty (Ruth Crawford)—performing edition co-edited with Douglas Adams, published by Theodore Presser Company (2023). Includes editorial remarks and a brief preface in the score.