Robert V Peters In getting to know a person or movement in depth its important to study what and who influenced their spiritual and intellectual, social, musical, artistic, etc...development.So looking at Pete Seeger we can start by suggesting his earliest and longest influence was probably his father Musicologist Charles Seeger and his circle which included among others Aron Copleland. There is a wonderful bio of Charles Seegeer on EBAY or AMAZON which I once had but gave to Petes grandson after I read it. Charles or Charlie was a fascinating fellow on may levels....a committed leftist and pacifist, a very principled person who lost several good jobs because of his staunch views, brilliant scholar of ethnology music (in fact some would say inventor of the field!)...Remember this is the man who when Pete was only 2 built his own homemade trailer and headed south to bring classical music to the working poor of Appalachia and came away noting that they had their own exciting local musical styles and traditions. Later father and son were deeply moved by Bascom Lunsford in North Carolina and the southern folk traditions they absorbed at his folk festival near Ashville I believe...So INFLUENCE #1 on Pete would be his father Charles Seeger and I would urge all interested in really getting to know Pete and what to a large extent shaped who he was and became to start with Charles...and of course his very talented and socially engaged extended family and ancestry! Pete was very proud of their contributions and knew a great deal of their lives and times. He was in his own right a solid historian! INFLUENCE 2 in Petes own words would be the writings of... Ernest Thompson Seton (August 14, 1860 – October 23, 1946) was a British author, wildlife artist, founder of the Woodcraft Indians, and one of the founding pioneers of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Seton also influenced Lord Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting. His notable books related to Scouting include The Birch Bark Roll and The Boy Scout Handbook. He is responsible for the appropriation and incorporation of what he believed to be American Indian elements into the traditions of the BSA. Seton instilled in young Pete a deep love for native north american culture and folkways and their spiritual connection to the woods something that never left him. I often heard Pete remark how at peace and connected he felt alone in his forest ! Further Thompson instilled a life time child like curiosity in Pete who in my experience is the ultimate life time learner. The Pete I knew was joyfully curious about everything he came across. I used to get his monthly subscriptions for my class to use when I taught high school nearby. I mean he was reading at least 50 or more serious journals on all kinds of subject matter monthly!
Posted on: Fri, 07 Feb 2014 14:19:52 +0000
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