Accent on Form-Against-Form: Ruth Crawford's "Piano Study in Mixed Accents"
Ruth Crawford's, Cynthia Pace · 2016
her brief but ingenious Piano Study in Mixed Accents, Ruth Crawford exploited the symmetry of a palindrome along with the asymmetry of departing from such a design.1 Crawford wrote this experimental etude to help expand musical technique,2 and in so treating the palindrome, uniquely adapted a formal structure which historically had seldom supported such changes.3 Among the composition's various quirks are an asymmetrical hiatus at the palindrome's axis of symmetry, and, conversely, unexpected regularities where pitch figures repeat within an otherwise irregular pitch series. These examples of Crawford's tendency to avoid absolutely rigid, fixed patterns4 stem, perhaps, from her whimsical bent and general skepticism toward unwavering adherence to a rational scheme.5 Be this as it may, the structural intentions Crawford brought to Mixed Accents appear to have been highly deliberated, and giving these further consideration can add to a fuller understanding of this work. This analysis will suggest that departures from one particular formal design contribute to the overall structure of Mixed Accents in a manner that is much more