Chinaman, Laundryman
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"Chinaman, Laundryman" is a song composed by
Ruth Crawford Seeger Ruth Crawford Seeger (born Ruth Porter Crawford; July 3, 1901 – November 18, 1953) was an American composer and musicologist. Her music heralded the emerging modernist aesthetic, and she became a central member of a group of American composers ...
. The song depicts the exploitation of an immigrant Chinese laundry worker. In 1932 Ruth Crawford Seeger composed two songs for a commission from the Society of Contemporary Music in
Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
, which she called '' Two Ricercari''. The first, '' Sacco, Vanzetti'' is a tribute to the infamous executions of the two
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
Anarchists Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or hierarchy, primarily targeting the state and capitalism. Anarchism advocates for the replacement of the state w ...
after whom the piece is named, in
Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
. The second, ''Chinaman, Laundryman,'' depicts the exploitation of an
immigrant Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as permanent residents. Commuters, tourists, and other short- ...
Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...
laundry Laundry is the washing of clothing and other textiles, and, more broadly, their drying and ironing as well. Laundry has been part of history since humans began to wear clothes, so the methods by which different cultures have dealt with this u ...
worker. Both are settings of
political Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...
ly militant
poem Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...
s written in 1928 by a young Chinese author, H.T. Tsiang.Hua Hsu, 'The Remarkable Forgotten Life of H.T. Tsiang',''The New Yorker,'' 14 July 201

/ref> When she wrote the songs, Crawford was a member of the Composer’s Collective in
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, a group under the control of the American Communist Party, which sought to enlist art in the service of politics. Chinaman, Laundryman was premiered at the MacDowell Club in 1933, receiving favorable reviews. It was performed two more times, once in Philadelphia for the Society of Contemporary Music, and again at the First American Worker’s Music
Olympiad An olympiad (, ''Olympiás'') is a period of four years, particularly those associated with the Ancient Olympic Games, ancient and Olympic Games, modern Olympic Games. Although the ancient Olympics were established during Archaic Greece, Greece ...
for a large audience of leftist workers. It was not performed again during the composer’s life. (Tick 1997, pp. 188–194)


Form

The text of “Chinaman” contains two characters, a boss who verbally assaults his employee, and the laundryman himself who delivers a recitation describing the harsh working conditions he endures and spurring his fellow men to work for a better world. Crawford’s heterophonic setting is for a solo mezzosoprano with piano accompaniment. The singer employs Sprechstimme (
Sprechgesang (, "spoken singing") and (, "spoken voice"), more commonly known as speak-singing in English, are expressionist musical vocal techniques between singing and speaking. Though sometimes used interchangeably, is directly related to the operatic re ...
), or speech voice, a technique in which notes are indicated as approximations rather than definite tones, in order to give primacy to the text. The piano accompaniment is a monotonous series given in octaves that transmits the remorseless
oppression Oppression is malicious or unjust treatment of, or exercise of power over, a group of individuals, often in the form of governmental authority. Oppression may be overt or covert, depending on how it is practiced. No universally accepted model ...
of the
capitalist Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...
boss and the inhuman conditions in which the exploited worker exists. (Tick 1997, pp. 188–194)


Analysis

The pitch material in the
piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...
part is strictly ordered and based on a process of rotation and transposition that is typical of Crawford. A nine note
tone row In music, a tone row or note row ( or '), also series or set, is a non-repetitive ordering of a set of pitch-classes, typically of the twelve notes in musical set theory of the chromatic scale, though both larger and smaller sets are sometime ...
, T0, one measure in duration, is presented, then rotated so that it begins its second iteration on the second note of the original row and ends on the first, the third iteration on the third note of the original ending on the second, and so on. After nine measures, each beginning on a new pitch of T0, the original row is transposed down a
semitone A semitone, also called a minor second, half step, or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically. It is defined as the interval between ...
, to begin on the second note of the original row, T11, and rotated as before for nine measures. Crawford continues the pattern, transposing the original row so that it starts on successive pitches of T0 and rotating the transpositions (with only a few anomalies) until she has done this nine times (T10, T8, T5, T9, T7, T4, and T6), then presents the original row and its rotations one last time. This pattern is depicted in figure 1, in which numbers under notes indicate measures in which that note begins the row. (Hisama 2001, p. 78) The rhythm is also serialized. Three rhythmic patterns, x, y, and z, made up of different combinations of pentuplets, sixteenth notes, triplets, and eighth notes organize the nine notes. With minor variation, the three patterns are played in groups as some permutation of xyz (zxy, yzx, etc.) until each
permutation In mathematics, a permutation of a set can mean one of two different things: * an arrangement of its members in a sequence or linear order, or * the act or process of changing the linear order of an ordered set. An example of the first mean ...
has been used before any one permutation is repeated. In this way, the three measure groupings are organized into groups of six, as in part B of figure 2. (Straus 1995, p. 117) The designation of this song as a
Ricercar A ricercar ( , ) or ricercare ( , ) is a type of late Renaissance and mostly early Baroque instrumental composition. The term ''ricercar'' derives from the Italian verb , which means "to search out; to seek"; many ricercars serve a preludial func ...
, a term which traditionally describes “work employing learned contrapuntal devices” certainly derives from this formulaic serialization of pitch and rhythmic content. The vocal line includes motivic contours characteristic of both the boss and the laundryman. The boss’ signature motive is an ascending
tritone In music theory, the tritone is defined as a interval (music), musical interval spanning three adjacent Major second, whole tones (six semitones). For instance, the interval from F up to the B above it (in short, F–B) is a tritone as it can be ...
or a phrase that outlines one, as in measures one and two of part A in figure 2, and the laundryman’s motive begins on the highest and end on the lowest note in the phrase and contains tones that lie within those boundaries in predominantly descending order, as in measures 4 through 6 of the same figure. The majority of utterances by the two characters throughout the song follow these contours. In the final fifteen measures of the song, the laundryman turns from lamenting his circumstances and implores his fellow workers to unite, a passage in which he alternates singing his descending motive and the bosses ascending tritone. The piano accompaniment returns to the original row in the same measure that this passage begins, reflecting that the laundryman is changed from the opening of the piece and is ready to do something more to change his situation than simply articulate it. (Hisama 2001, p. 92)


References

*Hisama, Ellie M. (2001). ''Gendering Musical Modernism'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. *Straus, Joseph N. (1995). ''The Music of Ruth Crawford Seeger'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. *Tick, Judith. (1997). ''Ruth Crawford Seeger: A Composer’s Search for American Music'', New York: Oxford University Press, Inc. {{authority control Modernist compositions American songs 1932 songs Chinese-American history