CHAPTER 13 | A MUSICAL REVOLUTIONARY: RUTH CRAWFORD SEEGER 315
timing text comments1:04 My boss says:
“Chinaman, go back to China, if you don’t
feel satisfi ed!
There, unlimited hours of toil:
two silver dollars a week, if you can fi nd a
job.”Boss’s voice: rising phrases in high register.1:24 Thank you, boss,—for you remind me.
I know bosses are robbers ev’rywhere!Worker’s voice, descending phrases in a lower
register.1:33 Chinese boss says:
“You Chinaman, me Chinaman, come work
for me,—
work for your fellow countryman!
By the way, you ‘Wong,’ me ‘Wong,’
do we not belong to same family?
Ha! Ha! We are cousins!
O yes! You ‘Hai Shan,’ me ‘Hai Shan,’
do we not come from same district?
O come work for me;—I will treat you better!”Chinese boss’s music shares the features of
American boss: high register and ascending
melodic contours.2:03 Get away from here!
What difference when you come to
exploit me?Worker ’s voice.2:08 Chinaman! Laundryman! Dramatic pause, then a return to the opening
music and the voice of the American boss.2:18 Don’t call me “Chinaman!”
Yes, I am a “Laundryman!”
The working man!
Don’t call me “Chinaman!”
I am the worldman!With the worker’s reply, the piano resumes its
machinelike relentlessness.2:30 “Chinaman!” “Laundryman!” The opening music again, at an even higher pitch.2:40 All you working men!
Here is the brush made of study.
Here is the soap made of action.
Let us all wash with the brush!
Let us all press with the iron!
Wash! Brush! Dry! Iron!When the worker exhorts workingmen, he takes
on a characteristic of the boss: the rising melodic
contours.3:02 Then we shall have a clean world! Piano breaks off; the worker speaks the closing
words unaccompanied, a privilege previously
reserved for the boss.
note Crawford’s song alters several lines in Tsiang’s poem. The text appears here as she set it.CD 2.14 Listening Guide 13.1 “Chinaman, Laundryman” RUTH CRAWFORD SEEGER(continued)172028_13_305-331_r3_ko.indd 315 23/01/13 8:39 PM