314 PART 3 | FROM WORLD WAR I THROUGH WORLD WAR II
CD 2.14 Listening Guide 13.1 “Chinaman, Laundryman” RUTH CRAWFORD SEEGERdate: 1932
performers: Nan Hughes, mezzo-soprano;
Joel Sachs, piano
genre: ultramodernist song
meter: changing
form: through-composedWHAT TO LISTEN FOR- antagonistic, nonsupportive role of piano
- use of Sprechstimme
- vocal contrast between worker’s words and
bosses’ words - overtly political text
timing text comments
0:00 “Chinaman!” “Laundryman!” Boss’s voice signifi ed by rising melodic contour and
high vocal register, here sung unaccompanied.0:07 Don’t call me “man!”
I am worse than a slave.
Wash!— Wash!—
Why can I wash away the dirt of others’
clothes
but not the hatred of my heart?
My skin is yellow,—
Does my yellow skin color the clothes?
Why do you pay me less for the same
work?
Clever boss!
You know how to scatter the seeds of
hatred
among your ignorant slaves.
Iron!— Iron!—
Why can I smooth away the wrinkle of
others’ dresses
but not the miseries of my heart?
Why should I come to America to wash
clothes?
Do you think Chinamen in China wear
no dresses?
I came to America three days after my
marriage.
When can I see her again?
Only the almighty dollar knows!
Dry!— Dry!—
Why do clothes dry, but not my tears?
I work twelve hours a day, he pays fi fteen
dollars a week.Piano enters with the worker’s words, sung to
descending phrases in a lower register. Nine-pitch
row is rotated at fi rst within a narrow range, which
gradually opens outward and downward. Brittle
rhythms are mechanical yet unpredictable.172028_13_305-331_r3_ko.indd 314 23/01/13 8:39 PM