Am. Music -- Chinaman, Laundryman

Recently on Orchestra List, a Yahoo group, a lister wrote, "The current furor over immigration got me thinking - dangerous, I know. I'd like to put together an educational concert featuring music of America's 'immigrants.'" I suggest Ruth Crawford Seeger's Chinaman, Laundryman for voice and piano, written in 1932. 30 seconds can be heard on emusic.com (look for track nr. 8).

Ellie Hisama gives a descrip-tion of this work in Chapter 4 of her excellent book, Gendering Musical Modernism (2001; extracts of the book visible at Amazon). For more information on Crawford Seeger see references at the bottom of the Wiki page.