Background

Natalie Curtis Burlin was born on April 26, 1875 in New York City, the daughter of Edward and Augusta Lawler (Stacey) Curtis and niece of George William Curtis.

Education

Natalie first studied in the National Conservatory of Music, New York, with Arthur Friedheim; later, in Europe, with Busoni at Berlin, Giraudet in Paris, Wolf in Bonn, and Julius Kniese at the "Wagner-Schule" in Baireuth.

Career

The first tangible result of her studies came in the form of The Indians' Book (1907), a collection of two hundred songs gathered from eighteen different tribes of North American Indians, mostly those of the Southwest, the Plains and the Pueblo tribes. As indicative of her deep and genuine interest in her subject and her ability to communicate this interest to others, it may be noted that when she began her studies the Indians were not allowed to sing their native songs in the government schools and that her earnest appeal to Theodore Roosevelt, then president, had the effect not only of revoking this rule, but also of giving the Indians every encouragement in the performance of their own music.

The publication of The Indians' Book aroused so much enthusiasm that an urgent request came that she should do for the negro music what she had so successfully accomplished for the Indian. This request resulted in her making at Hampton Institute a thorough study of negro songs.

In 1918-19 she published four volumes of Hampton Series Negro Folk-Songs for male quartet, retaining the instinctive harmonization of the singers themselves with no retouching on her part. This artistic restraint naturally gives to these volumes great historical value.

She obtained the material for her last published book, Songs and Tales from the Dark Continent (1920) from two native-born African students at Hampton Institute who gave her freely of the songs and stories of their native land.

In 1921 she died as the result of an automobile accident in Paris.

Achievements

• Natalie Curtis Burlin began collecting and transcribing African American music from 1910, and by 1918 she already published her "Negro Folk-Songs", a four volume work of spirituals and other songs. She was also vigorously participating in her study of the music of African tribes and in 1920 published "Songs and Tales from the Dark Continent. " One of her graetest achievements was when she aided David Mannes in organizing the Music School Settlement for Colored People in New York City, and she also helped arrange for the first concert of African-American music by African-American performers at Carnegie Hall in March 1914. In addition to the works noted above she published, Songs of Ancient America (1905), Songs from A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson (Wa-Wan Press), and various other songs and choruses. A new edition of The Indians' Book, with added material and new drawings made by Indians especially for the purpose, was issued in 1923.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Negro Folk-Songs / Spirituals and Work/Play Songs (Hampton Series) Recorded by Natalie Curtis Burlin in Four Books (Complete, Books 1-4) Student Loose Leaf Facsimile, 2013

    (TOC Follows Negro Folk-Songs / Spirituals and Work/Play S...)

  • Negro Folk-Songs (The Hampton Series, Books I-IV Complete)

    ( This collection of Negro folk songs represents a faithf...)

  • The Indians' book; an offering by the American Indians of Indian lore, musical and narrative, to form a record of the songs and legends of their race

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • The Indians' Book

    (The Shelf2Life Native American Studies Collection is a un...)

  • Songs of Ancient America: Three Pueblo Indian Corn-Grinding Songs From Laguna, New Mexico

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • Songs of Ancient America: Three Pueblo Indian Corn-Grinding Songs from Laguna, New Mexico - Scholar's Choice Edition

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • Songs and Tales From the Dark Continent: Recorded From the Singing (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Songs and Tales From the Dark Continent: Rec...)

  • The Indians Book: An Offering By the American Indians of Indian Lore, Musical and Narrative, to Form a Record of the Songs and Legends of Their Race (Classic Reprint)

    (By Hiamovi (H igh Chief) (C hief among the Cheyennes and ...)

  • The Indians' Book: An Offering By The American Indians Of Indian Lore, Musical And Narrative, To Form A Record Of The Songs And Legends Of Their Race (1907)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • Negro Folk-Songs: The Hampton Series, Books I-IV Complete

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • Hampton series negro folk-songs,

    (This historic book may have numerous typos and missing te...)

  • The Indians' Book: An Offering by the American Indians of Indian Lore, Musical and Narrative, to Form a Record of the Songs and Legends O

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • Hampton Series Negro Folk-songs, Volume 2...

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • Negro Folk-Songs, Vol. 3 of 4: Books I-II, Spirituals; Books III-IV, Work-and Play-Songs (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Negro Folk-Songs, Vol. 3 of 4: Books I-II, S...)

  • Negro Folk-Songs, Vol. 1 of 4 (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Negro Folk-Songs, Vol. 1 of 4 Through leavi...)

Views

On returning to America it was evidently her purpose to continue her career as pianist, but while visiting her brother in Arizona she became so much interested in the Indians of that region and in their music that she visited many different encampments, taking down their songs by word of mouth. From that time on, her great interest lay in this sort of research. After a 1900 trip in which she visited Arizona's Hopi Indian reservation, she decided to devote herself to collecting and preserving Native American music.

For all of her care and concern for the peoples she studied and whose rights she promoted, Burlin's views, seen with the clarity of historical distance, seem condescending. She referred to the Native Americans as "simple people" and "children of the desert" and portrayed their culture in an unrealistic and idealized light. Her views of African Americans could be considered patronizing: "The Negroes possess an intuitive gift for part-singing, " she noted in the foreword to Book I. "This instinct, transplanted to America and influenced by European music, has flowered into the truly extraordinary harmonic talent found in the singing of even the most ignorant Negroes of our Southern States. " It "makes one wonder at the possibilities of the race, " she mused in Book IV.

Quotations: Characterizing her own task as a transcriber, she wrote, “I have in nowise changed the melodies, nor have I sought to harmonize them in the usual sense, nor to make of them musical compositions…My one desire has been to let the Indian songs be heard as the Indians themselves sing them. .. "

Her views of African Americans could be considered patronizing: "The Negroes possess an intuitive gift for part-singing, " she noted in the foreword to Book I. "This instinct, transplanted to America and influenced by European music, has flowered into the truly extraordinary harmonic talent found in the singing of even the most ignorant Negroes of our Southern States. "

Speaking to the Congress of Art History, she railed against "the everlasting monopoly of the white race, " and praised the "12 million Negroes who are 'good enough' Americans to die for American ideals in our wars. " She defended America's multicultural heritage, saying, "All America is not New England, but an agglomeration of races with a rich and diverse folklore. "

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• Percy Grainger, in the New York Times, April 14, 1918, said: "When I peruse these her strangely perfect and satisfying recordings of these superb American negro part songs, I cannot refrain from exclaiming, How lucky she to have found such noble material, and it such an inspired transcriber!"

Connections

She had been married in 1917 to Paul Burlin, painter, of New York.

Father:

Edward Curtis

1838–191

Mother:

Augusta Lawler Stacey Curtis

1841–1934

Sister:

Constance Curtis

1869–1959

Brother:

Bridgham Curtis

1876–1952

Brother:

George DeClyver Curtis

1870–1966

husband:

Paul Burlin

1886–1969 (m. 1917)

Friend:

Theodore Roosevelt

President Among her friends was President Theodore Roosevelt, who visited the reservation with her in 1913.

References

• Negro Folk Songs Recorded By Natalie Curtis-Burlin In Four Books Book IV
• Natalie Curtis Burlin: A Life in Native and African American Music
• Songs and tales from the dark continent, recorded from the singing and the sayings of C. Kamba Simango ... and Madikane Cele ..