Music Mondays - Cotton Mill Blues

MUSIC MONDAYS

Dear friend

The American composer and pianist Frederic Rzewski died on June 26 at the age of 83. Born into a family of Polish emigres, he eventually chose to live in Europe, where he split his time between Italy and Belgium, with regular visits to the US to perform and teach. In fact, two of the pianists we have introduced to Miami over the years, Ashrly Hribar and Bobby Mitchell, studied with him and both were deeply influenced by him.

His obituary reflects the life of a man who followed the dictum “an unexamined life is not worth living” (attributed to Socrates). He told an interviewer: “[music] does, however, require some kind of consciousness of the active relationship between music and the rest of the world, ” when asked about his political activism.

We selected one of his best known pieces, The Cotton Mill Blues, in an arrangement for 2 pianos by the composer, for this week’s focus on American music. In it, Rzewski depicts a scene of the 1930s when workers at the textile mill plant in Winnsboro, South Carolina began singing lyrics to reflect the hardship of factory labor and to promote camaraderie. In this version, Rzewski utilizes unconventional piano techniques to imitate the sounds of the mill.

Prominent Blues artists such as Lead Belly and Pete Seeger have sung folk tune as well. Below are the lyrics of Seeger’s version.

Not a light, peaceful tune, but a powerfully driven reminder of what we can choose to be our – and our music’s – role in the world.

Warmly,

Gabriele Fiorentino

President,

The Dranoff 2 Piano Foundation

Piano Slam

Frederic Rzewski

COTTON MILL BLUES

Quattro Mani Ensemble - Susan Grace and Alice Rybak

WINNSBORO COTTON MILL BLUES

Pete Seeger

Old man seargent sittin' at the desk

The damn old fool won't give us no rest

He'd take the nickels off a dead man's eyes

To buy a Coca-Cola and a Eskimo pie

I got the blues, I got the blues

I got the Winsboro cotton mill blues

Oh Lordy, Lordy spoolin's hard

You know and I know, we don't have to tell

You work for Tom Watson got to work like hell

I got the blues, I got the blues

I got the Winnsboro cotton mill blues

Now, when I die don't you bury me at all

Hang me up on the factory wall

Place a bobbin in my hand

So I can keep on workin' in the Promised Land

I got the blues, I got the blues

I got the Winsboro cotton mill blues

Oh Lordy, Lordy spoolin's hard

You know and I know, we don't have to tell

You work for Tom Watson, gotta work like hell

Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

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