Claire
Chapman's extant correspondence with the Schmidt Company dates from 1921 to
1928. Her American addresses were in Dorset, Vermont and Macon, Georgia, but
more of her correspondence comes from abroad. Chapman spent time in Asia as a
missionary for the Women's Union Missionary Society of America (WUMS), a group
that "was founded to provide a way for single women to be sent to Asia to
address the physical, educational, and spiritual needs of the women there"
(Historical Background). Her letters address neither her work as a missionary
nor her religious sentiments, but one letter is typed on the WUMS letterhead.
She apparently also lived for some time in Brooklyn, as she writes on 6/27/1921
"I have left the Brooklyn address."
I
have found no biographical information on Chapman in any source. I assume she
was born no later than around 1890, because she co-wrote a piece called
"Northfield Hymns for Young People" for a children's choir to sing during a 1910 gathering of a wide variety of Christians of various Protestant denominations. Chapman may have
immigrated from England, according to the 1915 Catalog of Copyright Entries.
Chapman's
only piece in the Finding Aid is the children's operetta "The
Farmerette" [(c)1921]. This work is intended for children to perform.
There are two human characters, the Farmerette and her assistant, several
vegetables (e.g., bean, beat, artichoke, corn, potato), some caterpillars, and
some "sunshine fairies." The music is straightforward and singable;
one theme that occurs at least twice is the melody from Schumann's movement
"The Happy Farmer" (op. 68, no. 10).
The
1921 correspondence is primarily concerned with "The Farmerette,"
addressing corrections in the proofs and the writing of an advertising blurb.
Mentioned at least twice in this regard is a colleague or friend, Miss E.E.
McCartee of Brooklyn, who I believe is shown here as an associate member of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences.
In
addition to her children's compositions, Chapman had some aspirations to write
art music, and was interested in "exotic" music. In 1921, she wrote
" “I am trying to saturate myself
with the real spirit of this country’s music, which is most weird and
fascinating; I believe that if I could reproduce a modified form of it, it
would ‘take’ in America. … The national Japanese music is wonderful; some of
it, of course, is just noise, at least to my ears, and I am sure, would not be
especially popular in America. But some of the progressions take my breath away
with their barbaric beauty.”[1]
In its response, the company expressed great interest in Chapman's potential
appropriation of Japanese music and encouraged her to send along any such
music, writing, "so much of the modern music seems to have a leaning
towards Oriental color that I should not be surprised if you eventually the
Eastern tonalities are drawn upon by Western composers. In any case a more
general appreciation of Eastern Art by the West and Western Art by the East
cannot but lead to a better understanding between the peoples in general and
consequently is of very vital importance.[2]
Despite her teaching and supervisory duties in the Christian school, Chapman
did compose some pieces while in Japan, but all of her manuscripts were
destroyed in an earthquake. (I assume this was the 1923 Tokyo-Yokohama
earthquake, though she doesn't specify). Chapman was traumatized by the event,
which forced the closure of her school. She subsequently moved to China and
vowed to return to composing. However, to my knowledge, Chapman did not publish
any more pieces with the Company.
Correspondence:
Box 18, folder 15.
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