Laura Crayton Boulton
1899-1980
Laura Crayton Boulton was born in Conneaut,
Ohio in 1899. She was an
ethnomusicologist. She was actually one of the first. Boulton
was brought up by parents who raised her to not be prejudice. This was a
major factor in her later years when she traveled around the world studying
different cultures. For her to be prejudiced would have deeply changed her
life.
She had a very
firm background in music. By the age of three, she had her first
solo and by later years she was planning a career in music. However, when the
Straus Africa Expedition for the American
Museum of Natural History approached
her about a possible expedition in Africa she
accepted. This was seen as a bad move by some of her close friends and many
advised against accepting the position. Despite her friends’ views she took on
the mission with enthusiasm. This resulted in long years of research and
fieldwork for the museum. Her expeditions all over the world and her recordings
of authentic music have been her major contribution as an anthropologist. She
searched for thirty-five years for folk and liturgical music in all parts of
the world. By the time she
was finished, she had in her collection over 30,000 recordings.
Some of the
regions she covered in the expedition were Eskimo territory, Sub-Sahara Africa,
Nepal, Thailand, and Borneo.
All the music she recorded was authentic and recorded before these cultures
were affected by politics and radio. She considered herself very lucky to be
able to work with “pure” cultures. She would find later, when returning to
these countries that much of the authentic music had been forgotten and in its
place was modern music picked up from the radio. Modern musicologists would
have an almost impossible task if they were to try to do now what Laura
accomplished. Laura Boulton did university graduate work in musicology and
anthropology. She also lectured and taught at major universities in America, Europe, and Asia.
Laura’s first
of twenty-eight expeditions started in Africa.
The native tribes were at first scared of her recording machine but after she
showed them how her own voice recorded, they caught on. Once they realized the new
device was harmless they eagerly helped her. When speaking of her recording
equipment she claimed that it was impossible to catch all vibrations and levels
of the song and that highly scientific machines must
be used. She was also able to pick up music quickly and sing along.
In her first of
many expeditions to Africa the most memorable part of it was the Rift Valley
and the flamingos of Lake
Navaisha.
During this expedition she learned a lot about medicine and was able to help
natives with minor burns and cuts. Most of the time natives heard of her
medicines and faked injuries in order to use her modern medicine.
Her next missions were located in India in 1949. By that time she was
able to travel by car, train and airplane. With this modern transportation she
was able to move about the country quickly. When she was in India she stayed with the Prime Minister of India and when she visited Nepal, she stayed with
the Prime Minister of Nepal.
Her ability to stay with such high ranking individuals was due to the fact that the palace
was the only hotel or place to house visitors. One key thing she recalled about
Nepal was that they had
brass bands quite like our marching bands in America.
Laura, in 1942, continued her expeditions into North
America, studying the Eskimos. She took a ship called the SS Nascopie with Captain T.F. Smellie.
She was able to go on the expedition for 135 days because of war times. The
ship was owned by the Hudson Bay Company and traveled back and forth to trade
with the Eskimos. While Laura was there she even went on a hunt. She said she
was not a hunter but understood the need to. Captain Brown was her informer on
the trip. Traveling back to the United
States, she studied the Native Americans of
the Southwest.
Her next expeditions brought her to Europe
where she spent some time studying the gypsies. This was where she picked up
her interest in Neo-Byzantine and Orthodox music. From 1960 on, she spent five
to six months a year working and studying it. Her particular interest in the
religious music was of early Christianity. She also studied 11
other religions. She claimed the most gratifying part of her work was that of the
Byzantine and Orthodox music of Dubarton Oaks. In
1962 she returned to Ethiopia
(the beginning of her expeditions) but by the following year was focused only on
church music
After she was finished with her expeditions, she returned to Columbia University where she became the director
of the Research Project on World Music. She worked within the School of International
Affairs. Smithsonian Folkways Records have commercially released many of her
recordings. The Laura C. Boulton Collection of recordings worldwide from
1929-78, along with her field notes, papers and correspondence, are kept
at the Mathers Museum of World Cultures at Indiana University. The Music
Hunter: The Autobiography of A Career, her autobiography, was
published in 1969. The Laura Boulton Foundation, a non-profit intistute
dedicated to supporting ethomusicological research, was founded by Laura in
1977. Laura Crayton Boulton
died in 1980. Three years later, an annual ethnomusecology lecture service
in honor of Boulton's prolific fifty-year career was established by the
Laura Boulton Foundation. Her recordings can be found at Columbia University
and among many other University archives.
References:
Boulton, Laura. The Music Hunter.
Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1969.
“Name_Born_Died_Source_Author.” American Anthropology Obituary
Index (22 Aug. 2003) Http://homepages.stmartin.edu/fac_staff/dprice/deadbook.htm 24, Feb. 2004
Written by:
Megan Burd
Edited By:Lillian Dolentz, 2008