Natalie Curtis Burlin

Natalie Curtis Burlin (born April 26, 1875, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Oct. 23, 1921, Paris, France) American ethnomusicologist whose interest in Native American and African-American musics extended not only to archiving but to vigorous cultural advocacy for those musical traditions.

Natalie Curtis attended the National Conservatory of Music in her native city and subsequently studied piano in Berlin, Paris, Bonn, and Bayreuth. In 1900, however, while on a visit to Arizona, she was so struck by the customs and lore—and especially the music—of the Native Americans of the region that she gave up her planned concert career. With phonograph and later simply with pencil and paper, she visited the villages and camps of the Zuni, Hopi, and other groups, recording their songs, poetry, and tales. By appealing to President Theodore Roosevelt, who was a family friend, she won removal of a ban that had been placed on the performance of Native American music, and her own warm personality earned her admission to their ceremonies. In 1905 she published Songs of Ancient America, consisting of three Pueblo corn-grinding songs, but her major publication in the field was The Indians’ Book (1907), which enjoyed two later editions and remains a vital source book for students and scholars of the subject. The lore and music in the book were drawn from 18 tribes, mainly those of the Southwest but also some groups from as far away as Maine and British Columbia.

In 1911 Curtis 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 July 1917 she married Paul Burlin, a painter. A period of study at Hampton (Virginia) Institute enabled her to produce the four-volume Hampton Series Negro Folk-Songs (1918–19), unretouched transcriptions of great musicological value, and Songs and Tales from the Dark Continent (1920), transcribed from tape recordings made of two African students at Hampton. While in Paris in 1921 to give a lecture, Burlin was killed by an automobile.