Topic: Theology - Seventh-day Adventist
Millerism spread through camp meetings that invited visiting evangelists to join the roster of speakers. Ellen White, founder of the Seventh-day Adventist, joined the Methodists when she was 12-years-old at a Maine camp meeting where she was baptized in Casco Bay. The same year her family attended Millerite meetings in Portland. [1]
Camp meetings used group singing to fill program gaps so attendees would not become restless or disruptive. Joshua Himes published a songbook for the Millerites in 1842, that was used by White’s husband for Hymns for God’s Peculiar People in 1848. [2]
Rural camp meetings were replaced by large urban revival campaigns by Billy Sunday during World War I, and then by radio. Harold Richards began the first Adventist broadcast in Long Beach, California, in 1926, and was able to air a regular program in Los Angeles in 1929. [3] His general format followed that of radio variety programs like that of Rudy Vallée, which featured a male quartet. [4]
Del Delker was an example of a convert brought into the church by radio. Her mother moved from a German-speaking area of South Dakota [5] to Oakland, California, in 1931, and sent Del to Adventist schools. In 1947, some friends introduced her to The Quiet Hour, [6] run by Julius Tucker in Berkeley. [7] She went to talk to him after a sermon that described heaven, and converted after he enumerated principles, rather than taboos, when she asked what she would have to give up to enter heaven. [8]
She began singing on his radio program, and at local camp meetings. Richards’ program, by then the nationally broadcast Voice of Prophecy, recruited her. However, the radio show was in turmoil in 1947. Church officials in Takoma Park, Maryland, had replaced members of his quartet, then called The Kings Heralds, and tried to modernize its sound. [9] Delker spent more time doing secretarial work than singing. [10]
Finally, in 1949, national headquarters rehired Wayne Hooper to reform the quartet. He agreed only on the condition they leave him alone. [11] When Delker still was not asked to sing, she talked to the man with whom she sang at camp meetings. Elmer Walde promised to do something, and eventually Hopper did schedule solos by Delker. [12] The two acts defined the Adventist musical sound in the early 1950s.
Tastes changed radically in the middle-1950s when Elvis Presley emerged. Gary Land said the denomination was open to contemporary music, but felt dance music was inappropriate. Its problems became severe with the commercial folk-music revival and the popularity of an Adventist group, the Wedgewood Trio. [13] Delker toured camp meetings the summer of 1967 with them and Richards’ son, Harold Junior. [14]
What was sung or heard at those camp meetings in the youth tent has not been mentioned on-line, but the Wedgewoods never recorded "Kumbaya." [15] Instead, Delker recorded it with The Kings Heralds in 1970. [16] They used a single acoustic guitar player who strummed chords when she was singing, and single notes when the quartet was featured.
Perhaps its most remarkable feature was that it was recorded twice, once in English and once in Spanish. She had toured Latin American in 1968 [17] to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Spanish-language program, La Voz de la Esperanza. [18] "Kumbaya" may not have been included because of its possible appeal in this country, but because it was accepted elsewhere.
The interesting thing about her lyrics was some of the words were Basque. The third verse in English was "someone’s singing." She clearly sang "Canti mi," with the pronoun after the verb. The Spanish translation would have been "estoy cantando," with the pronoun before. Even if the syntax were altered, the Spanish still would have been "cante me." [19]
The difference was clearer in the second verse, when Delker sang "dena mi" for "come by here." Google Translate did not recognize that as Spanish; the Spanish would have been "ven aquí." The literal translation of "dena mi" was "everything me."
The final verse, "soy feliz" followed the rules of Spanish grammar for "I am happy," but it was also the proper translation for Basque.
This was not a matter of poor pronunciation of a foreign language. Delker said, the Glendale, California, headquarters of Voice of Prophecy had been providing all the Spanish-language music, since they installed a tape recording system in 1950. Her first tutor was Braulio Pérez Marcio, the Cuban who started La Voz de la Profecía. [20]
Even more, it was a point of theology to her that the purpose of religious music was "to have a clear, understandable message, and that the message should not be overpowered by the volume or rhythm forcing the listener to strain to hear the words." [21]
There were a number of possible explanations for the use of Basque. The artists may have prepared a special version when they were in Argentina. Basques fled to South America in the nineteenth century and then represented 10% of the Argentine population, up to 25% in Chile, and 18% in Perú. [22]
Another possibility was these particular words entered the California Spanish vocabulary during the Gold Rush of the 1840s and 1850s when many of the early merchants were Basques from Chile, and others moved from there north to raise meat for the miners. [23]
Basques later fled to México and other parts of Latin America during the 1930s Spanish Civil War. [24] It also was possible the words may have migrated with workers after World War II.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: Del Delker, contralto
Vocal Group: Bob Edwards, first tenor; Jerry Patton, second tenor; Jack Veazey, baritone; Jim McClintock, bass [25]
Vocal Director: Wayne Hooper became musical director for Voice of Prophecy in 1962. [26]
Instrumental Accompaniment: acoustic guitar
Rhythm Accompaniment: none
Credits
English
African Folk Hymn/Arr. Hooper
Notes on Lyrics
English
Pronunciation: she emphasized the first syllable of KOOM by yah, but the third of come by HERE. The quartet accented the second syllable of kum BY yah.
Verses: kumbaya, come by here, singing, sad, happy
Vocabulary
Pronoun: someone
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: none
Basic Form: tripartite; first and third parts followed AAAB line format; second part had unique, unrhymed lines.
Verse Repetition Pattern: none in first and second parts; third part repeated single verse.
Ending: repeated the word "kumbaya"
Spanish
Pronunciation: Coleccion Adventista gave the title as "Kumbayá, Señor." Delker’s articulation was clear and distinct, which made it possible to transcribe her lyrics. The quartet style was different.
Verses: Delker used kumbaya, dena mi, canti mi, soy feliz
Vocabulary
Pronoun: mi and soy were both first person
Term for Deity: señor. Many Spanish-language recordings retained the word "Lord."
Special Terms: translation involves two steps: the identification of words that relate the meaning of the original, and then the selection of the best to fit the metrical form. With songs, this pattern comes from the music. "Kumbaya" had an XxXxX pattern for five notes. When señor was chosen for Lord, that left the translator with three syllables to convey the content of the verse.
Basic Form: three parts. The first in Basque followed the standard "Kumbaya" form that repeated one line three times, followed by a shorter fourth line. The second part was a single verse composed of four different lines, with a subject-refrain format. The final part followed Spanish rules and the common "Kumbaya" line repetition pattern.
Verse Repetition Pattern: Axx B Cc
Ending: she repeated "kumbaya" once and the quartet repeated it two more times.
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Tempo: the first part was moderate, the second slow, and the third lively
Basic Structure: ABA. Each verse was sung differently to dramatize the mood of the verb; repetitions were done in higher keys.
In the first part, Delker sang the kumbaya verse by herself with one note to a syllable, except for the second part of señor in the last line. She held the last notes of every line.
The quartet sang "kumbaya" or "kumbaya kumbaya" after her phrases in the second, come by here/dena mi, verse. The third verse, singing/canti mi, was in a higher key. The men sang "la la la" in the background.
During the quartet’s solo second part, they sang chords, with the last chord of each phrase a minor one. They also sang the last syllable of kumbaya on two notes.
In the third part, the quartet echoed Delker’s words. They repeated the happy/soy feliz verse in a higher key, then sang the ending.
Availability
English
Album: He Touched Me. Chapel Records S 5184.
Spanish
Album: El Senor Me Ha Tocado. Chapel Records S 1512. [27]
CD: Con Eterna Gratitud. Chapel Music. 1999. [28]
YouTube: uploaded by Coleccion Adventista on 25 April 2009.
YouTube: uploaded by Musica Cristiana Conservadora on 15 May 2015.
End Notes
1. Arthur L. White. "Ellen G. White: A Brief Biography." White Estate website.
2. Gary Land. Historical Dictionary of the Seventh-Day Adventists. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2005. 230.
3. Gary Land. The A to Z of the Seventh-Day Adventists. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2009. 97. Also: Wikipedia Voice of Prophecy. He used the name H. M. S. Richards.
4. Vallée hired the Mills Brothers in 1930 for his CBS radio program. The African-American quartet from Piqua, Ohio, was mentioned in post for 11 October 2017. In the early 1950s, Jack Benny had the Sportsman Quartet, Arthur Godfrey the Mariners, and Milton Berle the Texaco Quartet.
5. Ken Wade, Del Delker. Nampa, Idaho: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 2002. Her mother went to an Adventist church in Java, North Dakota, where Delker remembered "we spoke German in our little church." 8.
6. Wade. 27-30.
7. Land, A to Z. 242.
8. Wade. 31-34.
9. Dan Shultz. "The King’s Heralds." International Adventist Musicians Association website. 2007.
10. Wade. 49.
11. Shultz, King’s. Hooper was one of The King’s Heralds members fired in 1947.
12. Wade. 53-55, 59-61.
13. Land, A to Z. 207. Another Adventist group descended from the Millerites, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, solved the problem in 1966 by ruling only songs by members of the denomination were acceptable. (Wikipedia. "Kingdom Song.") Thus, no Witnesses have uploaded performances of "Kumbaya" to YouTube.
14. Wade. 108. The Wedgewoods were more in the tradition of the Kingston Trio, the Chad Mitchell Trio, and bluegrass, than Peter, Paul and Mary and The Weavers. Even so, they never were accepted. (Dan Shultz. "The Wedgewood Trio." International Adventist Musicians Association website.)
15. "The Wedgewood Trio Discography." Discogs website. Its list may not be complete since Chapel records were distributed through church outlets. "Kumbaya" was not on the album Delker recorded with them in 1968. ("Del Delker – Joyful: A Program Of Religious Folk Music." Discogs website. Estimated date from Wikipedia. "Del Delker.")
16. Wikipedia gave the album date as "c. 1970." ("Del Delker.")
17. Wade. 112-115
18. "History." La Voz website. The program was begun as La Voz de la Profecía by Braulio Pérez Marcio in Havana, Cuba.
19. I used Google Translate for the translations given here. Before that, once I stumbled on the Basque vocabulary, I checked other on-line sources before I returned to Google. The Basque word order was extraordinarily complex and beyond my ability to comprehend. (Wikipedia. "Basque Verbs.")
20. Wade. 114-115.
21. Delker. Quoted by Wade. 110.
22. Wikipedia. "Basque Diaspora."
23. Camp Songs, Folk Songs. 165. The context for the discussion of Basques in California was the origin of the tune for "Clementine." One of my sources was Malcolm J. Rohrbough. Days of Gold. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
24. Wikipedia, Diaspora.
25. The list was based on the Southern Gospel History website personnel lists for 1968 and 1971 recordings, which were the same. ("King’s Heralds Discography 1960s" and "King’s Heralds Discography 1970s")
26. Shultz, King’s.
27. "Del Delker – El Senor Me Ha Tocado." Discogs website.
28. "Con Eterna Gratitud." Amazon.
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