Topic: Seminal Versions
Joan Baez and The Seekers were popular in the years between the assassinations of John Kennedy in 1963 and Martin Luther King in 1968, when it was still possible to believe the one was an anomaly. The first generation since the 1920s was affluent. All things seemed possible to children born in the years just after World War II.
The economy had recovered from war shortages, and automobile manufacturers were satisfying pent up demands. In England, car ownership increased from 40% to 60% of the population in the decade. [1] In Detroit, Lee Iacocca introduced the Mustang in 1964 as an inexpensive, stylish vehicle that could be individualized by unmarried women, like secretaries; young, small families, and larger ones that could afford second cars that gave the wives and older, adolescent drivers mobility. [2]
The popular music market was particularly broad in 1960. The same songs were heard by adolescents, their younger siblings, and their parents. The Seekers re-recorded "Kumbaya" in 1964 with orchestral backing. They replaced The Weavers’ instrumentation that relied on a banjo, with their own that used two guitars. And, for whatever reason, they dropped the one explicitly religious verse about praying.
The hegemony of the popular music market soon was disintegrating. When families began to accumulate a little money, they were able to buy transistor radios, and age-group taste preferences began to emerge. Each year, the oldest married and changed their spending habits. They were replaced by a new, younger group who had heard their music for as long they could remembere. [3] With the emergence of the Beatles, the young, screaming girls were recognized as a separate audience, the teeny boppers.
It wasn’t just the youngest who wanted their own music; the interests of the older ones matured. Symbolically, the Beatles replaced "I Want To Hold Your Hand" from 1963 with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967 as they too aged. Artists either changed or were replaced by new artists eager to extend or alter existing styles.
This natural evolution of cohorts unfolded against the political developments in the United States where politicians who had come of age in the Depression or one of the following wars thought the young should not be enjoying themselves, but serving in Vietnam.
At this point, the fundamental difference between Baez and The Seekers became obvious. She lived in the United States where the war meant death for many young men. They were living in England, which had freed young men from commitments to military service in 1960. [4]
There also was a deeper difference that went back to the stronger Calvinist strain in this country. Baez was heir to the tradition of Pete Seeger and earlier union organizers who used music as a tool to effect change. [5] Ultimately, it was utilitarian and serious.
Athol Guy, said the group deliberately did not emphasize political material, although they had included Bob Dylan’s "Blowin’ in the Wind" on the album that included the orchestral version of "Kumbaya." He told an interviewer:
"I think you either go out as a social-commentary group or you go out as an emotional commentary group, from that point of view, you know. Folk music can cut either way, can’t it. It either cuts to the heart or it cuts to the cerebral side and cuts when you want to go out and shout loudly, ah, and music never really wanted to shout. We found terrific musicality in all those Dylan songs and again the versatility of those songs lent themselves to certainly anger if you wanted to portray it that way but we wanted to portray the music in a sense that hits the spirit, hits the soul and moves people. I mean the main mission for us is to elevate the spirit." [6]
Durham made similar comments. She told her biographer:
"The importance of Bob Dylan’s lyrics never struck me at all. But then, I didn’t evaluate song lyrics much in those days. To me, the emotional content, melody and chord structure in the music was the most important thing and I didn’t take much notice of lyrics at all. Lyrics were a means of getting the notes out!" [7]
From an American perspective, Bruce Eder said, that aesthetic put them "on the wrong side of the musical divide" because "their upbeat pop sound seemed increasingly out of touch with the darkening mood in the United States." [8] From Down Under, Ian McFarlane concluded their concentration "on a bright, uptempo sound" made them "too pop to be considered strictly folk and too folk to be rock." [9]
Durham left The Seekers in 1968, while Baez’s contract with Vanguard Records ended in 1971. [10]
Performers
Vocal Soloist: Judith Durham
Vocal Group: Athol Guy, Keith Potger, Bruce Woodley
Instrumental Accompaniment: Woodley and Potger, guitars; Guy, string bass [11]; Bobby Richards and His Orchestra [12]
Rhythm Accompaniment: none
Credits
Arranged By [Orchestra] - Bobby Richards [13]
Arranged By [Seekers Arrangement] - The Seekers [14]
Notes on Lyrics
Changes from 1963 version: they dropped the praying verse, but otherwise kept the same verse order.
Notes on Music
Changes from 1963 version: they replaced the banjo with a guitar. The orchestra supplemented their sound, but did not change the solo-group or vocal-accompaniment dynamics.
Notes on Performance
They arrived in London just as the youth culture began to blossom. The men usually appeared in suits and ties, but Durham either wore short- or long-skirted dresses. The men kept their hair short, but she had long hair and bangs. Their public images signified the best of all that was available on Carnaby Street.
Audience Perceptions
A few made the comments on YouTube that one would expect from men who remembered themselves as adolescents. One wrote:
"i bought my first seekers album when i was 9 .im 41. i loved and lip synced kumbaya ..and morning town ...bruce judith atholl and the other one were great ....love the seekers.. get a feeling of wholeness." [15]
Another remembered in December 2016:
"Yes I remember well Judith’s back in the 60’s and as a young man I sure loved her singing and had a good teenage crush on her." [16]
Notes on Performers
Durham joined The Seekers in 1962 while she was working as a jazz singer in Melbourne. When the group was sailing to England in 1964 she said had "been a bit embarrassed about singing with The Seekers, at least in front of my jazz friends. I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t the image I necessarily wanted people to have of me." She never lost the image of herself as soloist. [17]
In the years immediately following the groups’ demise, the three men also stayed active as performers. Bruce Woodley first produced material for children, then moved to the States to compose music. [18] Anthol Guy worked as a variety-show host on Australian television, then, in 1971, was elected to the Victoria state legislature as a Liberal. [19]
Keith Potger formed another group, the New Seekers, which appealed to the new, younger audience. [20] Their most important recording was "I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing." [21] He later produced advertising jingles. [22]
Availability
Album: Hide and Seekers. W & G WG-B-2362. 1964.
Reissues: See the general Discogs entry for The Seekers.
YouTube: several people have uploaded tapes made from the album.
End Notes
1. "The UK Economy in the 1960s." Economics Help website. 6 April 2016.
2. Lee Iacocca. Speech to press at New York World’s Fair, 13 April 1964. Reprinted by Mustangs and Fords website. 22 April 2013.
3. ICSRUT wrote on 28 January 2012, "Age wise I was only in single figures in the 1960s but became a fan of The Seekers due to albums bought by my parents." Comment posted to Amazon UK website for a DVD, The Seekers ~ 25 Year Reunion Celebration.
4. Wikipedia. "Swinging London."
5. The political use of music was mentioned briefly in the posts for 3 October 2017 and 5 October 2017.
6. Athol Guy. Quoted by Ian Horner. "Georgy Girl, The Musical: Celebrating The Seekers..." Hawksbury [Richmond, Australia] Gazette website. 28 April 2016. I corrected some errors that appeared to have been introduced by digitization.
7. Judith Durham. Quoted by Graham Simpson. Colours of My Life: The Judith Durham Story. Sydney: Random House Australia, 1994. 85
8. Bruce Eder. "The Seekers." Pandora website.
9. Ian McFarlane. "The Seekers." Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop. Sydney, Australia: Allen & Unwin, 1999.
10. Wikipedia. "Joan Baez."
11. I could not confirm the identity of the people playing the instruments I heard. This was based on their usual configuration in 1964.
12. "The Seekers - Hide And Seekers." Discogs website.
13. Discogs.
14. Discogs.
15. peter sommerville. 2011. Comments posted on YouTube video "Tribute To The Seekers ~ Kumbaya." It was uploaded by mrtibbs6912 on 2 December 2007.
16. Robert Shrewsbury. December 2016. Comments on version of the 1993 Reunion Concert. It was uploaded to YouTube as "The Seekers - Kumbaya" by Judith Durham and The Seekers on 2 July 2009.
17. Durham. Quoted by Simpson, 51.
18. Wikipedia. "Bruce Woodley."
19. Wikipedia. "Athol Guy."
20. Simpson, 215.
21. Wikipedia. "I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)."
22. Wikipedia. "Keith Potger."
Wednesday, January 31, 2018
Monday, January 29, 2018
The Seekers - Kumbaya (1963)
Topic: Seminal Versions
Joan Baez altered the melody to "Kumbaya" in her 1962 In Concert recording. [1] The published melody used exactly the same triad of notes for the statement in each of the first three lines. The refrain of the second line descended, while it went a note higher on the other two lines.
Baez began on E, rather than middle C, which fit her soprano voice. On the first "yah" of the first and third lines she sang the note then raised it slightly. On the second line she did not go as high, creating a smaller, more minor interval.
The Seekers recorded her melody in Australia in 1963, but used the standard lyrics. [2] The minor interval was more obvious during the refrain played by a banjo and guitar in the introduction, and when the group sang together, than when Judith Durham sang alone. She introduced more variations in her treatment of "Lord" in the third line, and did not sing the final "Lord" with two tones. Instead she held it.
Which version was responsible for the song entering the European choral repertoire is more difficult to determine. The two performers appealed to different segments of the commercial folk-music revival that had begun in 1958 when The Kingston Trio’s recorded "Tom Dooley." [3] They recast folk songs as a form of popular music, separate from the older, niche genre represented by Pete Seeger, The Weavers, and the Newport Folk Festival where they performed.
From the beginning, Baez recorded her own, unique repertoire, and accompanied herself with an acoustic guitar. The Seekers recorded "Kumbaya" twice: in 1963 with acoustic instruments, and in 1964 with additional orchestral strings. Their two albums drew primarily from the existing commercial repertoire: the first included Peter, Paul and Mary’s "The Hammer Song," the Weavers "Lonesome Traveller," and Baez’s "All My Trials." [4]
The Seekers did not develop their own repertoire until they went to England in 1964 and met songwriter Tom Springfield. [5] They became famous with his "I’ll Never Find Another You." He wrote their other popular hits, including "Georgy Girl," which was used in a 1966 film. [6] They may not then have sung "Kumbaya" in their concerts, but fans who collected their earlier records would have heard it.
The discographies of the two performers reflected the difference between the purist Baez and the popular Seekers. Baez signed with Vanguard, a specialty jazz label that had international distribution agreements. Discogs reported the In Concert album existed in 57 versions in December 2017. [7] Twenty-six of those were released between 1962 and 1969, and, of those, 13 were released in Europe. Another 20 albums carried no date; many of the 10 European versions may have come from that decade.
The Seekers did not work for a major label until "Another You." Their earlier records were for an Australian company, while the World Record Club [8] originally signed them in England. [9] The combined number of releases of The Seekers two versions was at least 56, with 34 in the 1960s, and 21 on undated albums. Sixteen of the dated issues were in Europe, and 10 of the undated ones. [10]
The number of individual releases of "Kumbaya" were roughly the same for Baez and The Seekers, but Baez probably had more recorded sales. As mentioned in the post for 23 January 2018, statistics in those years were drawn from major record companies, and did not include discount or record club labels. Their importance was suggested by one fan who remembered:
"First stumbled upon the Seekers when I forgot to send my record club card back in the 60’s and this song made me a fan forever." [11]
Baez was part of the more traditional group whose fans also were singers. She supplemented her album with a songbook in 1964. The version of "Kumbaya" showed her key, with a note on differences between the published chords and her performance. It did not transcribed her melodic change in the second line. [12]
The Seekers were part of the popular stream within the revival. Decca released "Kumbaya" in the United Kingdom in 1965 as the B side of the single "Chilly Winds," [13] which registered on the Billboard charts in this country. [14] A German label paired it with "This Train." [15] Their version might not have been seen as a potential hit record, but was recognized as popular enough to support sales.
The chart before the End Notes shows when and where the different albums containing "Kumbaya" by Baez and The Seekers were released in the 1960s. It does not signify sales, but decisions by marketing specialists that enough interest existed to justify the expense of printing new labels and album covers to assemble a different product.
The difference in record company philosophies may have distorted the pattern a little since Baez’s album never went out of print and may always have been available to distributors. With that caveat, the table shows a cultural division: Baez’s album was the only one issued in countries that historically were Roman Catholic, while the Seekers’ albums were released in countries with large Protestant populations.
The map at the far right, which is updated with new posts, suggests the actual distribution of versions of "Kumbaya" sung by European performers.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: Judith Durham
Vocal Group: Athol Guy, Keith Potger, Bruce Woodley
Instrumental Accompaniment: Woodley, guitar; Potger, banjo; Guy, string bass [16]
Rhythm Accompaniment: none
Credits
None on original album. [17]
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: Durham did not pronounce the /d/ in Lord
Verses: kumbaya, crying, singing, praying
Vocabulary
Pronoun: one
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: none
Basic Form: three-verse song framed by kumbaya verses at start and end
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Ending: none
Unique Features: none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Tempo: quick
Basic Structure: instrumental introduction, followed by repetitions that varied little once a pattern was set.
Singing Style: unadorned, with one syllable to one note.
Solo-Group Dynamics: Durham sang the first verse alone. The three men echoed the final line, while she began the next verse. They joined her on the second line and continued through the end, when the interverse echo was repeated.
Vocal-Accompaniment Dynamics: a guitar played the melody in chords in the introduction with the banjo playing arpeggios. While the group was singing the men played an accompaniment that was soft when Durham was singing, and louder when they joined her.
Notes on Performers
The four members of the group were all interested in music in high school, but did not begin performing professionally until after they graduated. Then, they found jobs on the periphery of the industry: Athol Guy worked for local television outlets before going to work for an advertizing agency; [18] Keith Potger was a producer for Australian Broadcasting radio; [19] Bruce Woodley worked in a restaurant where they were able to perform. [20]
Potger and Guy merged their groups into the Escorts, an all-male quartet that moved from doo-wop to folk-revival music. [21] When their lead tenor left, Guy remembered telling "the boys we really want to get a girl like Ronnie, that you know, sings a bit like Ronnie Gilbert with The Weavers, with Pete Seeger’s band." [22]
Durham had considered being a pianist and studied at the University of Melbourne Conservatorium. By the time she started work as a secretary at Guy’s advertizing agency, she was singing with a jazz group that had made a record with a local company, W & G. [23] She apparently knew he as looking for singer when she introduced herself; that night she joined them at the club where they were performing. Guy remembered:
"Bruce brought her to sing with us that night and when we got into When the Stars Begin to Fall the harmonies just dropped straight into place and not just the harmonies but the blend and when you get a blend you almost get a fifth voice, you get real chume about you’re trying to produce." [24]
Potger used his contacts to make the demo tape they sent to the record company were Durham already was known. [25] They began doing backup work for other artists. After their album was released they were hired as the house band for a cruise ship going to England, where they played folk music in the afternoons and rock in the evenings. [26] They sent copies ahead to a potential agent, who marketed them as "a genuine true-blue Aussie band" [27] who sang "Waltzing Matilda" [28] for the British folk-revival audience.
Availability
Single: "This Train" and "Kumbaya." W & G. June 1963. [29]
Album: Introducing The Seekers. W & G WG-B-1655. 1963.
Reissues: See the general Discogs entry for The Seekers.
YouTube: several people have uploaded tapes made from the album.
Table
Based on data reported by Discogs for individual albums. B = album by Joan Baez. S = album by The Seekers. Both = albums by both Baez and The Seekers were available.
End Notes
1. Baez and this version were discussed in the post for 9 October 2017.
2. The fact they knew the standard lyrics, and sang the verses in the same order, meant they learned the words from a songbook.
3. Kingston Trio. "Tom Dooley." The Kingston Trio. Capitol Records T-996. 1958.
4. "The Seekers - Introducing The Seekers." Discogs website.
5. Springfield was the brother of Dusty Springfield and had produced material for her group before she left as a soloist.
6. Georgy Girl starred Lynn Redgrave and Alan Bates. Silvio Narizzano directed the film. Springfield wrote the music for Jim Dale’s lyrics. (Wikipedia. "Georgy Girl.")
7. "Joan Baez - In Concert." Discogs website.
8. After The Seekers were successful their record company, EMI, took over World Record Club in 1965. ("World Record Club." Discogs website.)
9. Wikipedia. "The Seekers."
10. Discogs website posts for Introducing The Seekers (1963), Hide And Seekers (1964), The Seekers (1967), and Introducing The Seekers Big Hits (1967).
11. Ed Tobin1 comment posted to YouTube in December 2016 on "The Seekers - Kumbaya." It was uploaded by The Seekers - Kumbaya on 2 July 2009.
12. The Joan Baez Songbook. Edited by Maynard Solomon. New York: Ryerson Music Publishers, 1964. 130-131.
13. "The Seekers - Chilly Winds / Kumbaya." Discogs website.
14. Wikipedia. "The Seekers Discography."
15. Ariola 18 686 AT, no date given. "The Seekers - Kumbaya / This Train." Discogs website. This may have been a reissue of the original Australian single which was not mentioned by Discogs.
16. I could not confirm the identity of the people playing the instruments I heard. This was based on their usual configuration in 1963.
17. Discogs, Introducing The Seekers.
18. Wikipedia. "Athol Guy."
19. Wikipedia, Seekers.
20. Wikipedia. "Bruce Woodley."
21. Wikipedia, Seekers.
22. Athol Guy. Quoted by Ian Horner. "Georgy Girl, The Musical: Celebrating The Seekers..." Hawksbury [Richmond, Australia] Gazette website. 28 April 2016. I corrected some errors that appeared to have been introduced by digitization.
23. Wikipedia. "Judith Durham."
24. Guy. Quoted by Horner.
25. Wikipedia, Durham.
26. Gary James. "Interview With Athol Guy of The Seekers." Classic Bands website
27. Guy. Quoted by Horner.
28. Wikipedia, Seekers. "Their debut single was the traditional historic Australian bush ballad from 1894, ‘Waltzing Matilda’."
29. George Hilder. "Festival Distrib for A & M Label." Billboard, 29 June 1963. 48.
Joan Baez altered the melody to "Kumbaya" in her 1962 In Concert recording. [1] The published melody used exactly the same triad of notes for the statement in each of the first three lines. The refrain of the second line descended, while it went a note higher on the other two lines.
Baez began on E, rather than middle C, which fit her soprano voice. On the first "yah" of the first and third lines she sang the note then raised it slightly. On the second line she did not go as high, creating a smaller, more minor interval.
The Seekers recorded her melody in Australia in 1963, but used the standard lyrics. [2] The minor interval was more obvious during the refrain played by a banjo and guitar in the introduction, and when the group sang together, than when Judith Durham sang alone. She introduced more variations in her treatment of "Lord" in the third line, and did not sing the final "Lord" with two tones. Instead she held it.
Which version was responsible for the song entering the European choral repertoire is more difficult to determine. The two performers appealed to different segments of the commercial folk-music revival that had begun in 1958 when The Kingston Trio’s recorded "Tom Dooley." [3] They recast folk songs as a form of popular music, separate from the older, niche genre represented by Pete Seeger, The Weavers, and the Newport Folk Festival where they performed.
From the beginning, Baez recorded her own, unique repertoire, and accompanied herself with an acoustic guitar. The Seekers recorded "Kumbaya" twice: in 1963 with acoustic instruments, and in 1964 with additional orchestral strings. Their two albums drew primarily from the existing commercial repertoire: the first included Peter, Paul and Mary’s "The Hammer Song," the Weavers "Lonesome Traveller," and Baez’s "All My Trials." [4]
The Seekers did not develop their own repertoire until they went to England in 1964 and met songwriter Tom Springfield. [5] They became famous with his "I’ll Never Find Another You." He wrote their other popular hits, including "Georgy Girl," which was used in a 1966 film. [6] They may not then have sung "Kumbaya" in their concerts, but fans who collected their earlier records would have heard it.
The discographies of the two performers reflected the difference between the purist Baez and the popular Seekers. Baez signed with Vanguard, a specialty jazz label that had international distribution agreements. Discogs reported the In Concert album existed in 57 versions in December 2017. [7] Twenty-six of those were released between 1962 and 1969, and, of those, 13 were released in Europe. Another 20 albums carried no date; many of the 10 European versions may have come from that decade.
The Seekers did not work for a major label until "Another You." Their earlier records were for an Australian company, while the World Record Club [8] originally signed them in England. [9] The combined number of releases of The Seekers two versions was at least 56, with 34 in the 1960s, and 21 on undated albums. Sixteen of the dated issues were in Europe, and 10 of the undated ones. [10]
The number of individual releases of "Kumbaya" were roughly the same for Baez and The Seekers, but Baez probably had more recorded sales. As mentioned in the post for 23 January 2018, statistics in those years were drawn from major record companies, and did not include discount or record club labels. Their importance was suggested by one fan who remembered:
"First stumbled upon the Seekers when I forgot to send my record club card back in the 60’s and this song made me a fan forever." [11]
Baez was part of the more traditional group whose fans also were singers. She supplemented her album with a songbook in 1964. The version of "Kumbaya" showed her key, with a note on differences between the published chords and her performance. It did not transcribed her melodic change in the second line. [12]
The Seekers were part of the popular stream within the revival. Decca released "Kumbaya" in the United Kingdom in 1965 as the B side of the single "Chilly Winds," [13] which registered on the Billboard charts in this country. [14] A German label paired it with "This Train." [15] Their version might not have been seen as a potential hit record, but was recognized as popular enough to support sales.
The chart before the End Notes shows when and where the different albums containing "Kumbaya" by Baez and The Seekers were released in the 1960s. It does not signify sales, but decisions by marketing specialists that enough interest existed to justify the expense of printing new labels and album covers to assemble a different product.
The difference in record company philosophies may have distorted the pattern a little since Baez’s album never went out of print and may always have been available to distributors. With that caveat, the table shows a cultural division: Baez’s album was the only one issued in countries that historically were Roman Catholic, while the Seekers’ albums were released in countries with large Protestant populations.
The map at the far right, which is updated with new posts, suggests the actual distribution of versions of "Kumbaya" sung by European performers.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: Judith Durham
Vocal Group: Athol Guy, Keith Potger, Bruce Woodley
Instrumental Accompaniment: Woodley, guitar; Potger, banjo; Guy, string bass [16]
Rhythm Accompaniment: none
Credits
None on original album. [17]
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: Durham did not pronounce the /d/ in Lord
Verses: kumbaya, crying, singing, praying
Vocabulary
Pronoun: one
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: none
Basic Form: three-verse song framed by kumbaya verses at start and end
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Ending: none
Unique Features: none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Tempo: quick
Basic Structure: instrumental introduction, followed by repetitions that varied little once a pattern was set.
Singing Style: unadorned, with one syllable to one note.
Solo-Group Dynamics: Durham sang the first verse alone. The three men echoed the final line, while she began the next verse. They joined her on the second line and continued through the end, when the interverse echo was repeated.
Vocal-Accompaniment Dynamics: a guitar played the melody in chords in the introduction with the banjo playing arpeggios. While the group was singing the men played an accompaniment that was soft when Durham was singing, and louder when they joined her.
Notes on Performers
The four members of the group were all interested in music in high school, but did not begin performing professionally until after they graduated. Then, they found jobs on the periphery of the industry: Athol Guy worked for local television outlets before going to work for an advertizing agency; [18] Keith Potger was a producer for Australian Broadcasting radio; [19] Bruce Woodley worked in a restaurant where they were able to perform. [20]
Potger and Guy merged their groups into the Escorts, an all-male quartet that moved from doo-wop to folk-revival music. [21] When their lead tenor left, Guy remembered telling "the boys we really want to get a girl like Ronnie, that you know, sings a bit like Ronnie Gilbert with The Weavers, with Pete Seeger’s band." [22]
Durham had considered being a pianist and studied at the University of Melbourne Conservatorium. By the time she started work as a secretary at Guy’s advertizing agency, she was singing with a jazz group that had made a record with a local company, W & G. [23] She apparently knew he as looking for singer when she introduced herself; that night she joined them at the club where they were performing. Guy remembered:
"Bruce brought her to sing with us that night and when we got into When the Stars Begin to Fall the harmonies just dropped straight into place and not just the harmonies but the blend and when you get a blend you almost get a fifth voice, you get real chume about you’re trying to produce." [24]
Potger used his contacts to make the demo tape they sent to the record company were Durham already was known. [25] They began doing backup work for other artists. After their album was released they were hired as the house band for a cruise ship going to England, where they played folk music in the afternoons and rock in the evenings. [26] They sent copies ahead to a potential agent, who marketed them as "a genuine true-blue Aussie band" [27] who sang "Waltzing Matilda" [28] for the British folk-revival audience.
Availability
Single: "This Train" and "Kumbaya." W & G. June 1963. [29]
Album: Introducing The Seekers. W & G WG-B-1655. 1963.
Reissues: See the general Discogs entry for The Seekers.
YouTube: several people have uploaded tapes made from the album.
Table
| 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | Unknown | |
| UK |
B
|
S
|
S
|
S
|
S
|
||||
| France |
B
|
B
|
|||||||
| Germany |
B
|
S
|
S
|
Both
|
|||||
| Denmark |
S
|
S
|
|||||||
| Holland |
S
|
||||||||
| Italy |
B
|
B
|
|||||||
| Austria |
B
|
||||||||
| Greece |
B
|
||||||||
| Portugal |
B
|
||||||||
| Spain |
B
|
Based on data reported by Discogs for individual albums. B = album by Joan Baez. S = album by The Seekers. Both = albums by both Baez and The Seekers were available.
End Notes
1. Baez and this version were discussed in the post for 9 October 2017.
2. The fact they knew the standard lyrics, and sang the verses in the same order, meant they learned the words from a songbook.
3. Kingston Trio. "Tom Dooley." The Kingston Trio. Capitol Records T-996. 1958.
4. "The Seekers - Introducing The Seekers." Discogs website.
5. Springfield was the brother of Dusty Springfield and had produced material for her group before she left as a soloist.
6. Georgy Girl starred Lynn Redgrave and Alan Bates. Silvio Narizzano directed the film. Springfield wrote the music for Jim Dale’s lyrics. (Wikipedia. "Georgy Girl.")
7. "Joan Baez - In Concert." Discogs website.
8. After The Seekers were successful their record company, EMI, took over World Record Club in 1965. ("World Record Club." Discogs website.)
9. Wikipedia. "The Seekers."
10. Discogs website posts for Introducing The Seekers (1963), Hide And Seekers (1964), The Seekers (1967), and Introducing The Seekers Big Hits (1967).
11. Ed Tobin1 comment posted to YouTube in December 2016 on "The Seekers - Kumbaya." It was uploaded by The Seekers - Kumbaya on 2 July 2009.
12. The Joan Baez Songbook. Edited by Maynard Solomon. New York: Ryerson Music Publishers, 1964. 130-131.
13. "The Seekers - Chilly Winds / Kumbaya." Discogs website.
14. Wikipedia. "The Seekers Discography."
15. Ariola 18 686 AT, no date given. "The Seekers - Kumbaya / This Train." Discogs website. This may have been a reissue of the original Australian single which was not mentioned by Discogs.
16. I could not confirm the identity of the people playing the instruments I heard. This was based on their usual configuration in 1963.
17. Discogs, Introducing The Seekers.
18. Wikipedia. "Athol Guy."
19. Wikipedia, Seekers.
20. Wikipedia. "Bruce Woodley."
21. Wikipedia, Seekers.
22. Athol Guy. Quoted by Ian Horner. "Georgy Girl, The Musical: Celebrating The Seekers..." Hawksbury [Richmond, Australia] Gazette website. 28 April 2016. I corrected some errors that appeared to have been introduced by digitization.
23. Wikipedia. "Judith Durham."
24. Guy. Quoted by Horner.
25. Wikipedia, Durham.
26. Gary James. "Interview With Athol Guy of The Seekers." Classic Bands website
27. Guy. Quoted by Horner.
28. Wikipedia, Seekers. "Their debut single was the traditional historic Australian bush ballad from 1894, ‘Waltzing Matilda’."
29. George Hilder. "Festival Distrib for A & M Label." Billboard, 29 June 1963. 48.
Saturday, January 27, 2018
Dan Gibson - Kumbaya
Topic: Lullaby - Instrumental
Lullabies are dead, long live the lullaby. That is, technology and marketing are obsoleting mothers’ singing, and replacing it with gadgets. A Canadian team found "infant sleep machines" were touted as de rigueur for nurseries. They were able to buy 14 different devices that provided "ambient noise" to keep infants from waking in the night. [1]
Capitalism expands by creating new markets for existing products, and these essentially were applications of ideas that were new when today’s grandparents were youngsters in the early 1970s. Then, Irv Teibel recorded the ocean at Coney Island [2] for a friend’s film about an aging transsexual. [3] He made an accidental discovery when he was editing the tape to fit the footage:
"Normally while working with loops, he’d have to turn the volume down to stop the sound from driving him crazy, but this one didn’t bother him at all. In fact, the longer the loop played, the more relaxed Teibel felt." [4]
Since his microphones did not capture his mental image of an ocean’s sound, he worked with Louis Gerstman of Bell Labs to rework the tape to produce the "Psychologically Ultimate Seashore." He released that in 1969 on his own Syntonic Research, Inc. album with testimonials to its effectiveness in curing insomnia. [5]
The release of Environments 1 coincided with actual research being done on the effectiveness of white noise in inducing sleep. Most papers were not scientifically rigorous, and at best proved music could help relax people if they were so inclined. [6] It did not matter. Folk science filled the vacuum with theories about entraining rhythms to heartbeats or brain waves that again have not been proven, [7] but did no harm [8] and were cheaper than tranquilizers.
Meanwhile, Dan Gibson was experimenting with microphones in Ontario that would better capture the true sounds of nature. He had discovered the wilds when he was sent to Taylor Statten’s Camp Ahmek in the 1930s, [9] and worked as a nature photographer after World War II. In 1989, he began including music with his commercial recordings of natural environments. [10]
His Solitudes record company tended to call it relaxation music when it sold its CDs on racks in gift stores. [11] Others use the word lullaby because it evokes images of a lost childhood, while the techno-jargon sleep aid comes from the noisy world of school, work, and traffic.
When people imitated his Solitudes’ model with "Kumbaya" as a lullaby, they almost always used a flute with running water. Gibson used both water and bird calls in 2003 with a flute accompanied by a piano.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Accompaniment: Louie Papachristos, flute; Attila Fias, piano [12]
Rhythm Accompaniment: running water, random bird calls
Credits
Traditional
Attila Fias, Arranger [13]
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Tempo: slow
Basic Structure: five repetitions with variations in instrumentation, melody, and key; no intentional changes in volume.
Introduction: bird calls, then running water was added. A short piano section with chords and a few right-hand figures followed.
Repetition 1: flute melody; piano accompany with chords. The only embellishment was two tones for Lord in last line. Constant running water and random bird calls.
Repetition 2: piano melody by right hand, with chords and arpeggios in left hand. It introduced variations in the melody in lines 3 and 4. Constant running water and random bird calls. There might have been some strings in the background.
Repetition 3: deep-toned instrument played the melody with piano, running water, and birds. It sounded too deep to be a flute, was not distinctive enough to be a brass instrument, and had a greater melodic range than a jug.
Repetition 4: flute melody and pianist playing counter to it. The flautist used vibrato in lines 2 and 3. Constant running water and random bird calls.
Repetition 5: flute melody in a higher key with more vibrato. Piano accompaniment simple; may have been augmented by the deep-toned instrument. Constant running water and random bird calls.
End: flute repeated the last line with vibrato, piano played a measure, then running water and bird calls alone.
Notes on Performance
Cover: photograph of a mother with an infant over her shoulder. She was sitting in a white rattan chair with greenery behind.
Audience Perceptions
Gibson’s son entered the company in 1986. [14] Gordon and a friend took it over in 1994 as Somerset Entertainment. [15] With the bubbling of the economy, Somerset went public in 2005. [16] Three years later, just before the market crashed, Fluid Music made a bid to buy, [17] and succeeded in 2009. [18] That company was bought in 2010 by Mood Media, [19] and Somerset was resold in 2013 to another company [20] that was trying to save itself by going farther into debt. [21] Somerset was spun off [22] before Allegro’s assets were sold at auction in 2016. [23]
The corporate history is mirrored in the versions of "Kumbaya" offered by Amazon. Apparently, during the Mood Media period, songs were repackaged in cheap compilations with bad engineering. One buyer complained:
"The worst thing--and it’s not something that makes me want my money back--is the sound quality of a large number of the MP3 files. Bit rates vary between just under 100kbs to just under 220kbs. Fortunately we’re not dealing with highly complicated melodies so the variance in sound quality isn’t critical, but it is unfortunate.
"The good thing about this collection is that it will provide agreeable background music that varies from flute, to Christmas standards, to decent classical excerpts for barely $0.06 per track. If you just want some music that won’t demand your attention while working or relaxing, this collection is fine. It’s not for music critics or audiophiles, but let’s be honest here, does anyone really expect 101 tracks for $5.99 to be a major music release?" [24]
As mentioned in the post for 23 January 2018, companies serving the niche music market were highly variable. Solitudes controlled 85% of the market before becoming the target of more ambitious men. Then it was valuable because it had pioneered new digital marketing tools, not because it had high quality recordings. [25]
Notes on Performers
Fias was born in Budapest and immigrated to Toronto with his family. He had a jazz trio and had worked with Indian musicians. Both experiences may have given him ideas for the sustained accompaniment in "Kumbaya." [26]
Papachristos was the son of a Toronto music teacher. He remembered his father constantly brought home instruments for him when he was a child. He preferred the flute because it "makes beautiful sounds and is an extension of your voice." [27]
Availability
CD: Dan Gibson’s Solitudes. Lullabies: From Nature’s Nursery. Solitudes. Metalworks Studios, Mississauga, Ontario. Released 23 September 2003. [Owned by Somerset]
CD: Relaxing Music: 101 Songs To Help You Relax and Sleep Better Nature Relaxation Edition. Relax Me. 8 February 2010. Downloaded file also called, Christian Children’s Songs. [Owned by Mood Media]
CD: Dan Gibson’s Solitudes. Lullabies: From Nature’s Nursery. Solitudes. 22 October 2013. [Somerset spun off by Allegro]
CD: Chris Beaty and Dan Gibson’s Solitudes. Nature’s Lullaby Collection. Lifescapes. 2016. This is a different recording with crickets, a guitar, and xylophone. Uploaded to YouTube by The Orchard Enterprises on 26 July 2016.
End Notes
1. Sarah C. Hugh, Nikolaus E. Wolter, Evan J. Propst, Karen A. Gordon, Sharon L. Cushing, and Blake C. Papsin. "Infant Sleep Machines and Hazardous Sound Pressure Levels." Pediatrics 133:677-681:2014.
2. Wikipedia. "Irv Teibel." The film was Tony Conrad’s Coming Attractions.
3. J. Hoberman. "Tony Conrad, Experimental Filmmaker and Musician, Dies at 76." The New York Times, 9 April 2016.
4. Mike Powell. "Natural Selection: How a New Age Hustler Sold the Sound of the World." Pitchfork website.
5. Powell.
6. K. V. Jespersen, J. Koenig, P. Jennum, and P. Vuust. "Music for Insomnia in Adults (Review)." Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Issue 8, 2015. They found 465 articles in the scientific literature, but only six that met their criteria of rigorous research.
7. Stefan Koelsch and Lutz Jäncke. "Music and the Heart." European Heart Journal 36:3043-3048:2015.
8. Hugh’s team tested the decibel levels of devices sold for use with babies and found some had the potential for harming infants’ ears.
9. Ahmek was in Algonquin Park, Ontario, where Gibson did much of his work.
10. Alan Niester. "Nice and Easy Does It." The [Toronto] Globe and Mail. 31 May 2000, last updated 30 March 2017.
11. Niester.
12. "Dan Gibson: Lullibies from Nature’s Nursery." All Music website.
13. All Music.
14. Catherine Dunphy. Comments occasioned by Dan Gibson’s death. The Toronto Star. 24 April 2006.
15. Kelly Gadzala. "Forest Hill Pals in Tune with Music Market." My Town Crier website, Toronto. 1 May 2008.
16. CCNMatthews. "Somerset Entertainment Leaders Receive Entrepreneur Of The Year Award." Market Wired website. 23 October 2006.
17. "Fluid Music Tables Somerset Takeover Bid ." The Toronto Star, 15 July 2008.
18. Ed Christman. "Allegro Media Group to Acquire Canadian Label Somerset Entertainment." Billboard, 9 May 2013.
19. Wikipedia. "Mood Media."
20. Christman, 2013.
21. Ed Christman. "Hastings Entertainment & Allegro Media Corp’s Different Strategies for Handling Financial Woes." Billboard, 13 June 2016.
22. Natasha Rausch. "Music Distributor Lays off ‘Dozens’ of Employees, Keeps CDs from Labels." Oregon Live website. 9 June 2016.
23. GA Global Partners. Auction notice for Allegro assets.
24. J. V. Donnant. Comments posted 16 August 2010 to Amazon website for Relaxing Music.
25. CCNMatthews.
26. "Attila Fias Trio." CD Baby website.
27. Lorianna De Giorgio. "Papachristos Helps Orchestra Toronto Celebrate 50th Year." My Town Crier website, Toronto. 1 August 2005.
Lullabies are dead, long live the lullaby. That is, technology and marketing are obsoleting mothers’ singing, and replacing it with gadgets. A Canadian team found "infant sleep machines" were touted as de rigueur for nurseries. They were able to buy 14 different devices that provided "ambient noise" to keep infants from waking in the night. [1]
Capitalism expands by creating new markets for existing products, and these essentially were applications of ideas that were new when today’s grandparents were youngsters in the early 1970s. Then, Irv Teibel recorded the ocean at Coney Island [2] for a friend’s film about an aging transsexual. [3] He made an accidental discovery when he was editing the tape to fit the footage:
"Normally while working with loops, he’d have to turn the volume down to stop the sound from driving him crazy, but this one didn’t bother him at all. In fact, the longer the loop played, the more relaxed Teibel felt." [4]
Since his microphones did not capture his mental image of an ocean’s sound, he worked with Louis Gerstman of Bell Labs to rework the tape to produce the "Psychologically Ultimate Seashore." He released that in 1969 on his own Syntonic Research, Inc. album with testimonials to its effectiveness in curing insomnia. [5]
The release of Environments 1 coincided with actual research being done on the effectiveness of white noise in inducing sleep. Most papers were not scientifically rigorous, and at best proved music could help relax people if they were so inclined. [6] It did not matter. Folk science filled the vacuum with theories about entraining rhythms to heartbeats or brain waves that again have not been proven, [7] but did no harm [8] and were cheaper than tranquilizers.
Meanwhile, Dan Gibson was experimenting with microphones in Ontario that would better capture the true sounds of nature. He had discovered the wilds when he was sent to Taylor Statten’s Camp Ahmek in the 1930s, [9] and worked as a nature photographer after World War II. In 1989, he began including music with his commercial recordings of natural environments. [10]
His Solitudes record company tended to call it relaxation music when it sold its CDs on racks in gift stores. [11] Others use the word lullaby because it evokes images of a lost childhood, while the techno-jargon sleep aid comes from the noisy world of school, work, and traffic.
When people imitated his Solitudes’ model with "Kumbaya" as a lullaby, they almost always used a flute with running water. Gibson used both water and bird calls in 2003 with a flute accompanied by a piano.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Accompaniment: Louie Papachristos, flute; Attila Fias, piano [12]
Rhythm Accompaniment: running water, random bird calls
Credits
Traditional
Attila Fias, Arranger [13]
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Tempo: slow
Basic Structure: five repetitions with variations in instrumentation, melody, and key; no intentional changes in volume.
Introduction: bird calls, then running water was added. A short piano section with chords and a few right-hand figures followed.
Repetition 1: flute melody; piano accompany with chords. The only embellishment was two tones for Lord in last line. Constant running water and random bird calls.
Repetition 2: piano melody by right hand, with chords and arpeggios in left hand. It introduced variations in the melody in lines 3 and 4. Constant running water and random bird calls. There might have been some strings in the background.
Repetition 3: deep-toned instrument played the melody with piano, running water, and birds. It sounded too deep to be a flute, was not distinctive enough to be a brass instrument, and had a greater melodic range than a jug.
Repetition 4: flute melody and pianist playing counter to it. The flautist used vibrato in lines 2 and 3. Constant running water and random bird calls.
Repetition 5: flute melody in a higher key with more vibrato. Piano accompaniment simple; may have been augmented by the deep-toned instrument. Constant running water and random bird calls.
End: flute repeated the last line with vibrato, piano played a measure, then running water and bird calls alone.
Notes on Performance
Cover: photograph of a mother with an infant over her shoulder. She was sitting in a white rattan chair with greenery behind.
Audience Perceptions
Gibson’s son entered the company in 1986. [14] Gordon and a friend took it over in 1994 as Somerset Entertainment. [15] With the bubbling of the economy, Somerset went public in 2005. [16] Three years later, just before the market crashed, Fluid Music made a bid to buy, [17] and succeeded in 2009. [18] That company was bought in 2010 by Mood Media, [19] and Somerset was resold in 2013 to another company [20] that was trying to save itself by going farther into debt. [21] Somerset was spun off [22] before Allegro’s assets were sold at auction in 2016. [23]
The corporate history is mirrored in the versions of "Kumbaya" offered by Amazon. Apparently, during the Mood Media period, songs were repackaged in cheap compilations with bad engineering. One buyer complained:
"The worst thing--and it’s not something that makes me want my money back--is the sound quality of a large number of the MP3 files. Bit rates vary between just under 100kbs to just under 220kbs. Fortunately we’re not dealing with highly complicated melodies so the variance in sound quality isn’t critical, but it is unfortunate.
"The good thing about this collection is that it will provide agreeable background music that varies from flute, to Christmas standards, to decent classical excerpts for barely $0.06 per track. If you just want some music that won’t demand your attention while working or relaxing, this collection is fine. It’s not for music critics or audiophiles, but let’s be honest here, does anyone really expect 101 tracks for $5.99 to be a major music release?" [24]
As mentioned in the post for 23 January 2018, companies serving the niche music market were highly variable. Solitudes controlled 85% of the market before becoming the target of more ambitious men. Then it was valuable because it had pioneered new digital marketing tools, not because it had high quality recordings. [25]
Notes on Performers
Fias was born in Budapest and immigrated to Toronto with his family. He had a jazz trio and had worked with Indian musicians. Both experiences may have given him ideas for the sustained accompaniment in "Kumbaya." [26]
Papachristos was the son of a Toronto music teacher. He remembered his father constantly brought home instruments for him when he was a child. He preferred the flute because it "makes beautiful sounds and is an extension of your voice." [27]
Availability
CD: Dan Gibson’s Solitudes. Lullabies: From Nature’s Nursery. Solitudes. Metalworks Studios, Mississauga, Ontario. Released 23 September 2003. [Owned by Somerset]
CD: Relaxing Music: 101 Songs To Help You Relax and Sleep Better Nature Relaxation Edition. Relax Me. 8 February 2010. Downloaded file also called, Christian Children’s Songs. [Owned by Mood Media]
CD: Dan Gibson’s Solitudes. Lullabies: From Nature’s Nursery. Solitudes. 22 October 2013. [Somerset spun off by Allegro]
CD: Chris Beaty and Dan Gibson’s Solitudes. Nature’s Lullaby Collection. Lifescapes. 2016. This is a different recording with crickets, a guitar, and xylophone. Uploaded to YouTube by The Orchard Enterprises on 26 July 2016.
End Notes
1. Sarah C. Hugh, Nikolaus E. Wolter, Evan J. Propst, Karen A. Gordon, Sharon L. Cushing, and Blake C. Papsin. "Infant Sleep Machines and Hazardous Sound Pressure Levels." Pediatrics 133:677-681:2014.
2. Wikipedia. "Irv Teibel." The film was Tony Conrad’s Coming Attractions.
3. J. Hoberman. "Tony Conrad, Experimental Filmmaker and Musician, Dies at 76." The New York Times, 9 April 2016.
4. Mike Powell. "Natural Selection: How a New Age Hustler Sold the Sound of the World." Pitchfork website.
5. Powell.
6. K. V. Jespersen, J. Koenig, P. Jennum, and P. Vuust. "Music for Insomnia in Adults (Review)." Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Issue 8, 2015. They found 465 articles in the scientific literature, but only six that met their criteria of rigorous research.
7. Stefan Koelsch and Lutz Jäncke. "Music and the Heart." European Heart Journal 36:3043-3048:2015.
8. Hugh’s team tested the decibel levels of devices sold for use with babies and found some had the potential for harming infants’ ears.
9. Ahmek was in Algonquin Park, Ontario, where Gibson did much of his work.
10. Alan Niester. "Nice and Easy Does It." The [Toronto] Globe and Mail. 31 May 2000, last updated 30 March 2017.
11. Niester.
12. "Dan Gibson: Lullibies from Nature’s Nursery." All Music website.
13. All Music.
14. Catherine Dunphy. Comments occasioned by Dan Gibson’s death. The Toronto Star. 24 April 2006.
15. Kelly Gadzala. "Forest Hill Pals in Tune with Music Market." My Town Crier website, Toronto. 1 May 2008.
16. CCNMatthews. "Somerset Entertainment Leaders Receive Entrepreneur Of The Year Award." Market Wired website. 23 October 2006.
17. "Fluid Music Tables Somerset Takeover Bid ." The Toronto Star, 15 July 2008.
18. Ed Christman. "Allegro Media Group to Acquire Canadian Label Somerset Entertainment." Billboard, 9 May 2013.
19. Wikipedia. "Mood Media."
20. Christman, 2013.
21. Ed Christman. "Hastings Entertainment & Allegro Media Corp’s Different Strategies for Handling Financial Woes." Billboard, 13 June 2016.
22. Natasha Rausch. "Music Distributor Lays off ‘Dozens’ of Employees, Keeps CDs from Labels." Oregon Live website. 9 June 2016.
23. GA Global Partners. Auction notice for Allegro assets.
24. J. V. Donnant. Comments posted 16 August 2010 to Amazon website for Relaxing Music.
25. CCNMatthews.
26. "Attila Fias Trio." CD Baby website.
27. Lorianna De Giorgio. "Papachristos Helps Orchestra Toronto Celebrate 50th Year." My Town Crier website, Toronto. 1 August 2005.
Thursday, January 25, 2018
Paul Greaver - Kumbaya
Topic: Lullaby - Instrumental
B. F. Skinner once said he kept his child from crying by placing it in a warm environment where it could move about freed from the constraints of clothing. [1] Other professionals have told parents to resist the urge to rock their infants to sleep. [2] I suspect there have been times, in the wee hours, when those parents have wondered when those specialists last held a fretful baby.
Midnight crises become more stressful if the mother or father does not know any lullabies, because it is hard to maintain a rocking rhythm without singing, walking, or sitting in a moving chair. One woman told a friend that was when she played a CD:
"She said it was a saving grace when Eddie would wake up crying in the middle of the night. She would hold him close and rock to the music until he drifted back off to sleep. Mary said the music was soothing enough that she was also able to fall back asleep after Eddie was tucked back in, rather than laying awake frazzled." [3]
The particular record she played was Paul Greaver’s Guitar Lullabies. His version of "Kumbaya" was fairly complex, for musicians have a difficult time playing monotonously. Many of pianists mentioned in the post for 23 January 2018 had been so trained they could not stop themselves from emphasizing the melody, and if they had succeeded their adult audience would have been confused.
It is easier to prevent one line from attracting attention on a guitar because young musicians tend to either play just the melody or only the accompaniment. Blues musicians like Lightnin’ Hopkins and Rosetta Tharpe emphasize the melodic line, but classical ones do not. After graduation from college, Greaver became a follower of Rajneesh in Oregon. [4] Exposure to meditation music probably made it easier for him to alternate between two tones in his accompaniment and maintain a consistent volume.
What is harder for musicians to overcome is their sense of form. Western music tends to move from the simple to the complex, from a statement or a theme to variations upon it. Lullabies have a different logic: they either remain the same or become progressively simpler or slower as the infant gets drowsier.
Greaver played four repetitions of the standard "Kumbaya" tune that fell into the general ABA pattern, with B more varied than A. He began by playing the melody one note at a time with parallel thirds from the end of the third line through the fourth. The notes were played distinctly, with the reverberations filling the gaps. This was the only time the music called attention to itself.
On the second iteration, Greaver alternated between two notes in his accompaniment. Some were minor in the third line. The accompaniment became a bit louder in the third repetition, with the use of stronger strums on down beats, but returned to the alternating two notes in the final iteration. This time many of the intervals were small. The very last line was slower and softer.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Soloist: Paul Greaver, guitar
Rhythm Accompaniment: none
Credits
© 2010 Music For Little People
Author, Composer: Traditional
Author, Composer: Paul Greaver
Music Publisher: Sudhananda Music (BMI) [5]
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Tempo: slow
Basic Structure: repetition of melody with variations in accompaniment
Instrumental Style: classical with one hand playing both the melody and the accompaniment. No modifications in dynamics or tempo, except at the end.
Notes on Performance
Cover: realistic drawing of a mother’s face leaning toward a baby’s head in the sound hole of an acoustic guitar.
Audience Perceptions or Notes on Audience
The reviewer for a website recommending music to parents indicated she confused her own taste and that of her readers, with the needs of an infant:
"The African lullaby Kumbaya also gains complexity as it goes, creating a bass made up of beautiful triads." [6]
Notes on Performers
Greaver grew up in an artists’ family in Maine and Michigan, then studied guitar at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and North Carolina School of The Arts. After recording for years under the name Antar Sudhananda, he moved to northern California where he worked as a sound engineer for Music for Little People. [7]
Availability
CD: Guitar Lullabies. Music For Little People. 1 January 2010.
Reissue: Guitar Lullabies. Music For Little People. 6 January 2014.
YouTube: uploaded by Universal Music Group North America on 26 July 2015.
End Notes
1. B. F. Skinner. "Baby in Box." Ladies Home Journal, October 1945. 535-540 in Skinner. Cumulative Record. Edited by Victor G. Laties and A. Charles Catania. Cambridge, Massachusetts: B. F. Skinner Foundation, 1999 definitive edition. Summarized by T. Gordon and B. M. Foss. "The Role of Stimulation in the Delay of Onset of Crying in the Newborn Infant." Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 18:79-81:1968. 79. Skinner did acknowledge infants cry when they were hungry or needed to be changed.
2. See post for 15 January 2018.
3. Mary. Quoted by Audra Rundle. Review of "Guitar Lullabies by Paul Greave." Little One Books website, Seattle, Washington.
4. "Sudhananda by Sudhananda." CD Baby website.
5. Notes uploaded to YouTube.
6. Rundle.
7. CD Baby.
B. F. Skinner once said he kept his child from crying by placing it in a warm environment where it could move about freed from the constraints of clothing. [1] Other professionals have told parents to resist the urge to rock their infants to sleep. [2] I suspect there have been times, in the wee hours, when those parents have wondered when those specialists last held a fretful baby.
Midnight crises become more stressful if the mother or father does not know any lullabies, because it is hard to maintain a rocking rhythm without singing, walking, or sitting in a moving chair. One woman told a friend that was when she played a CD:
"She said it was a saving grace when Eddie would wake up crying in the middle of the night. She would hold him close and rock to the music until he drifted back off to sleep. Mary said the music was soothing enough that she was also able to fall back asleep after Eddie was tucked back in, rather than laying awake frazzled." [3]
The particular record she played was Paul Greaver’s Guitar Lullabies. His version of "Kumbaya" was fairly complex, for musicians have a difficult time playing monotonously. Many of pianists mentioned in the post for 23 January 2018 had been so trained they could not stop themselves from emphasizing the melody, and if they had succeeded their adult audience would have been confused.
It is easier to prevent one line from attracting attention on a guitar because young musicians tend to either play just the melody or only the accompaniment. Blues musicians like Lightnin’ Hopkins and Rosetta Tharpe emphasize the melodic line, but classical ones do not. After graduation from college, Greaver became a follower of Rajneesh in Oregon. [4] Exposure to meditation music probably made it easier for him to alternate between two tones in his accompaniment and maintain a consistent volume.
What is harder for musicians to overcome is their sense of form. Western music tends to move from the simple to the complex, from a statement or a theme to variations upon it. Lullabies have a different logic: they either remain the same or become progressively simpler or slower as the infant gets drowsier.
Greaver played four repetitions of the standard "Kumbaya" tune that fell into the general ABA pattern, with B more varied than A. He began by playing the melody one note at a time with parallel thirds from the end of the third line through the fourth. The notes were played distinctly, with the reverberations filling the gaps. This was the only time the music called attention to itself.
On the second iteration, Greaver alternated between two notes in his accompaniment. Some were minor in the third line. The accompaniment became a bit louder in the third repetition, with the use of stronger strums on down beats, but returned to the alternating two notes in the final iteration. This time many of the intervals were small. The very last line was slower and softer.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Soloist: Paul Greaver, guitar
Rhythm Accompaniment: none
Credits
© 2010 Music For Little People
Author, Composer: Traditional
Author, Composer: Paul Greaver
Music Publisher: Sudhananda Music (BMI) [5]
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Tempo: slow
Basic Structure: repetition of melody with variations in accompaniment
Instrumental Style: classical with one hand playing both the melody and the accompaniment. No modifications in dynamics or tempo, except at the end.
Notes on Performance
Cover: realistic drawing of a mother’s face leaning toward a baby’s head in the sound hole of an acoustic guitar.
Audience Perceptions or Notes on Audience
The reviewer for a website recommending music to parents indicated she confused her own taste and that of her readers, with the needs of an infant:
"The African lullaby Kumbaya also gains complexity as it goes, creating a bass made up of beautiful triads." [6]
Notes on Performers
Greaver grew up in an artists’ family in Maine and Michigan, then studied guitar at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and North Carolina School of The Arts. After recording for years under the name Antar Sudhananda, he moved to northern California where he worked as a sound engineer for Music for Little People. [7]
Availability
CD: Guitar Lullabies. Music For Little People. 1 January 2010.
Reissue: Guitar Lullabies. Music For Little People. 6 January 2014.
YouTube: uploaded by Universal Music Group North America on 26 July 2015.
End Notes
1. B. F. Skinner. "Baby in Box." Ladies Home Journal, October 1945. 535-540 in Skinner. Cumulative Record. Edited by Victor G. Laties and A. Charles Catania. Cambridge, Massachusetts: B. F. Skinner Foundation, 1999 definitive edition. Summarized by T. Gordon and B. M. Foss. "The Role of Stimulation in the Delay of Onset of Crying in the Newborn Infant." Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 18:79-81:1968. 79. Skinner did acknowledge infants cry when they were hungry or needed to be changed.
2. See post for 15 January 2018.
3. Mary. Quoted by Audra Rundle. Review of "Guitar Lullabies by Paul Greave." Little One Books website, Seattle, Washington.
4. "Sudhananda by Sudhananda." CD Baby website.
5. Notes uploaded to YouTube.
6. Rundle.
7. CD Baby.
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Steven Anderson - Kumbaya
Topic: Lullaby - Instrumental
Lullabies have become a commercial music genre propagated by niche recording companies. [1] Following World War II, these businesses provided inexpensive albums that depended on public domain material by anonymous artists. [2] Since their records were not sold through channels monitored by Billboard, companies learned what sold by what was reordered or returned by merchants and middlemen. [3]
Judging from the contents of albums containing "Kumbaya," the repertoire includes the few commonly known lullabies like "Rockabye Baby" and "All through the Night," along with some adult songs like "Amazing Grace." The rest of the records are filled with nursery songs: "Baa Baa Black Sheep," "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," and all the others mentioned by parents in the post for 19 January 2018.
Unusual material rarely is included because first-time parents or people buying shower gifts tend to buy what they recognize. As mentioned in the post for 19 January 2018, people remember the songs of early childhood but not the earlier lullabies.
Many would be shocked by the actual contents of traditional lullabies described in 19 January 2018. Lyrics that expressed women’s non-maternal feelings would not be considered "age-appropriate" material. [4]
Since lullabies and nursery songs are now the same, record companies distinguish them by the way they are performed. Songs for the awake are sung, while most of the lullaby recordings offered by Amazon are instrumentals. The most common are piano solos, perhaps because Brahms used a piano accompaniment for his lullaby.
One person, who only used initials, suggested he or she wanted a piano arrangement to sing with. [5] Most people do not sing without a piano after they enter primary school or join a church youth choir, and do not remember singing a capella.
Since parents no longer sing to their infants, they, not the infants, have become the primary market for lullaby promoters. One woman said: "We leave this on loop all night and it’s great. It’s soothing for me too, if I need to go in the nursery for a crying baby, it keeps me calm, rocking baby baby To sleep. I love it!" [6]
Another said of the same recording: "We hear our son’s music playing over the monitor, so I like cds that will not annoy us and keep us up at night. Some music gets repetative and does not travel well over the monitor." [7]
Unlike adults, infants might be calmed by anything that was slow and quiet. The difference between the two generations’ aesthetics becomes clear when albums violate infants’ needs to be lulled. One mother praised an album because "every song is soothing and easy to listen to in the background, with no sudden changes in volume, sharp tones, or other surprises. [8]
Another warned "there are times when songs change and the tempo seems to fast for a lullaby." However, she reported her infant, along with her five- and seven-year-old children, all "listen to it every night when they sleep." [9]
Beyond the bare minimum elements of slow tempo and soft dynamics, adults judge lullabies by their own expectations. One man complained, "the arrangements for some of the tracks partially mask the traditional tunes by superimposing the instrumentalist’s interpretation." [10]
The number of piano versions of "Kumbaya" are relatively small, compared to the number of albums containing these versions. Once niche companies have created an inventory of songs, they tend to repackage them rather than spend money finding new material. A recording by Steven Anderson was available on eleven different albums in December 2017, and appeared on another three without attribution. The company name varied with the needs of its owner, Madacy Entertainement.
His version differed from the other six because much of it was played in the higher octaves. Most of the other pianists played their accompaniments below middle C, the normal domain of the left hand. Simon Parry was the only one who kept his notes within the range of a newborn’s hearing abilities [11] between middle C and the C above it.
They all played the standard 1-3-5 melody as a series of single notes, with parallel chords reserved for the fourth line. The accompaniments were arpeggios with a few chords, but no one played true chordal harmony. A couple, including Anderson, played the melody louder than the accompaniment. [12]
To introduce variety several played interludes that relied on arpeggios, often in the lower register. They never paused so the murmuring sounds were continuous.
Notes on Performance
The cover art was inexpensive, usually a drawing of a child sleeping or a picture of a night sky. Most was similar to clip art available on the web.
Notes on Performers
Madacy Entertainment was founded in 1980 in Montréal by Amos Alter to provide high-quality low-cost classical records. He used musicians from eastern Europe who did not have union wage protections. [13] The company then expanded into other niches. Its primary United States office was in Minneapolis, Minnesota, [14] near Target’s corporate headquarters.
In 2000, Alter started a children’s line. [15] Steven Anderson, who was living in Saint Paul, Minnesota, [16] recorded a lullaby collection for Madacy in 2002. He had graduated with a music degree from Hamline in 1988 [17] and supported himself for years by teaching and tuning pianos, and playing contract events like weddings. [18] He became involved with companies supplying children’s music to Target in the late 1990s when he produced records for Baby Genius in Saint Paul [19] and mixes of music and nature sounds for a Wisconsin company. [20]
Madacy expanded in 2006, just as music downloading cut into his market. Then, during the downturn of 2008, Wal-Mart reduced its purchases, and the company was taken over by one of its investors. [21] The list of Anderson’s reissues probably is incomplete, since it reflects only what was available in December 2017. Even so, one can see that after 2008, his recording of "Kumbaya" was constantly being included in other packages.
Meantime, Anderson began exploring ways the new digital media could be exploited by an independent artist. He since has recorded his own music, and sold it through internet outlets. [22]
The never ending needs of films, cable programs, and local advertising for music has prompted others to emulate the niche record company model. Rob and Mike Silverman began Autumn Hill Records in Saint Louis to "offer literally any style imaginable, with a huge sample library of over 10,000 virtual instruments, along with our stable of first call musicians." [23] Mike was a pianist, while Rob played drums.
Tim and Ryan O’Neill created a similar company, Shamrock-n-roll in Minnesota in 1997. They argued people should use their company’s music because they had "over 5000 songs to choose from" and "we own the arrangements of these songs so we can offer fast & affordable licenses." The two were both pianists, and often played together. [24]
Simon Parry started Allstars Kids Club in 2016 [25] as a medium for distributing Christian children’s music in England. [26] He worked as the children’s pastor for the Connect Church, and played piano. [27] The church claimed it valued "the life changing work of the Holy Spirit." [28]
I could not discover anything about the other record companies or artists. The Children’s Music Group and Stradivari Music were simply too generic, while the East London Orchestral Piano Ensemble upload was too recent to generate any information.
Availability
The versions in each group sounded the same to me. The CDs all were listed by Amazon in December 2017.
Madacy
Steven Anderson. Heavenly Lullabies. Madacy Christian. 3 December 2002.
Steven Anderson. On various artists. Study Like a Hipster, Volume 1. Hipster Stories Records. 8 May 2006.
Steven Anderson. On various artists. Land Of Milk and Honey. Madacy Kids. 6 October 2006.
Steven Anderson. On various artists. Lullabies for Little Dreamers. Madacy Kids. 14 April 2009.
Countdown Singers. Lullabies and Goodnight. Suite 102. 21 February 2012.
Countdown Kids. Lullaby and Goodnight. Suite 102. 6 November 2012.
Steven C. Anderson. Heavenly Lullabies. Uploaded to YouTube by The Orchard Enterprises. 13 January 2014.
Sleep Baby Sleep. Baby’s Bedtime Music. Still Water Records. 1 April 2014.
Steven C. Anderson. 30 Bible Songs. Uploaded to YouTube by The Orchard Enterprises. 30 September 2014.
Steven Anderson. On various artists. Piano Cleansing, Volume 2. La Brise Musique. 6 October 2014.
Steven Anderson. On various artists. Lullabies: Baby Lullabies. Single Spoon Music. 6 August 2015.
Steven Anderson. On various artists. Berceuses. Soleil Brille Musique. 6 August 2015.
Steven Anderson. On various artists. Canciones de Cuna. Solido Producciones. 8 August 2015.
Steven Anderson. On various artists. Soothing Piano Music. Glider’s Edge Entertainment. 16 January 2016.
Steven Anderson. 50 Songs for Sunday Inspirations. Suite 102. 19 April 2016.
Steven Anderson. On various artists. Relaxing Piano Music. Sleepless Notes Records. 16 September 2016.
Steven Anderson. Avec la technologie Box. Uploaded to YouTube by test kamen. 13 September 2017.
Autumn Hill
Lullaby Renditions of Classic Children’s Songs. Time Machine Records. 28 April 2009.
Smart Baby Lullaby. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Autumn Hill Records. 12 November 2009.
Bedtime Baby. Baby Music. Autumn Hill Records. 1 December 2009.
Nursery Rhymes and Lullabies. EDU Music and Films. 4 March 2010.
Smart Baby Lullabies. 60 Nursery Rhymes. EDU Music and Films. 6 March 2010.
Classical Lullabies. Autumn Hill Records. 14 March 2010.
Smart Baby Music. Smart Babies R US. 7 July 2012.
Piano Masters. New Age Piano Music. Autumn Hill Records. 8 November 2012.
Allstars Kids Club
Lullaby Music for Baby. Uploaded to YouTube by Allstars Kids Club on 8 July 2015.
Simon Parry. Soothing Piano Lullabies, Volume 1. Allstars Kids Club. 25 July 2015. Also, uploaded to YouTube by TuneCore on 1 August 2015.
The Children’s Music Group
Lullaby World. Lullabies. The Children’s Music Group. 7 May 2015.
Lullaby World. Ultimate Nursery Rhymes Collection. The Children’s Music Group. 12 May 2015. Also, uploaded to YouTube by CDBaby on 3 June 2015.
Others
Little Magic Piano. 30 Favorite Lullabies on Piano. Stradivari Music. 5 April 2015. Also, uploaded to YouTube by Symphonic Distribution on 11 April 2017.
East London Orchestral Piano Ensemble. Classical Piano Renditions. East London Orchestral Piano Ensemble. 2 December 2017. Also, uploaded to YouTube by Amuseio AB on 1 December 2017.
End Notes
1. As soon as record manufacturing techniques and raw materials became cheap and available after World War II, a number of small companies began releasing inexpensive recordings. They dominated the market for children’s records when I was young, and today Amazon includes three separate genres: lullabies, children’s, and children’s Bible songs. Niche producers also supply karaoke and Christmas collections to club owners and merchants through Amazon.
2. The ways the less scrupulous companies exploited composers and performers were revealed when Marion Rosette sued one for non-payment. She and her husband had formed Lincoln Records in 1949 to issue children’s song she had written. She did not copyright her material at the time, but did so years later. She discovered her songs were being reproduced by Playtime Albums and Carousel Albums in 1964 without credit. She notified them she then had valid copyrights for the material they were using. When they refused to pay her royalties, she sued and won.
According to Rosette v. Rainbo Record Manufacturing Corporation, (S.D.N.Y. 1973), Jack Brown claimed he and another man had formed Rainbo Record Manufacturing to manufacture records, but dissolved their partnership in the late 1940s. One of their customers had been Sidney Taback of Lyric Records, which had begun as a partnership of Brown, Taback and a third unrelated man. That "partnership was dissolved in February 1963 but Taback continued using the name Lyric."
Brown claimed "Lyric and Rainbo were not related companies," but Rosette "established that during the years 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965 and 1966 Rainbo and Lyric (or Playtime-Lyric) shared the same telephone numbers and were listed in the Los Angeles telephone directory as having the same address." She argued that "Rainbo was related to Lyric, Carousel and Playtime Records and that, in fact, Rainbo had purchased the Carousel and Playtime line of songs from Lyric."
3. Billboard changed its methods for tracking record sales years ago. Today, artists use digital tools to monitor their sales and downloads.
4. As mentioned in the post for 15 January 2018, some groups promote "research-based, developmentally appropriate early childhood music." The crashing cradle in "Rockabye Baby" probably does not qualify.
5. JD. Comments posted 30 May 2014 to Amazon website for EDU Music’s [Autumn Hill] Nursery Rhymes and Lullabies. JD wrote: "would have liked the lyrics to refresh memory and sing to the baby with the music."
6. KimG. Comments posted 27 December 2016 to Amazon website for Time Machine’s [Autumn Hill] Lullaby Renditions.
7. Mik Rhab. Comments posted 9 November 2015 to Amazon website for Lullaby Renditions.
8. Serena. Comments posted 24 February 2014 to Amazon website for Madacy’s Land Of Milk and Honey: Heavenly Lullabies.
9. melinny2007. Comments posted 13 December 2015 to Amazon website for Lullaby Renditions.
10. Bruce. Comments posted 3 April 2005 to Amazon’s website for Madacy’s Heavenly Lullabies.
11. The hearing abilities of infants was discussed in the post for 13 January 2018.
12. The other versions with loud melodies were sold by Autumn Hill and Little Magic Piano.
13. Richard Henderson. "Concept to Conglomerate in Two Decades." Billboard advertising supplement, 26 February 2000. 58.
14. Henderson. 58.
15. Advertisement for Madacy Kids. Billboard. 63.
16. Chris Roberts. "Steven C Works His Piano." Minnesota Public Radio website. 16 May 2008.
17. "Steven C. Anderson ’88." Hamline University website.
18. Roberts. "Right out of graduating from Hamline, I was worried about being a starving artist," he said. "So I learned to tune pianos, took on 22 piano students and played in three different bands."
19. "Genius Products. Children’s Songs: Vocal Series." All Music website.
20. "Past to Presence by Steven C." CD Baby website. The producer was NorthWord Press of Minocqua, Wisconsin.
21. Richard Blackwell. "Wal-Mart Cutbacks Leave Madacy Singing the Blues." The [Toronto] Globe and Mail. 10 July 2008. B10.
22. CD Baby.
23. "Autumn Hills Records." Facebook.
24. "The O’Neill Brothers: Tim and Ryan." Piano Brothers website.
25. "Allstars Kids Club Limited." Endole Suite website.
26. Allstars Kids Club website.
27. "About Simon Parry." Facebook.
28. "Connect Church Values." Church’s website.
Lullabies have become a commercial music genre propagated by niche recording companies. [1] Following World War II, these businesses provided inexpensive albums that depended on public domain material by anonymous artists. [2] Since their records were not sold through channels monitored by Billboard, companies learned what sold by what was reordered or returned by merchants and middlemen. [3]
Judging from the contents of albums containing "Kumbaya," the repertoire includes the few commonly known lullabies like "Rockabye Baby" and "All through the Night," along with some adult songs like "Amazing Grace." The rest of the records are filled with nursery songs: "Baa Baa Black Sheep," "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," and all the others mentioned by parents in the post for 19 January 2018.
Unusual material rarely is included because first-time parents or people buying shower gifts tend to buy what they recognize. As mentioned in the post for 19 January 2018, people remember the songs of early childhood but not the earlier lullabies.
Many would be shocked by the actual contents of traditional lullabies described in 19 January 2018. Lyrics that expressed women’s non-maternal feelings would not be considered "age-appropriate" material. [4]
Since lullabies and nursery songs are now the same, record companies distinguish them by the way they are performed. Songs for the awake are sung, while most of the lullaby recordings offered by Amazon are instrumentals. The most common are piano solos, perhaps because Brahms used a piano accompaniment for his lullaby.
One person, who only used initials, suggested he or she wanted a piano arrangement to sing with. [5] Most people do not sing without a piano after they enter primary school or join a church youth choir, and do not remember singing a capella.
Since parents no longer sing to their infants, they, not the infants, have become the primary market for lullaby promoters. One woman said: "We leave this on loop all night and it’s great. It’s soothing for me too, if I need to go in the nursery for a crying baby, it keeps me calm, rocking baby baby To sleep. I love it!" [6]
Another said of the same recording: "We hear our son’s music playing over the monitor, so I like cds that will not annoy us and keep us up at night. Some music gets repetative and does not travel well over the monitor." [7]
Unlike adults, infants might be calmed by anything that was slow and quiet. The difference between the two generations’ aesthetics becomes clear when albums violate infants’ needs to be lulled. One mother praised an album because "every song is soothing and easy to listen to in the background, with no sudden changes in volume, sharp tones, or other surprises. [8]
Another warned "there are times when songs change and the tempo seems to fast for a lullaby." However, she reported her infant, along with her five- and seven-year-old children, all "listen to it every night when they sleep." [9]
Beyond the bare minimum elements of slow tempo and soft dynamics, adults judge lullabies by their own expectations. One man complained, "the arrangements for some of the tracks partially mask the traditional tunes by superimposing the instrumentalist’s interpretation." [10]
The number of piano versions of "Kumbaya" are relatively small, compared to the number of albums containing these versions. Once niche companies have created an inventory of songs, they tend to repackage them rather than spend money finding new material. A recording by Steven Anderson was available on eleven different albums in December 2017, and appeared on another three without attribution. The company name varied with the needs of its owner, Madacy Entertainement.
His version differed from the other six because much of it was played in the higher octaves. Most of the other pianists played their accompaniments below middle C, the normal domain of the left hand. Simon Parry was the only one who kept his notes within the range of a newborn’s hearing abilities [11] between middle C and the C above it.
They all played the standard 1-3-5 melody as a series of single notes, with parallel chords reserved for the fourth line. The accompaniments were arpeggios with a few chords, but no one played true chordal harmony. A couple, including Anderson, played the melody louder than the accompaniment. [12]
To introduce variety several played interludes that relied on arpeggios, often in the lower register. They never paused so the murmuring sounds were continuous.
Notes on Performance
The cover art was inexpensive, usually a drawing of a child sleeping or a picture of a night sky. Most was similar to clip art available on the web.
Notes on Performers
Madacy Entertainment was founded in 1980 in Montréal by Amos Alter to provide high-quality low-cost classical records. He used musicians from eastern Europe who did not have union wage protections. [13] The company then expanded into other niches. Its primary United States office was in Minneapolis, Minnesota, [14] near Target’s corporate headquarters.
In 2000, Alter started a children’s line. [15] Steven Anderson, who was living in Saint Paul, Minnesota, [16] recorded a lullaby collection for Madacy in 2002. He had graduated with a music degree from Hamline in 1988 [17] and supported himself for years by teaching and tuning pianos, and playing contract events like weddings. [18] He became involved with companies supplying children’s music to Target in the late 1990s when he produced records for Baby Genius in Saint Paul [19] and mixes of music and nature sounds for a Wisconsin company. [20]
Madacy expanded in 2006, just as music downloading cut into his market. Then, during the downturn of 2008, Wal-Mart reduced its purchases, and the company was taken over by one of its investors. [21] The list of Anderson’s reissues probably is incomplete, since it reflects only what was available in December 2017. Even so, one can see that after 2008, his recording of "Kumbaya" was constantly being included in other packages.
Meantime, Anderson began exploring ways the new digital media could be exploited by an independent artist. He since has recorded his own music, and sold it through internet outlets. [22]
The never ending needs of films, cable programs, and local advertising for music has prompted others to emulate the niche record company model. Rob and Mike Silverman began Autumn Hill Records in Saint Louis to "offer literally any style imaginable, with a huge sample library of over 10,000 virtual instruments, along with our stable of first call musicians." [23] Mike was a pianist, while Rob played drums.
Tim and Ryan O’Neill created a similar company, Shamrock-n-roll in Minnesota in 1997. They argued people should use their company’s music because they had "over 5000 songs to choose from" and "we own the arrangements of these songs so we can offer fast & affordable licenses." The two were both pianists, and often played together. [24]
Simon Parry started Allstars Kids Club in 2016 [25] as a medium for distributing Christian children’s music in England. [26] He worked as the children’s pastor for the Connect Church, and played piano. [27] The church claimed it valued "the life changing work of the Holy Spirit." [28]
I could not discover anything about the other record companies or artists. The Children’s Music Group and Stradivari Music were simply too generic, while the East London Orchestral Piano Ensemble upload was too recent to generate any information.
Availability
The versions in each group sounded the same to me. The CDs all were listed by Amazon in December 2017.
Madacy
Steven Anderson. Heavenly Lullabies. Madacy Christian. 3 December 2002.
Steven Anderson. On various artists. Study Like a Hipster, Volume 1. Hipster Stories Records. 8 May 2006.
Steven Anderson. On various artists. Land Of Milk and Honey. Madacy Kids. 6 October 2006.
Steven Anderson. On various artists. Lullabies for Little Dreamers. Madacy Kids. 14 April 2009.
Countdown Singers. Lullabies and Goodnight. Suite 102. 21 February 2012.
Countdown Kids. Lullaby and Goodnight. Suite 102. 6 November 2012.
Steven C. Anderson. Heavenly Lullabies. Uploaded to YouTube by The Orchard Enterprises. 13 January 2014.
Sleep Baby Sleep. Baby’s Bedtime Music. Still Water Records. 1 April 2014.
Steven C. Anderson. 30 Bible Songs. Uploaded to YouTube by The Orchard Enterprises. 30 September 2014.
Steven Anderson. On various artists. Piano Cleansing, Volume 2. La Brise Musique. 6 October 2014.
Steven Anderson. On various artists. Lullabies: Baby Lullabies. Single Spoon Music. 6 August 2015.
Steven Anderson. On various artists. Berceuses. Soleil Brille Musique. 6 August 2015.
Steven Anderson. On various artists. Canciones de Cuna. Solido Producciones. 8 August 2015.
Steven Anderson. On various artists. Soothing Piano Music. Glider’s Edge Entertainment. 16 January 2016.
Steven Anderson. 50 Songs for Sunday Inspirations. Suite 102. 19 April 2016.
Steven Anderson. On various artists. Relaxing Piano Music. Sleepless Notes Records. 16 September 2016.
Steven Anderson. Avec la technologie Box. Uploaded to YouTube by test kamen. 13 September 2017.
Autumn Hill
Lullaby Renditions of Classic Children’s Songs. Time Machine Records. 28 April 2009.
Smart Baby Lullaby. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Autumn Hill Records. 12 November 2009.
Bedtime Baby. Baby Music. Autumn Hill Records. 1 December 2009.
Nursery Rhymes and Lullabies. EDU Music and Films. 4 March 2010.
Smart Baby Lullabies. 60 Nursery Rhymes. EDU Music and Films. 6 March 2010.
Classical Lullabies. Autumn Hill Records. 14 March 2010.
Smart Baby Music. Smart Babies R US. 7 July 2012.
Piano Masters. New Age Piano Music. Autumn Hill Records. 8 November 2012.
Allstars Kids Club
Lullaby Music for Baby. Uploaded to YouTube by Allstars Kids Club on 8 July 2015.
Simon Parry. Soothing Piano Lullabies, Volume 1. Allstars Kids Club. 25 July 2015. Also, uploaded to YouTube by TuneCore on 1 August 2015.
The Children’s Music Group
Lullaby World. Lullabies. The Children’s Music Group. 7 May 2015.
Lullaby World. Ultimate Nursery Rhymes Collection. The Children’s Music Group. 12 May 2015. Also, uploaded to YouTube by CDBaby on 3 June 2015.
Others
Little Magic Piano. 30 Favorite Lullabies on Piano. Stradivari Music. 5 April 2015. Also, uploaded to YouTube by Symphonic Distribution on 11 April 2017.
East London Orchestral Piano Ensemble. Classical Piano Renditions. East London Orchestral Piano Ensemble. 2 December 2017. Also, uploaded to YouTube by Amuseio AB on 1 December 2017.
End Notes
1. As soon as record manufacturing techniques and raw materials became cheap and available after World War II, a number of small companies began releasing inexpensive recordings. They dominated the market for children’s records when I was young, and today Amazon includes three separate genres: lullabies, children’s, and children’s Bible songs. Niche producers also supply karaoke and Christmas collections to club owners and merchants through Amazon.
2. The ways the less scrupulous companies exploited composers and performers were revealed when Marion Rosette sued one for non-payment. She and her husband had formed Lincoln Records in 1949 to issue children’s song she had written. She did not copyright her material at the time, but did so years later. She discovered her songs were being reproduced by Playtime Albums and Carousel Albums in 1964 without credit. She notified them she then had valid copyrights for the material they were using. When they refused to pay her royalties, she sued and won.
According to Rosette v. Rainbo Record Manufacturing Corporation, (S.D.N.Y. 1973), Jack Brown claimed he and another man had formed Rainbo Record Manufacturing to manufacture records, but dissolved their partnership in the late 1940s. One of their customers had been Sidney Taback of Lyric Records, which had begun as a partnership of Brown, Taback and a third unrelated man. That "partnership was dissolved in February 1963 but Taback continued using the name Lyric."
Brown claimed "Lyric and Rainbo were not related companies," but Rosette "established that during the years 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965 and 1966 Rainbo and Lyric (or Playtime-Lyric) shared the same telephone numbers and were listed in the Los Angeles telephone directory as having the same address." She argued that "Rainbo was related to Lyric, Carousel and Playtime Records and that, in fact, Rainbo had purchased the Carousel and Playtime line of songs from Lyric."
3. Billboard changed its methods for tracking record sales years ago. Today, artists use digital tools to monitor their sales and downloads.
4. As mentioned in the post for 15 January 2018, some groups promote "research-based, developmentally appropriate early childhood music." The crashing cradle in "Rockabye Baby" probably does not qualify.
5. JD. Comments posted 30 May 2014 to Amazon website for EDU Music’s [Autumn Hill] Nursery Rhymes and Lullabies. JD wrote: "would have liked the lyrics to refresh memory and sing to the baby with the music."
6. KimG. Comments posted 27 December 2016 to Amazon website for Time Machine’s [Autumn Hill] Lullaby Renditions.
7. Mik Rhab. Comments posted 9 November 2015 to Amazon website for Lullaby Renditions.
8. Serena. Comments posted 24 February 2014 to Amazon website for Madacy’s Land Of Milk and Honey: Heavenly Lullabies.
9. melinny2007. Comments posted 13 December 2015 to Amazon website for Lullaby Renditions.
10. Bruce. Comments posted 3 April 2005 to Amazon’s website for Madacy’s Heavenly Lullabies.
11. The hearing abilities of infants was discussed in the post for 13 January 2018.
12. The other versions with loud melodies were sold by Autumn Hill and Little Magic Piano.
13. Richard Henderson. "Concept to Conglomerate in Two Decades." Billboard advertising supplement, 26 February 2000. 58.
14. Henderson. 58.
15. Advertisement for Madacy Kids. Billboard. 63.
16. Chris Roberts. "Steven C Works His Piano." Minnesota Public Radio website. 16 May 2008.
17. "Steven C. Anderson ’88." Hamline University website.
18. Roberts. "Right out of graduating from Hamline, I was worried about being a starving artist," he said. "So I learned to tune pianos, took on 22 piano students and played in three different bands."
19. "Genius Products. Children’s Songs: Vocal Series." All Music website.
20. "Past to Presence by Steven C." CD Baby website. The producer was NorthWord Press of Minocqua, Wisconsin.
21. Richard Blackwell. "Wal-Mart Cutbacks Leave Madacy Singing the Blues." The [Toronto] Globe and Mail. 10 July 2008. B10.
22. CD Baby.
23. "Autumn Hills Records." Facebook.
24. "The O’Neill Brothers: Tim and Ryan." Piano Brothers website.
25. "Allstars Kids Club Limited." Endole Suite website.
26. Allstars Kids Club website.
27. "About Simon Parry." Facebook.
28. "Connect Church Values." Church’s website.
Sunday, January 21, 2018
Camp Glen - Kumbaya
Topic: Lullaby - Context
Summer youth camps used to perpetuate lullaby singing by providing older campers with habits of singing and a repertoire of songs that could be adapted for bedtime. The typical camp repertoire then was divided into three categories: fun songs, pretty songs, and ceremonial ones like graces. [1] Most campers did not appreciate the slow-paced pretty songs until after their voices changed and their ears were better able to detect harmony. [2]
After the commercial folk-music revival introduced guitars, groups of older campers would get together to sing and play. Many of the songs they selected were ones that had been recorded with harmony by groups like Peter, Paul and Mary or Simon and Garfunkel. [3] When I was attending Kitanniwa in the 1950s, most of the pretty song singing was done by counselors on the last night of the session.
Last night rituals existed in many camps: sometimes they were jocular, and sometimes sentimental. In ones sponsored by the Camp Fire Girls, the evening program began with a processional and council fire. Sometimes, they would be followed by a wishing boat ceremony at the lake edge. Then, after the usual close-of-day activities, came the serenade. [4]
A woman who worked at Kitanniwa in the early 1960s, told me:
"We sang ‘Kumbaya’ at Kitanniwa as one of the songs in the last night of the camping session counselor serenade of the cabins. (You are going to get more information here than you asked for.) As you may recall as a camper, after taps on the last night of camp the counselors went through the cabin area serenading the campers. We started, standing on the path by the bluebird lodge--I think it was called--and sang ‘Little Owlet’ and ‘Kumbaya’. We generally sang three verses to ‘Kumbaya’--someone’s singing, laughing?, sleeping. We never sang someone’s crying. We then moved on up to the area in front of the wash house and sang a couple of songs for the younger Campfire Girls–‘A Canoe May Be Drifting at Sunset’, as I recall, and one or two more that could vary. We then went up the path by cabins L, M, N and sang ‘God Gave The Wisemen Their Wisdom’ and ‘Long Long Trail’ that segued into ‘With Someone Like You’. I think we then finished up by singing ‘Remember’ standing in front of the wash house. When the Senior Unit was occupied, we would then go down on the waterfront and sing ‘Across the Stillness of the Lake’ and ‘Remember’--although I am not sure we sang across the lake to the Senior Unit on every occasion when campers were there. There were always a couple of the counselors who could harmonize." [5]
The ones I remembered hearing were "Remember," because it was a favorite of another camper, and "Little Owlet," because it was one song we did not sing ourselves and had a descant. The latter was a Mexican song introduced into the camp repertoire by a 1922 YWCA songbook. [6]
When I worked as a counselor at the Oshkosh, Wisconsin, CFG camp in 1963 we had a similar repertoire. However, the only songs I remember from Hiwela serenades were the ones I had not sung before: "Louisiana Lullaby" and "Lullaby Round." The first, which I have not found in print, began "dreamland opens here." The other simply repeated the word "lullaby."
The commercial folk-music revival did not change the serenade tradition, although pre-World War I songs like "Long, Long Trail" disappeared. At the Finley, Ohio, CFG in 1974, the counselors sang 21 songs, including "Remember" and "Kumbaya." The ones the Glen staff sang more than once were "May All of Your Dreams Be like Daisies in the Field," "Walk, Shepherdess Walk," "Barges," "I Am a Rover," "Mmm I Want To Linger," and "To Ope Their Trunks." [7]
None were specifically lullabies, but many were songs a mother could sing, or, if the words were forgotten or archaic, could hum.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: counselors
Vocal Director: at Hiwela and Glen the leaders would huddle and decided the songs before each stop.
Instrumental Accompaniment: none
Rhythm Accompaniment: none
Notes on Lyrics
Basic Form
Glen: four-verse song that began with kumbaya
Kitanniwa: the counselor did not remember if they sang "Kumbaya" as a four-verse song, or if they sang "kumbaya" after every verse
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Singing Style: usually timbraic harmony; Glen used parallel thirds.
Notes on Performance
Occasion: serenade on last night of camp session
Location: outdoors outside the cabins used for sleeping
Microphones: none
Clothing: counselors usually were still in the clothes they wore for the council fire, but some might have added slacks or sweatshirts if it was cold or mosquitoes were bad.
Notes on Movement
Counselors sometimes sang while they walked, but usually stopped so campers could hear them.
Notes on Audience
Bluebirds were the youngest girls in camp, usually seven- to nine-years-old. Homesickness was always a problem with that group. The counselors at Kitanniwa in the 1960s probably did not sing the crying verse as a kind of white magic; if they did not use the word, then maybe the girls would remain calm. The staff in 1974 also did not sing that verse. I do not know if that was because they had internalized this taboo or not. [8]
Availability
I have not replayed my tapes from Camp Glen, for the reasons mentioned in the post for 25 October 2017.
End Notes
1. Camp Songs, Folk Songs described the categories and labels used in camps. 85-86.
2. Camp Songs, Folk Songs. 88-89.
3. Camp Songs, Folk Songs discussed the most important commercial folk-revival artists in 1976. 549-550.
4. Camp Songs, Folk Songs explored the origins of serenades in early college singing traditions. 342.
5. Email. 3 March 2016. Most of these songs were discussed in Camp Songs, Folk Songs.
6. "The Owlet." Translated by Muna Lee; arranged by Elena Landázuri. 86+. Florence Hudson Botsford. Botsford Collection of Folk Songs. New York: G. Schirmer, 1922, 2 volumes. Republished in three volumes in 1930. The 1930 version was included in Music Makers with very minor changed by Augustus D. Zanzig. 24. My copy of Music Makers was purchased in the 1955-1956 school year. It carried no publication information other than it was "prepared for Camp Fire Girls, Inc." and was produced by Cooperative Recreation Service.
7. "To Ope" was the first camp song I found in a singing school book like the ones mentioned in the post for 21 December 2017. It appeared in George F. Root. First Years in Song-Land. Cincinnati: John Church, 1879. Most of the rest of the Glen songs were anonymous. The exception was "Walk Shepherdess," which Eleanor Farjeon wrote for Nursery Rhymes of London Town. It was published with music in London: Oxford University Press, 1919.
8. The 1974 Kitanniwa version of "Kumbaya" was discussed in the post for 29 November 2017.
Summer youth camps used to perpetuate lullaby singing by providing older campers with habits of singing and a repertoire of songs that could be adapted for bedtime. The typical camp repertoire then was divided into three categories: fun songs, pretty songs, and ceremonial ones like graces. [1] Most campers did not appreciate the slow-paced pretty songs until after their voices changed and their ears were better able to detect harmony. [2]
After the commercial folk-music revival introduced guitars, groups of older campers would get together to sing and play. Many of the songs they selected were ones that had been recorded with harmony by groups like Peter, Paul and Mary or Simon and Garfunkel. [3] When I was attending Kitanniwa in the 1950s, most of the pretty song singing was done by counselors on the last night of the session.
Last night rituals existed in many camps: sometimes they were jocular, and sometimes sentimental. In ones sponsored by the Camp Fire Girls, the evening program began with a processional and council fire. Sometimes, they would be followed by a wishing boat ceremony at the lake edge. Then, after the usual close-of-day activities, came the serenade. [4]
A woman who worked at Kitanniwa in the early 1960s, told me:
"We sang ‘Kumbaya’ at Kitanniwa as one of the songs in the last night of the camping session counselor serenade of the cabins. (You are going to get more information here than you asked for.) As you may recall as a camper, after taps on the last night of camp the counselors went through the cabin area serenading the campers. We started, standing on the path by the bluebird lodge--I think it was called--and sang ‘Little Owlet’ and ‘Kumbaya’. We generally sang three verses to ‘Kumbaya’--someone’s singing, laughing?, sleeping. We never sang someone’s crying. We then moved on up to the area in front of the wash house and sang a couple of songs for the younger Campfire Girls–‘A Canoe May Be Drifting at Sunset’, as I recall, and one or two more that could vary. We then went up the path by cabins L, M, N and sang ‘God Gave The Wisemen Their Wisdom’ and ‘Long Long Trail’ that segued into ‘With Someone Like You’. I think we then finished up by singing ‘Remember’ standing in front of the wash house. When the Senior Unit was occupied, we would then go down on the waterfront and sing ‘Across the Stillness of the Lake’ and ‘Remember’--although I am not sure we sang across the lake to the Senior Unit on every occasion when campers were there. There were always a couple of the counselors who could harmonize." [5]
The ones I remembered hearing were "Remember," because it was a favorite of another camper, and "Little Owlet," because it was one song we did not sing ourselves and had a descant. The latter was a Mexican song introduced into the camp repertoire by a 1922 YWCA songbook. [6]
When I worked as a counselor at the Oshkosh, Wisconsin, CFG camp in 1963 we had a similar repertoire. However, the only songs I remember from Hiwela serenades were the ones I had not sung before: "Louisiana Lullaby" and "Lullaby Round." The first, which I have not found in print, began "dreamland opens here." The other simply repeated the word "lullaby."
The commercial folk-music revival did not change the serenade tradition, although pre-World War I songs like "Long, Long Trail" disappeared. At the Finley, Ohio, CFG in 1974, the counselors sang 21 songs, including "Remember" and "Kumbaya." The ones the Glen staff sang more than once were "May All of Your Dreams Be like Daisies in the Field," "Walk, Shepherdess Walk," "Barges," "I Am a Rover," "Mmm I Want To Linger," and "To Ope Their Trunks." [7]
None were specifically lullabies, but many were songs a mother could sing, or, if the words were forgotten or archaic, could hum.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: counselors
Vocal Director: at Hiwela and Glen the leaders would huddle and decided the songs before each stop.
Instrumental Accompaniment: none
Rhythm Accompaniment: none
Notes on Lyrics
Basic Form
Glen: four-verse song that began with kumbaya
Kitanniwa: the counselor did not remember if they sang "Kumbaya" as a four-verse song, or if they sang "kumbaya" after every verse
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Singing Style: usually timbraic harmony; Glen used parallel thirds.
Notes on Performance
Occasion: serenade on last night of camp session
Location: outdoors outside the cabins used for sleeping
Microphones: none
Clothing: counselors usually were still in the clothes they wore for the council fire, but some might have added slacks or sweatshirts if it was cold or mosquitoes were bad.
Notes on Movement
Counselors sometimes sang while they walked, but usually stopped so campers could hear them.
Notes on Audience
Bluebirds were the youngest girls in camp, usually seven- to nine-years-old. Homesickness was always a problem with that group. The counselors at Kitanniwa in the 1960s probably did not sing the crying verse as a kind of white magic; if they did not use the word, then maybe the girls would remain calm. The staff in 1974 also did not sing that verse. I do not know if that was because they had internalized this taboo or not. [8]
Availability
I have not replayed my tapes from Camp Glen, for the reasons mentioned in the post for 25 October 2017.
End Notes
1. Camp Songs, Folk Songs described the categories and labels used in camps. 85-86.
2. Camp Songs, Folk Songs. 88-89.
3. Camp Songs, Folk Songs discussed the most important commercial folk-revival artists in 1976. 549-550.
4. Camp Songs, Folk Songs explored the origins of serenades in early college singing traditions. 342.
5. Email. 3 March 2016. Most of these songs were discussed in Camp Songs, Folk Songs.
6. "The Owlet." Translated by Muna Lee; arranged by Elena Landázuri. 86+. Florence Hudson Botsford. Botsford Collection of Folk Songs. New York: G. Schirmer, 1922, 2 volumes. Republished in three volumes in 1930. The 1930 version was included in Music Makers with very minor changed by Augustus D. Zanzig. 24. My copy of Music Makers was purchased in the 1955-1956 school year. It carried no publication information other than it was "prepared for Camp Fire Girls, Inc." and was produced by Cooperative Recreation Service.
7. "To Ope" was the first camp song I found in a singing school book like the ones mentioned in the post for 21 December 2017. It appeared in George F. Root. First Years in Song-Land. Cincinnati: John Church, 1879. Most of the rest of the Glen songs were anonymous. The exception was "Walk Shepherdess," which Eleanor Farjeon wrote for Nursery Rhymes of London Town. It was published with music in London: Oxford University Press, 1919.
8. The 1974 Kitanniwa version of "Kumbaya" was discussed in the post for 29 November 2017.
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