Topic: Pedagogy - Vocal Tone
The primary goal set for elementary school music teachers was inculcating our culture’s view of proper singing. Children could vocalize words to a melody in many ways. Louise Kifer Myers suggested they had three voices: a speaking one that was soft, clear, and high-pitched, a singing one that "should be the same," and a play voice that was "strident, harsh and forced." [1]
Karl Gehrkens ascribed the different timbres to different registers. He argued "the typical child’s voice has two divisions, commonly called ‘registers’." The "tone quality of the chest
register" generally was "poor" and the intonation "likely to be faulty." He reminded elementary-school teachers, "we discourage the use of this part of the voice." The higher or head register was preferred. [2]
Language for describing children’s voices was, at best, vague, and, at worst, judgmental. Joanne Rutkowski tried to be more precise when she said the range of a boy’s or girl’s speaking voice was from A below middle C to middle C. When they sang unguardedly, their range was between middle C and upper C. She recommended teachers select songs whose first note was above E to trick children into using their singing voices. [3]
"Kumbaya" was not necessarily the best choice for song books prepared for use in elementary schools because it began on middle C, the border between their speaking and singing voices. Harry Wilson’s arrangement was one of two from the 1960s and 1970s that transposed it into a different key. [4] His version began on E and rose to C above middle C.
Gehrkens thought the problem was dynamics. He believed the transition between the chest and head registers depended on the force used to make a sound. The louder children sang, the more likely they were to use the play or speaking voice. [5] Myers also encouraged softer singing. She wrote should a child "become excited while singing, his singing voice will take on the undesirable qualities of his play voice." [6]
The difference between loud and soft was one of the first musical concepts children understood. Marilyn Pflederer Zimmerman reported four-year-olds could "make accurate judgments concerning relative loudness, and that for first-grade children, this kind of discrimination" was easy. [7]
The problem wasn’t comprehension, but muscle control. Seven-year-olds simply had voices that generally were loud, sometimes reaching a penetrating, piercing pitch [8] while the voices of nine-year-olds were softer. [9]
Wilson’s sixth-grade text was designed to consolidate students’ understanding of the basic aspects of music: melody, harmony, and rhythm. "Kumbaya" had two parts, the primary melody and a descant of "Oh, my Lord," kumba yah" that began with the word "Lord" in the first three lines. It ended with the two groups singing the final line in parallel harmony.
"Kumbaya" was included in the opening section devoted to "Mood in Music." The headnote drew student’s attention to the dynamic markings:
"The mark (pp) tells you to sing very softly. Why has this mark been placed by the upper voice part?"
The main part was labeled "p" for pianissimo, and the entire text was to be sung "prayerfully." The presentation reinforced an unstated assumption that religious music, by definition, should be song reverently.
No more comments followed in the text on dynamics, and most of the songs were either marked mezzo piano or carried no instructions.
The treatment of "Kumbaya" in the 1970 text was unchanged. Some drawings that included only white children were replaced with abstractions, and some songs with such drawings were dropped. The 1966 edition already had pages devoted to music theory; the omitted pieces tended to be replaced by more notes on history.
An article was added on "African Music." It focused on chant, with no cross-reference back to "Kumbaya." Instead, Wilson referred to a recording by "a group of boys and girls of the Nyika tribe of Kenya, and is accompanied by castanets called kayamba." The bottom half of the page was devoted to Carl Orff’s "Carmina Burana" as "a much more sophisticated example of chant." [10]
Wilson also included a two-page spread on "Blues" that mentioned W. C. Handy. Then, it devoted half a page to a blues by Virgil Thompson in The Plow That Broke the Plains. [11] In general, music by composers of the baroque, classical, and romantic periods was replaced by more modern works like this.
I could not locate a copy of the 1963 edition. I don’t know if the fact my notes didn’t include it meant it wasn’t in the book, the edition wasn’t in the collection I was using, or if my notes were incomplete.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: two parts
Instrumental Accompaniment: none in student edition
Rhythm Accompaniment: none in student edition
Credits
African chant
Adapted by Marion A. Roberts
© 1957 by Shawnee Press,
by arrangement with Cooperative Recreation Service
"Kum Ba Yah" means "Come by Here"
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: no comments
Verses: kumbaya, crying
Vocabulary
Pronoun: someone
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: none
Basic Form: two-verse song
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Unique Features: none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Time Signature: 3/4
Tempo: Prayerfully
Key Signature: three flats
Dynamics: main part marked "p," descant marked "pp"
Basic Structure: strophic repetition with descant on last half of each line; two parts ended in parallel harmony
Singing Style: one syllable to one note, except for final "Lord" by main part.
Notes on Performers
Wilson was raised in Kansas were he attended Manhattan State College and taught music in the Eureka public schools. After earning a masters from Teacher’s College, Columbia, he taught in Hastings-on-Hudson schools, while earning his PhD. He spent the rest of his professional career teaching at Columbia. [12]
During World War II, he helped edit a community songster for Hall and McCreary [13] and co-authored a book for them on conducting music in public schools. [14] After the war, he published similar books for Robbins Music, but as the lead author. [15]
Availability
Book: "Kum Ba Yah." 12 in Growing with Music, Book 6. Edited by Harry R. Wilson and four others. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1966. A "boxed set of 12-inch L.P. records" was available with versions of all the songs.
Book: "Kum Ba Yah." 12 in Growing with Music, Book 6. Edited by Harry R. Wilson and same other four. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1970.
End Notes
1. Louise Kifer Myers. Teaching Children Music in the Elementary School. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1956 edition. 30-31.
2. Karl Wilson Gehrkens. Music in the Grade Schools. Boston: C. C. Birchard, 1934. 91.
3. Joanne Rutkowski. "The Nature of Children’s Singing Voices." Texas Music Educators Conference, annual meeting, 2003.
4. The other version that did not begin on C appeared in Harold C. Youngberg and Otto Luening. Making Music Your Own, 6. Morristown, New Jersey: Silver Burdette Company, 1968.
5. Gehrkens. 91.
6. Myers. 31. "He" was used here in the generic sense to refer to all children, not just boys.
7. Marilyn Pflederer Zimmerman. Musical Characteristics of Children. Washington: Music Educators National Conference, 1971. She was using Donald A. Riley and John P. McKee, "Pitch and Loudness Transposition in Children and Adults," Child Development 34:471-482:1963, and H.M. Williams, C.H. Sievers, and M.s. Hattwick, "The Measurement of Musical Development," University of Iowa Studies in Child Welfare, 1932.
8. Arnold Gesell and Frances L. Ilg. The Child from Five to Ten. New York: Harper and Row, 1946. 153.
9. Gesell. 196.
10. Wilson, 1970. 111.
11. Wilson, 1970. 156-157.
12. "Harry Robert Wilson." World Biographical Encyclopedia Prabook website.
13. Fowler Smith, Harry Robert Wilson, and Glenn H Woods. Songs We Sing. Chicago: Hall and McCreary, 1940. This company’s community songsters were mentioned in the post for 24 June 2018.
14. Paul Van Bodegraven and Harry Robert Wilson. The School Music Conductor. Chicago: Hall and McCreary Company, 1942.
15. Harry Robert Wilson and Hugo Frey. Sing along with Harry Wilson. New York: J. J. Robbins and Sons, 1948.
Harry Robert Wilson. Choral Arranging for Schools. New York: Robbins Music Corporation, 1949.
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