Fortis Boy Choir - Kumbayah, My Lord

Topic: Learning Music
School music programs include all students, although the performance groups, like church choirs, may be restricted to those who can carry a tune in a recognizable key. They are very much descendants of the congregational Anglo-Scots Reformation tradition that was reinforced in schools by the requirement for democratic participation.

As mentioned in the post for 11 September 2017, church singing was done by professionals prior to Henry VIII. In the mid-nineteenth century a group at Oxford [1] began pressing for the reinstatement of parts of the liturgy lost in the Anglican church during the Commonwealth that lasted until 1660. [2] This occurred at the same time as a secular revival of earlier music forms, some of which had used boys’ treble voices. [3]

In this country the introduction of boys’ choirs coincided with a greater separation between the congregation and the choir that had begun with Charles Finney. His criticisms of congregation singing had arisen, in part, from his being a listener, rather than a participant. [4] As congregations became accustomed to being audiences, their demands for musical perfection increased. By the end of the nineteenth century, wealthy Episcopal churches were hiring professional singers like Harry Burleigh to sing in their services. [5]

The short-lived interest in boys’ choirs was reignited in the 1950s when the Vienna Boys Choir began touring this country and, more important, appeared on Ed Sullivan’s television program. [6] The American Boys Choir copied its program and established a boarding school where members were trained, [7] much as they had been before the Reformation.

By 2000, such exclusively-male organizations were being criticized because they were all male, and more important, because they attracted predators as leaders and members. In Scottsbluff, Nebraska, Larry Cooper created a more American choir that was an extra-curricular activity like a local theater or dance company. Parents paid an annual fee, children attended early-evening rehearsals once a week, and the co-directors were a married couple. [8]

Ironically, the group’s performance of "Kumbaya" included more obvious mistakes than the ones by the Grant Elementary and Buds of Promise choirs. [9] In one place, a boy with a dominant voice sang the wrong words; in another, a younger boy sang a wrong note in a chord.

This was not because the arrangement by Sigrid Schultz-Kokerbeck was more challenging. The choir began singing "kumbaya" in parallel octaves, then divided on two verses (humming, singing) with one group singing the melody and the other humming or crooning "doo." This was followed by most singing the shouting verse, and the deeper voices joining on "kumbaya." The last verse, praying, was softer than the others.

This was a simplification of the original arrangement, which had the higher voices sing the melody for shouting, and some lower voices sing kumbaya against the tune and others sing it during the rests. [10] For dancing, different vocal groupings of voices sang the melody and rhythm. Weeping was sung in parallel octaves, and praying had the lower voices sustaining "bom" in parallel fifths.

Conductors always make aesthetic decisions. In this case, some in Scottsbluff may have been responses to the inabilities of the youngest boys to sing anything more complex than a hum as a countermelody or rhythm. Other choices, like dropping the dancing and weeping verses, may have been acknowledgments of what was considered appropriate material for boys and, with dancing, a capitulation to the conservative views of some parents.

A different type of decision was made in adding an introduction and conclusion that featured a trio of younger boys. It was not obvious if they were singing chords or if the timbres of their voices did not blend. Whether or not they were too young to be trained to sing together precisely, the directors no doubt had been taught that the skill was beyond the capacity of the average boy.

This signified the importance of culture. In England, boys selected to sing in choirs were assumed to be extraordinarily talented and capable of greater work than other children. The Scottsbluff directors were trained to teach in public schools, and may never have been exposed to the disciplines of European boy choirs.

Probably more important than culture was the size of the pool of available talent. Scottsbluff may have been the largest settlement in its part of western Nebraska in 2010, but it only had 15,039 people [11] in a county that numbered 37,000 residents. Excluding women, that meant there were 3,234 boys between the ages of 6 and 18 of whom about two-thirds or 2,166 were eligible for auditions in the county and 1,033 in the town in 2010. [12, 13]

Cooper’s intentions were different than those of English music professionals. When he was ten-years-old, he had been asked to join a group of forty boys preparing a Christmas program. He wrote:

"I remember very little about the actual performances but I do remember the joy of practicing a piece of music, as a group, and over time learning the harmonies and understanding the phrasing. After the piece was perfected there was great satisfaction singing with the group and listening to what we had created. That feeling never goes away!

"The lessons a young boy learns while working with other young boys to accomplish what seems impossible will last a lifetime!" [14]

Performers
Soloist: Alex Backus
Vocal Trio: Alex Backus, Destin Egan, Zachary Wharton
Vocal Accompaniment: eleven boys
Vocal Group Conductor: man
Instrumental Accompaniment: piano
Rhythm Accompaniment: none

Credits
Choir
arr. Sigrid Schultz-Kokerbeck

Sheet Music
Traditional/arr Sigrid Schultz-Kokerbeck 2010
© by Sigrid Schultz-Kokerbeck, 2010
Released into the Choral Public Domain Library

Notes on Lyrics
Language: English

Pronunciation: all syllables in kumbaya were given equal emphasis, with the last sustained longer

Verses: kumbaya, humming, singing, shouting, praying

Vocabulary
Pronoun: someone
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: none

Format: 7 verse song
Verse Length: 4 lines
Verse Repetition Pattern: AAxxxxA
Line Meter: trochaic
Line Length: 8 syllables
Line Repetition Pattern: AAAB
Line Form: statement-refrain

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5

Time Signature:
Sheet Music: 3/4

Tempo: moderate

Key Signature:
Sheet Music: two sharps

Vocal Parts:
Choir: three parts for preadolescent male voices
Sheet Music: SATB

Basic Structure: small group or ensemble supported by larger group

Singing Style: one syllable to one note, except for Lord in last line; one person trilled "by" in kumbaya one time.

Group Style: unison, chordal harmony

Vocal-Instrumental Dynamics: a piano played the first three notes before they began. It was not obvious if they needed it to set the pitch, or if it was part of the ritual of a capella singing. After the trio introduction, the piano played so softly it barely was heard.

Notes on Performance
Occasion: spring concert, 2015.

Location: Saint Agnes Roman Catholic church, Scottsbluff, Nebraska. The younger boys stood on the floor in front of the steps into the sanctuary. The older ones stood on the platform. A carpet was laid over the tile floor in the central aisle to absorb any sound.

Microphones: one floor mike for trio; two standing overhead microphones for choir

Clothing: white shirts with logo patch on left pocket, black slacks, and maroon stripped ties

Notes on Movement
The boys stood erect with their arms at their sides. The choir’s handbook gave precise instructions for proper carriage. [15] When the three boys in the trio stepped forward to the microphone, the other boys adjusted their positions. The boys stepped away from the mike after their solo, and returned to it only for the ending trio passage.

The director used both hands to conduct. The right marked the beat. The left often pointed to individuals or groups who had featured parts.

At the end, he stepped toward the group, turned and gestured toward them. The boys did not bow.

Communication between the boys during the performance was physical. When one boy did not move to his location after the trio stepped forward, the boy next to him touched his arm. I could not see how the older boy learned he was singing the wrong verse. The boy next to him may have whispered to him, the director may have glared, or he may have heard the others.

Notes on Audience
The audience sat still during the performance and applauded at the end.

Notes on Performers
Scottsbluff was a farming community since it was founded near the railroad tracks in 1899. The introduction of diesel pumps for irrigation made sugar beets profitable. Immigrants from Russia, Germany, and Japan did most of the work. After the restrictive immigration law of 1924, Mexican laborers took their places in the local sugar refining plant. [16] The community was still predominantly white, with most of the current immigrants speaking Spanish. [17]

Cooper was raised in Scottsbluff where he studied engineering at Western Nebraska Community College. [18] He made his living as a product distributor. [19]

The directors were Alyssa and Scott Harvey. They both graduated from Northwest Missouri State University, and both had been active in musical productions since they were a children. Both taught vocal music before moving to Scottsbluff, where he was teaching in the local public schools. He originally was from Scottsbluff and they lived on his family’s farm. She attended the local Episcopal church. [20]

Schultz-Kokerbeck was educated in Hamburg, Germany, gymnasiums [21] where she sang and learned to play guitar and accordion. She earned a degree in computer science, but preferred to direct choirs. [22] Google Translate garbled her comments when it indicated she believed:

"As a choral conductor, it is important to the individual singers to show how much joy they can prepare to discover the facets of their own voice, thereby underlining the content of the choral pieces, thus conveying the listeners accordingly." [23]

Availability
YouTube: uploaded by Larry Cooper, 6 June 2015.

Sheet Music: "Kumbayah, My Lord." Uploaded to Scribd website by yannisyanni2; access required subscription.

End Notes
1. Oxford had supported the crown in the English Civil War. It was Cambridge that was aligned with Parliament and the Puritans.

2. Wikipedia. "Oxford Movement."

3. Percy M. Young. "Chorus §5: Later Developments." 4:356-357 in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Edited by Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan, 1980. 4:356-357.

4. For more on Finney, see the post for 3 September 2017.

5. Burleigh was mentioned in the post for 15 August 2017. He was a soloist for Saint George’s Episcopal church in New York City from 1894 until 1946. When some men on the hiring committee were concerned about his race, J. Pierpont Morgan cast the deciding vote. (Wikipedia. "Harry Burleigh.")

6. I could not find many details on their appearances of Sullivan’s shows, which I remember were heavily promoted at the time. I did find a reference to an appearance on the 22 March 1953 program (Imdb website), and another to 18 September 1955 (tv website).

7. Wikipedia. "American Boychoir School."

8. Fortis Boychoir website.

9. Grant Elementary school was discussed in the posting for 25 September 2017. The Buds of Promise choir of the Kyles AME Zion church was described in the post for 27 September 2017.

10. Unlike the Teresa Jennings arrangement used by Grant Elementary that had children sing "kumbaya" on one tone, this assigned three different tones to the word.

11. Wikipedia. "Scottsbluff, Nebraska."

12. United States Census Bureau. "Quick Facts: Scottsbluff County, Nebraska." Census website. Calculations were mine.

13. The website said any boy at least six-years-old could audition. He would be asked to sing a few exercises "to determine range" and prepare a short piece. ("Audition Form." Fortis Boychoir website.)

There was no maximum age, but the average age for boys’ voices to change today is 13.5 years. (Wikipedia. "Boy’s Choir.)

14. Larry Cooper. "My Story." Fortis Boychoir website.

15. Handbook for Parents and Choir Boys. Fortis Boychoir website. It also covered attendance, academic standards, lying, memorizing music, staying healthy, and not harming the voice.

16. "Scotts Bluff, Nebraska." National Park Service website.

17. Wikipedia, Scottsbluff.

18. "About Larry Cooper." Facebook.

19. "Breezes Favorable for Power." [Scottsbluff, Nebraska] Star Herald, 10 March 2009.

20. "The Fortis Boy Choir is PROUD to introduce your co-directors." Fortis Boychoir website.

21. "Sigrid Schultz-Kokerbeck." Stay Friends website.

22. "Sigrid Schultz-Kokerbeck." Preetzer Gesangvereins von 1869 website.

23. Preetzer Gesangvereins. The original was: "Als Chorleitung ist es Frau Schultz-Kokerbeck wichtig, den einzelnen Sängerinnen und Sängern zu zeigen, wieviel Freude es bereiten kann, die Facetten der eigenen Stimme zu entdecken, dadurch den Inhalt der gesungenen Chorstücke zu unterstreichen und so den Zuhörerinnen und Zuhörern entsprechend zu vermitteln."