Kyles Temple AME Zion - Kumbaya

Topic: Learning Music
Churches are the second place where children sing in groups. Unlike schools, which segregate students by age, churches bring together people of all ages. Those choirs dominated by adults do not need to change their style or repertoire when children join, but children’s choirs are limited by the abilities of their youngest members. Thus, children in the one absorb music from exposure to those around them, while those in others learn their roles in communities.

The Buds of Promise choir of the Kyles Temple A.M.E. Zion church in Sacramento, California, included eleven people, ranging from one whose eyes were below the level of the lectern to twelve-year-olds. [1] Only three were girls, all among the tallest. They sang in unison, and there was no sound of any voice maturing with adolescence.

Their variant had been published by Zondervan in 1973. Instead of ending each line with "kumbaya," it asked the Lord to provide the "someone" with a specific gift. Thus, if "someone" was lonely, the song asked the Lord "to give him friends." This effectively changed the song from "Come by Here’s" request for the Holy Ghost to materialize into a prayer.

The editors said the source was "unknown." However, one of them, Don Wyrtzen was the son of an evangelist who had founded youth camps for Word of Life, and was closely associated with Youth for Christ. [2] Before he was named Zondervan’s youth editor, he had been influenced by "the folk music trend of the sixties," according to Jim Ruark. [3] He probably heard the song, and may have standardized the verse format.

The Buds version used the "somebody" of "Come by Here," instead of Zondervan’s "someone." They also made clear "somebody" referred to people in general, when they used the pronoun "them" in the second parts of the lines.

Their lyrics shared two verses with the published version. Another was the "Kumbaya" crying verse with "give them peace" in place of the refrain. Zondervan used that request with "someone’s fighting." The children substituted "come by here" in the praying stanza. Their "somebody loves you" was unique to them.

Before they began, a piano played the melody through once, with a drum accompaniment, to set the pitch and pace. The instruments continued while they sang, without pauses between the verses. Even the youngest seemed to have learned all the words.

Performers
Vocal Group Conductor: unidentified woman
Instrumental Accompaniment: piano
Rhythm Accompaniment: drum set

Credit or Credits
Sheet Music
Source: unknown

Notes on Lyrics
Language: English

Pronunciation: koom-BY-yah, with short "kum," long "ya," and accented "by"

Verses: kumbaya, loves you, crying, hating, doubting, praying

Vocabulary
Pronoun: somebody, them
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: none

Format: 8 verses
Verse Length: 4 lines
Verse Repetition Pattern: AAxxxxxA
Line Meter: iambic
Line Length: 9 syllables
Line Repetition Pattern: AAAB

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-5
Tempo: moderate
Basic Structure: group singing in unison
Singing Style: one syllable to one note

Notes on Performance
Location: the children were standing in front of a maroon curtain that served as a communion rail hiding the altar. They were in the raised area next to the lectern at stage left (right to the audience).

Microphones: none

Clothing: green and white are the Buds of Promise colors. The girls, and some of the boys, were wearing apple-green robes. The other boys wore green vests with white shirts and black trousers. The conductor was wearing a green smock.

Notes on Movement
The children stood in two rows, arrayed by height. They stood as still as children their age can. The youngest swivelled from side to side. The others touched their hair or other parts of the bodies, especially when the piano was playing and they were not singing.

The conductor used both arms symmetrically, but stood in place.

Notes on Audience
One man from somewhere behind the microphone started making comments about half way through, usually between verses. The rest of the audience sat still, and applauded at the end.

Notes on Performers
Kyles Temple was founded in Sacramento in 1916 by Thomas Allen Harvey. At the time this was uploaded, the pastor was Gloria Clemons-White. [4] Most of the 383 registered members in 2007 had lived their entire lives in Sacramento. [5]

Lynwood Washington Kyles was the AME Zion bishop assigned to the west coast from 1916 to 1924. [6]

Buds of Promise was organized in 1904 by Marie Clay Clinton for the Women’s Home and Overseas Missionary Society. She was raised in Huntsville, Alabama, but then was living in North Carolina where her husband was a church bishop. [7]

Don Wyrtzen was raised in New Jersey, and graduated from the Moody Bible Institute. He furthered his studies at the Dallas Theological Seminary, where he remembered, "most theologians don’t know a lot about music, and most musicians don’t know much about theology and doctrine." Phil Anderson added, "his background, in which the two areas of study came together, helped him formulate songs that were not only musically solid, but biblically sound, as well." [8]

Availability
YouTube: uploaded by Kyles Temple AME Zion Church, 23 February 2016.

Sheet Music: "O Lord!" 89 in Hymnal for Contemporary Christians. Compiled by Norman Johnson and Don Wyrtzen. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Corporation, 1976.

End Notes
1. Buds of Promise is the AME Zion program for children from 1 to 12 years.

2. Wikipedia. "Jack Wyrtzen."

3. Jim Ruark. The House of Zondervan. Nashville: Harper Collins Christian Publishing, Inc., 2006. 147.

4. Kyles Temple AME Zion Church, 101st Anniversary Program. 21 May 2017.

5. Dale Nelson. "Oak Park Church Rolls into Future." Sacramento News and Review website, 4 August 2007. The membership, no doubt, increased in the past decade.

6. "Kyles, Lynwood Westinghouse." In Encyclopedia of African American Religions. Edited by Larry G. Murphy, J. Gordon Melton, and Gary L. Ward. Abington-on-Thames: Routledge, 2013 edition.

7. "Mrs. Marie Louise Clay Clinton." In Program for Marie L. Clinton Day, 24 January 2016. Prepared by Cynthia L. Revels-Young and Sandra L. Gadson. Charlotte, North Carolina: Women’s Home and Overseas Missionary Society.

8. Phil Anderson. "The Poet of the Piano: At 74, Don Wyrtzen Still Making Christian Music." The Topeka Capitol-Journal website, 19 May 2017.