Topic: Theology - Presbyterians
The music director of Jeffersonville, Indiana’s First Presbyterian Church selected Paul Sjolund’s arrangement of "Kumbaya." It may have been chosen because it allowed a choir to sound like a choir. [1]
Steve Inman did not deviate from the score. The choir began with an introduction sung by men, followed by a repetition of the "kumbaya" text by women. When the four vocal parts joined on the standard praying/crying/singing stanzas each iteration began on a higher note of the scale.
Sjolund changed key again for the "sing alleluia" verse that not only was significantly higher in pitch, but also louder. While this appeared to be another verse, it actually was a transition into a doxology that converted the simple song into a hymn. It was followed by progressively softer and slower repetitions of "Oh Lord kumbaya" and "kumbaya" that functioned as amens.
The use of doxologies was the one Scots’ musical habit Puritans were unable to eradicate during their alliance in the English Civil War when they both signed the Westminster Confession in 1646. [2] John Knox had defined what would replace the mass with the Book of Common Prayer in 1549. [3] It was the practices that developed after 1549 that Puritans were trying to reform, not the Roman Catholic liturgy.
Thomas Fotheringham believed Presbyterian preachers did not enter their pulpits to deliver their sermons in those years until after the reader’s service. This often was conducted by "old parish priests who were not qualified to act as Protestant ministers, or the parish school-masters, or some other godly persons." They read lessons from the John Knox Liturgy and the Bible.
"The people knelt in prayer and stood in singing and responded with an ‘Amen’ at the close of the prayers. The Gloria Patri was sung at the end of every psalm, and in some places the Ten Commandments were recited." [4]
During the Puritan Commonwealth, "singing the ‘conclusion’ to the psalms" was banned, but the practice did not die. The official Scots psalter of 1781 allowed their reintroduction as doxologies that translated "the Old Testament text" into the theology of the New. According to Wikipedia there were seven that referred to the Trinity "each for a different metrical pattern, which could be sung at the close of a psalm. These were printed together at the end of the psalms." [5]
"Amens" were adopted as the appropriate ending for hymns by leaders of the Oxford Movement within the Church of England in their 1861 Hymns Ancient and Modern. [6] More recently, purists have argued the word "amen" should be reserved for prayers and not used for hymns.
Others have responded to the elimination of sung amens by adding other words like Sjolund’s "sing alleluia" to the end of "Kumbaya." More than 10% of the videos on YouTube ended with such repetitions, often with an emphasis on the "Oh Lord" section. Of the ones I counted, seven groups sang it twice, five sang it five times, and two sang it three times. Many more sang a special ending once.
Theology aside, the repetition of the last line of the "kumbaya" verse several times both gave the open-ended song a definitive form and satisfied a need for closure nurtured by hymn singing. The cadences often were the only time people in congregations felt comfortable singing harmony. Words did not matter so much as the aesthetic sense of what was right.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: photograph showed 18 women and 8 men. One may have been an adolescent girl. The adults were all middle-aged. The sheet music was scored for SSA or SATB.
Vocal Director: Steve Inman [7]
Instrumental Accompaniment: piano
Rhythm Accompaniment: none
Credits
Sheet Music
Traditional Spiritual. Arr. Paul Sjolund. Revisions and added Lyrics by P. S.
The Black American Spiritual "Come by Here, My Lord," evolved in the West Indies to it’s present title "Kumbaya, My Lord."
Copyright © 1987 by Hinshaw Music, Inc.
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: Sjolund dropped the final g’s on praying, singing, and singing
Verses: kumbaya, praying, crying, singing, sing alleluia
Vocabulary
Pronoun: someone
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: none
Basic Form: six-verse song
Verse Repetition Pattern: AAxxxx
Ending: repeated "Oh Lord, Kumbaya" twice followed by two more repetitions of the word "kumbaya"
Unique Features: Sjolund introduced the use of "alleluia"
Notes on Music
Sheet Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Time Signature: 4/4; introduction marked rubato and varied between 4/4, 2/4, and 2/2.
Tempo: legato, quarter note equaled 58 beats per minute
Key Signature: began with no flats or sharps; changed to two sharps, one flat, and two flats
Basic Structure: repetition with variations in key
Singing Style: chordal harmony with one note to one syllable, except for Lord. The one exception was the ends of the last lines of the three gerund verses. In the SSA score, the first sopranos held the note for the last syllable of "kumbaya" while the others repeated "kumbaya." The sustained tone could barely be heard in the YouTube version.
The chancel choir prepared a new piece for every service, and met once a week to rehearse. [8] Presumably Inman divided the time into segments devoted to rehearsing the piece planned for the coming Sunday, going over future pieces, and introducing a new one. This would have kept choristers interested, but would not have allowed the kind of drill needed to perfect difficult or unusual passages.
Sjolund’s arrangement fit this kind of schedule, perhaps because he had been involved with groups who performed weekly. He used parallel thirds, with the first syllable of "someone" sung in unison, and the last "ya" a fifth. The alleluia section used triads. Thus, with the exception of the one phrase, everything was familiar to the singers.
Vocal-Instrumental Dynamics: the piano played the four separate notes of a chord before the choir began. The introduction was marked a capella, but the pianist played the vocal line chords. Sjolund used chords in the left hand and arpeggios in the right throughout, which meant the accompaniment provided no melodic support for the singers.
Notes on Performance
Occasion: the sheet music indicated the arrangement was "Commissioned in an ecumenical spirit by the Choirs of Edgewater Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota."
Clothing: photograph showed the choir wearing red robes with white V-stoles. The sleeves were lined with white.
Notes on Audience
Applause at the end.
Notes on Performers
Jeffersonville was located on the Ohio river opposite Louisville. The first elder of the Presbyterian Church, Samuel Meriwether, moved to the area in 1813 from Kentucky and helped organize the church in 1830. [9] His immigrant ancestor, Nicholas, arrived in Jamestown during the Puritan Commonwealth. [10] His grandson, and Samuel’s grandfather, David, was a vestryman in the Episcopal church [11]
Samuel’s family may have become Presbyterians when his father William moved to Kentucky. [12] His wife’s grandmother, Jane Cunningham, definitely was Scots. [13] Alternatively, the family may have joined what then was the dominant church on the Louisville frontier.
Jeffersonville grew as a river port: in 1870, 17% of the residents were European immigrants; many had come from Germany. [14] The church also grew, and absorbed converts. The ancestors of the pastor in 1870, Joseph M. Hutchison, had moved from Scotland to Philadelphia. Hutchison was followed by John Simonson Howk, whose German ancestors settled first in Massachusetts. [15]
Inman was raised in the church, and served as a lay pastor [16]
Sjolund has provided no biographical information to his publishers. His undergraduate school, Westmont, said he came to the school’s attention when its choir was touring the Midwest in the 1950s and that he "had sung for the Haven of Rest ministry." [17] That may have placed him in the area of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Don Chalfant, who organized a mission under that name in Battle Creek in 1956, had previously been an "assistant superintendent of the city’s Haven of Rest." [18]
Westmont was established as the non-denominational Bible Missionary Institute in Santa Barbara, California, by Ruth Kerr of Kerr Glass. [19] Sjolund’s musical mentor there was John Lundberg, who then was a member of Charles E. Fuller’s Old Fashioned Revival Hour Quartet. [20] In the middle 1960s, Sjolund substituted for a member of the Blenders quartet on the Lawrence Welk show, [21] made arrangements for Norman Luboff, and toured with Paul Bergan, who had sung with Fred Waring. [22]
Availability
YouTube: uploaded by First Presbyterian Church on 26 April 2015.
Sheet Music: published on demand by Hinshaw Music, Inc. of Chapel Hill and distributed by Hal Leonard in Milwaukee.
End Notes
1. I found seven versions of Sjolund’s arrangement on YouTube.
2. Wikipedia. "Westminster Assembly" and "Westminster Confession of Faith."
3. Wikipedia. "Book of Common Prayer" and "John Knox."
4. T. F. Fotheringham. "The John Knox liturgy, or, Scottish "Book of common order." Lecture delivered before the St. Stephen’s Church Guild, Saint John, New Brunswick. Published in 1898 by E. J. Armstrong in Saint John.
5. Wikipedia. "Hymnbooks of the Church of Scotland."
6. Wikipedia. "Hymns Ancient and Modern." The Oxford Movement was mentioned in the post for 29 September 2017.
7. The Church website listed Inman as its choir director. ("Our Music" tab)
8. "Our Music." Church website.
9. Lewis C. Baird. Baird’s History of Clark County, Indiana. Indianapolis: B. F. Bowen and Company, 1909. 622.
10. The Meriwether Society, Inc. "Nicholas MERIWETHER." Ancestry website. He was the progenitor of Meriwether Lewis.
11. The Meriwether Society, Inc. "David Meriwether." Find a Grave website. 18 October 2010.
12. Sharon Sabel Pike. "William Meriwether." Find a Grave website. 28 December 2002.
13. George. "Jane Cunningham Oldham." Find a Grave website. 19 April 2017.
14. Wikipedia. "Jeffersonville, Indiana."
15. Baird. 791.
16. "Our Staff." Church’s website.
17. "Westmont over the Years: 1950s." Westmont College website.
18. Dillon Davis. "Haven founder Don Chalfant dies at 93." USA Today website. 6 June 2017. Sjolund graduated in 1959, so, at the latest, matriculated in 1955 before Chalfant was in Battle Creek. ("The Life and Sounds of John Lundberg." Westmont Magazine, Summer 2006.)
19. Wikipedia. "Westmont College."
20. Westmont College website.
21. "Group: Blenders 1965-1966." Welk Notes website.
22. Item on California Nurses Association banquet. [Long Beach, California] Independent, 10 June 1965. 45
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