Susie Tallman - Kumbayah

Topic: Lullaby - Definition
Calming and lulling serve universal functions arising from the interaction of newborn infants with their parents. They occasionally crystallize into genres that vary by culture. Alan Lomax noted the ones he heard in Spain each had an identifiable chorus of nonsense syllables. [1] Sandra Trehub and Rebekah Prince found women in Turkey knew few tunes. They were used with multiple sets of words, each of which was considered a separate song. [2]

When Mizuki Miyashita and Shirlee Crow Shoe wanted to reintroduce the Blackfoot language, they decided they would be more successful if they taught the vocabulary in songs. However, the native musical tradition relied primarily on vocables. They collected lullabies because they were more likely to contain words. [3]

A lullaby genre seems to have developed in England during the reign of Elizabeth I when men began exploring the oceans and Protestantism was being established. The Oxford English Dictionary reported the first use of the word lullaby around 1566 in an ambiguous context, [4] but by 1588 it had a clear meaning. It was used by Shakespeare [5] and Robert Greene. The later wrote: "The good wife learned to sing lullaby at home with her young babe." [6]

Interesting, Grove’s dictionary of music suggested the first musical example, William Byrd’s "Lullaby, my sweet little baby," also appeared in 1588 [7] in a collection of Psalms, Sonets and Songs. It was a madrigal for five voices accompanied by viols. Jeremy Grimshaw said it also was known as the "Lullaby for Holy Innocents." It alternated between Mary comforting her son in "tranquil duple meter," and a narrator who used "dramatic triple meter" to describe Herod. [8]

The characteristics of the domestic lullabies probably are known only from fragments. In the post for 5 January 2018, I mentioned the many reasons lulling songs were not collected by folklorists. The Scots and English collectors active in the 1700 and 1800s were interested in preserving what they thought were the relics of older medieval traditions, not contemporary genres. They were more likely to have noticed medieval carols sung to the baby Jesus that contained lulling refrains. [9]

The OED recorded a new use for the word lullaby in the mid-nineteenth century that probably signaled the development of the modern genre. In 1842, Edward Bulwer Lytton wrote: "You thought you heard the lullaby which a fairy might sing to some fretful changeling." [10] This was the same year Robert Schumann wrote his "Schummerleid." It was published in 1845, the year Chopin’s "Berceuse" became public. [11]

This was the Romantic period that stressed the emotions of the individual and created the image of innocent childhood. Books about fairies, elves, and other supernatural creatures were published with drawings of a magical, idealized wild nature. The one song from this period that entered camp tradition, [12] and later was used as a lullaby, [13] was "Baby’s boat’s a silver star." [14]

The Weaver’s version mentioned in the post for 3 October 2017 treated the moon and trees anthropomorphically; the one was able to smile, the other to sleep. These images were expanded by Amy Cope in the version described in the post for 3 January 2018.

Few of the versions of "Kumbaya" on Amazon or YouTube deviated from the standard set of verses. This may be because the recordings were seen as public events that should adhere to the written word, not the private lullings when new words were substituted for the usual gerunds and the someone pronoun.

One woman who did use dreaming and sleeping verses was Susie Tallman. She created a version that appealed to the nostalgic images of lullabies held by parents who had heard "Kumbaya" on records made specifically for children when they were young. Many in those years were inspired by Peter, Paul and Mary’s Peter, Paul and Mommy. [15] One of Tallman’s customers said the CD

"Brings back fond memories of when I was small, like the feeling you get when paging through a children’s book your mother read to you when you were a child..." [16]

She achieved her affects by using a guitar playing soft arpeggios in the background. Her own soprano voice had a slightly child-like quality which was emphasized by pronouncing Lord as Lordt to soften the hard terminal consonant sound. Her voice was further mellowed by Merrie Amsterburg, who sang parallel thirds on the refrains.

Performers
Vocal Soloist: Susie Tallman, soprano
Vocal Group: Merrie Amsterburg
Vocal Director: none
Instrumental Accompaniment: harmonica, acoustic guitar
Rhythm Accompaniment: none

Credits
Recording copyrighted (P) 1998 Susie Tallman

Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: cum BYE ya; Lordt, with a soft /d/

Verses: kumbaya, singing, dreaming, crying, sleeping, come by here

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

Basic Form: six-verse song
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Ending: none
Unique Features: none

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: Seekers
Tempo: moderate

Basic Structure: alternated one instrumental verse with three sung ones (IvvvIvvv)

Singing Style: unadorned, with slightly childish sound; used two notes in the last lines for Lord and bye.

Solo-Group Dynamics: a second woman joined on the refrains of the three lines, singing a parallel third lower.

Vocal-Orchestral Dynamics: a harmonica played the complete melody with guitar arpeggios in the introduction. The guitar continued while Tallman was singing, and never changed its pattern. In the interlude, the harmonica and guitar played two competing melodies against the arpeggios.

Notes on Performance
Cover: it had the same gauzy historicism as the recording with a Paul Gauguin child dropped into a Henri Rousseau landscape. Irene Hardwicke Olivieri featured a Polynesian child in a skirt of red leaves holding a bouquet of composite flowers at the ends of long stems marked by lance-shaped leaves. The stems curved down so the slightly chubby, hermaphroditic child was standing in a bed of greenery.

Audience Perceptions
The harmonica-guitar duet may have been too complicated for a very young infant, and disrupted the calming mood. However, infants soon adapt to their parents’ tastes. Parents’ comments on Amazon indicated that Tallman had succeeded in creating an album that adults could listen to while it calmed their young charges. One person wrote:

"Some lullaby cd’s we tried would eventually do the job for my infant daughter, but would leave me wanting to get out of the nursery ASAP. Susie Tallman’s songs let me enjoy the experience of rocking my baby to sleep, even when she was fussy." [17]

The mental state of the parent is an important as that of the infant. If the one is upset, the other will not calm down. One remembered, "When my baby was up at night with colic, it really helped relax him as well as myself." [18]

While parents have mentioned using the CD since their children were very young, the appeal to adult sensibilities meant it could continue to be used with slightly older children. One mother, after remarking "it will not get on your nerves like some baby/toddler music!," observed "Our 5 year old still enjoys listening to it while she does art or other quiet projects." [19]

Another woman mentioned still another use of lullaby CDs for toddlers. She wrote, "My 3-year-old has gone to sleep to this wonderful music every night for the past year, and we even have to travel with a copy of it." [20]

Notes on Performers
Tallman studied music at UCLA and at the New England Conservatory Workshop. Most of her singing experience was with choral groups in Paris and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus. Her official biographies did not mention children. [21]

Amsterbrg was born in Ludington, Michigan, where her "mother used to sing ‘Clementine’ to me and my brother when she was rocking him." She settled in Boston where she expanded the folk tradition with international instruments like bouzoukis. [22]

Hardwick Olivieri was raised in McAllen, Texas, and went to Brazil after high school. She returned to New York where she worked as The New York Botanical Garden and earned a masters from New York University. She moved to "the high desert of central Oregon." [23]

The instrumentalists were not named.

Availability
CD: Lullaby Themes for Sleepy Dreams. CD Baby. 1 April 1999.

YouTube: uploaded by CDBaby on 20 October 2015.

End Notes
1. Alan Lomax and Edith Crowell Traeger. "Phonotactique du chant populaire." L’Homme: Revue Française d’Anthropolge 4:5:1964. Reported by his sister, Bess Lomax Hawes. "Folksongs and Function: Some Thoughts on the American Lullaby." The Journal of American Folklore 87:140-148:1974. 142-143.

2. Sandra E. Trehub and Rebekah L. Prince. "Lullabies and Other Women’s Songs in the Turkish Village of Akçaeniº." Refereed E-Journal, October 2010. 12.

3. Mizuki Miyashita and Shirlee Crow Shoe. "Blackfoot Lullabies and Language Revitalization." 183-190 in Indigenous Language Revitalization: Encouragement,Guidance and Lessons Learned. Edited by Jon Reyhner and Louise Lockard. Flagstaff: Northern Arizona University, 2009. 183.

4. "when my mistress lay in and we sang lulley by baby and bore ye." Misogonus, act IV, scene 1, line 76. Most likely by Thomas Richardes, 1566. Published by Alois Brandl. Quellen des Weltlichen Dramas in England vor Shakespeare. Strassburg : K. J. Trübner, 1898. Cited by The Oxford English Dictionary. "Lullaby." Edited by J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989 edition. 9:93.

5. William Shakespeare. Titus Andronicus, act II, scene 3, line 29, from 1588. Also, A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, act II, scene 2, lines 14-19, from 1590. Quoted by OED. 9:93.

6. Robert Greene. Pandosto. London: Thomas Orwin for Thomas Cadman, 1588. 27. Quoted by OED. 9:93.

7. Maurice J. E. Brown. "Lullaby." 11:313-314 in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Edited by Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan, 1980.

8. Jeremy Grimshaw. "William Byrd: Lullaby, my sweet little baby." All Music website.

9. Brown. 11:313.

10. Edward Bulwer Lytton. Zanoni. Leipzig: Frederick Fleischer, 1842. 24. Quoted by OED. 9:94.

11. Brown. 11:313.

12. Camp Songs, Folk Songs. It was reported by 19 camps or individuals. One person described how she used the melody to recall the lyrics. 191.

13. Hawes reported it was one of six songs commonly reported as lullabies in the United States. The others were "Rockabye Baby," "Bye Baby Bunting," "All the Pretty Little Horses," "Sleep Baby Sleep," and "Hush Little Baby." 146.

14. Jessie L. Gaylor and Alice Cushing Donaldson Riley published "Baby’s Boat" in Playtime Songs for the Schoolroom. Chicago: Clayton F. Summy Co., 1911.

15. The collection of children’s songs was released in 1969. It included "Puff the Magic Dragon." It did not include "Kumbaya."

16. A customer. Posted to Amazon on 23 September 1999.
17. T. Wilson. Posted to Amazon on 28 February 2008.
18. Predalien. Posted to Amazon on 20 February 2003.
19. Toddler Mama. Posted to Amazon on 3 January 2014.
20. Andrea Palmer. Posted to Amazon on 8 June 2000.
21. Tallman’s website.
22. Amsterburg’s website.

23. Debbie Williamson Smith. "‘Contemporary Oregon Visions: Jo Hamilton and Irene Hardwicke Olivieri’ Opens at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art." University of Oregon press release. 17 March 2014.