Frank Churchley - Kum Ba Yah

Topic: Pedagogy - Vocal Tempo
Metabolism is the scientific term for the processes an organism needs to function, be it the photosynthesis of plants or the conversion of food by humans. [1] Basal metabolism rates are highest when children are about one year old. At the time boys enter elementary school at age five their rate is 50, and the rate for girls is slightly lower. When they reach fifth grade, a boy’s rate has fallen to about 44. During junior high, the boy’s rate drops to about 41 and a girl’s to about 38. Rates continue to drop until they reach age twenty, though not so dramatically, then level off. [2]

I don’t know exactly how basal metabolism rates correlate with energy expenditures by children, but I’m guessing the high levels for 30-month-old toddlers explains why they ran, galloped or swung to music in the 1930s. Six months later, at age three, Arnold Gesell and Frances Ilg found they could "gallop, jump, walk and run in fairly good time to music." [3] Walking suggested they had added an ability to handle a slightly slower pace.

Marilyn Pflederer Zimmerman observed that children, in general, were "better able to keep time with fast tempi than with slow tempi." She added

"Nursery school children in particular are more successful in synchronizing their movements

with fast tempi than with slow ones. Kindergarten and primary school children adapt to both, although maintaining a steady beat at slower tempi is still more difficult than at faster tempi." [4]

Robert Petzold’s experiments with children in Madison, Wisconsin, showed all children experienced significantly more difficulty in maintaining a steady beat at the slower tempos of 92 and 60 beats per minute and that children in Grades 1 and 2 found the tempo of 60 especially difficult, responding with larger deviations than those noted for the other two grades. [5]

Tempo or the speed of music would then seem to be one element teachers would consider when selecting songs for their elementary school classes. "Kumbaya" can be sung at any speed, but all the public school music books published in the United States in the 1960s and early 1970s specified it be sung slowly. In some cases that was because the word "slowly" appeared in the version they were reprinting. [6]

The only school text to suggest a faster time for "Kumbaya" was one published in Canada, where Frank Churchley specified 2/4 time. One reason for a willingness to sing quickly may have been Canada was essentially an Anglican country. Methodists, who amplified the strictures of Puritans against musicality in the United States, were less powerful. Indeed, they had merged with the Presbyterians in 1925 into the United Church of Canada.

More important may have been the editorial evolution of the Basic Goals in Music Series. Texts for the primary grades were released first by Lloyd Slind and Churchley. When McGraw Hill decided to add a kindergarten book, Churchley asked Joan Haines to help because she was an expert in "early childhood music." [7]

Sound Beginnings was divided into two units that each covered the four seasons. "Kumbaya" was included in the section of winter songs in the second unit or year.

Teachers, of course, were free to do as they chose. Indeed, Churchley found many ignored the organization of his series, and converted books into song collections. [8] Those who used the slow tempo risked boring their students, and, in fact, none of the versions uploaded to YouTube were slow. The version used by Grant Elementary School was advertized as "lively." [9]

Performers
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: group
Instrumental Accompaniment: piano
Rhythm Accompaniment: none

Credits
African folk song
From Spirituals. Cooperative Recreation Service.

Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: koom bay yah
Verses: calling, sighing, praying, singing

Vocabulary
Pronoun: someone
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: calling, sighing

Basic Form: four-verse song
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Ending: none

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Time Signature: 2/4
Tempo: nothing specified
Key Signature: no sharps or flats
Autoharp Chords: C F G⁷
Singing style: unison

Vocal-Accompaniment Dynamics: right hand of piano played melody; left had played a chord at the beginning of every measure and on the last syllable of kumbaya.

Notes on Performers
Churchley grew up in a small Ontario town where he studied piano. [10] After his family moved when he was 13, he was able to play trumpet in the town band. [11] He began studying music education at the University of Toronto after World War II when most of the students "were service men who had been in the army band or air force band coming back. There was a growing interest in instrumental music." [12] While he was in college, he spent his summers as music director of Taylor Statten’s Camp Ahmek. [13]

After receiving his certification Churchley taught vocal and instrumental music for two years in Niagara Falls, Ontario, [14] and returned there for two years after he’d earned his masters from Columbia. [15] "Harry Robert Wilson conducted the choir; he was sort of a bombastic type. I sang in his choir." [16]

Once he had his PhD, he taught music education in universities. He retired in 1994, [17] and turned his attention to water color painting. [18]

Beatrice Joan Elizabeth Haines was born in Lancashire, England, where her father was a clergyman. [19] She earned her bachelor’s degree from Carlton University in 1959, [20] and was on the education faculty at McGill University. Her obituary described her as a "much loved, admired and respected educator," but provided no biographical details. [21]

Availability
Book: "Kum Ba Yah." 148-149 in Sound Beginnings. Edited by Frank Churchley and Joan Haines. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Company of Canada, 1967.

End Notes
1. Wikipedia. "Metabolism."

2. J. V. G. A. Durnin. "Basal Metabolic Rate in Man." Joint FAO/WHO/UNU Expert Consultation on Energy and Protein Requirements Rome, 5 to 17 October 1981. FAO website. Female rates were consistently lower than male ones.

3. Arnold Gesell and Frances L. Ilg. The Child from Five to Ten. New York: Harper and Row, 1946. 232.

4. Marilyn Pflederer Zimmerman. Musical Characteristics of Children. Washington: Music Educators National Conference, 1971. 25. She was discussing the work of Helen Christianson and Robert Petzold (below). Christianson wrote Bodily Rhythmic Movements of Young Children in Relation to Rhythm in Music. New York: Columbia University Teachers College, 1938.

5. Robert G. Petzold. Auditory Perception of Musical Sounds by Children in the First Six Grades. Madison: The University of Wisconsin, 1966. 257.

6. Cooperative Recreation Service publications said "slowly."

7. Frank E. Churchley. Interviewed by Betty Hanley. "Frank E. Churchley: Gentleman, Scholar, Teacher." March 2005. 56.

8. Churchley. 63-64.
9. For more on Grant Elementary School, see the post for 25 September 2017.
10. Churchley. 3.
11. Churchley. 10.
12. Churchley. 11.
13. Churchley. 21.
14. Churchley. 4.
15. Churchley. 37.
16. Churchley. 32. Wilson was mentioned in the post for 15 July 2018.
17. Churchley. vi.
18. Churchley. vii.
19. "Baptisms at St Eadmer." Lancashire OnLine Parish Clerks website.
20. Carlton University graduation program. 22 May 1959.
21. Joan Haines obituary published by Montreal Gazette on 14 December 2002.