Jay Althouse - Christmas Kum Ba Ya

The influence of reflexive habits and developmental age on the singing voice were obvious in two student performances of Jay Althouse’s arrangement of "Kumbaya." It began with a verse he wrote about Christ in the manger marked soft. He changed keys and marked the score medium-soft when he began quoting "someone’s sleeping" from "Kumbaya."

The next passage was in Swahili and marked medium-loud. [1] The concluding section was louder still, before it softened at the end. The total range for the upper part was from middle C-sharp to high E-flat, beyond a child’s usual abilities. The lower part spanned the octave from B-flat below middle C to B-flat.

When the children in the upper grades of Pleasant Hill Christian Elementary School performed his arrangement for a December concert they sang his "baby in the manger" part. However, when they got to the familiar, louder "Kumbaya" section, they reverted to the associated shouting style.

They continued their harsher voices into the next section, which used non-English words and higher notes that were beyond their comfort zone. The music grew louder when the lower voices sang "Kumbaya" and the upper ones repeated "see the baby." They continued using their more strident voices. However, when the version softened at the end they returned to their musical tones.

The seventh-graders in Milton-Union Middle School had better control of their voices, simply because they were at least a year older. They were able to handle the two parts of the "Kumbaya" section that had the higher voices singing the melody and the others singing a lower "hal-le-lu"rhythm part.

However, they all began shouting, rather than singing, the Swahili section as if it were a playground chant. They also had problems reaching the upper notes in that section. They returned to their musical voices for the two-part kumbaya/see the baby section and the soft ending.

Althouse didn’t create his arrangement for children. Music teachers probably selected it because it was appropriate for a December concert and was fun to sing. That both were able to teach youngsters to sing simultaneous parts with different words was a tribute to both them and their students.

Their problems arose from not giving precedence to Gehrkens and Myers over the dynamic markings made by Althouse. JoVonne Bolt could have told the children in the private Sebastopol, California, school they were singing a lullaby and shouldn’t wake the baby by singing "Kumbaya" too loudly. More than likely, she probably taught the two parts orally, one section at a time.

Ignoring the score would have been more difficult at the West Milton, Ohio, school where students may have been given copies of the sheet music.

The ones who would have had the hardest times deviating from the score were the pianists. The accompanists would have spent years being criticized for not playing exactly what was written. Their cues would have influenced children who had been taught to sing with the instrument, and taken precedence over the teachers’ instructions.

Performers
Jay Althouse
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: two parts
Instrumental Accompaniment: piano
Rhythm Accompaniment: none

Pleasant Hill Christian Elementary School
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: girls and boys from several grades
Vocal Director: JoVonne Bolt
Instrumental Accompaniment: piano
Rhythm Accompaniment: none

Milton-Union Middle School
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: girls and boys from seventh grade (most age 12)
Vocal Director: not seen
Instrumental Accompaniment: piano
Rhythm Accompaniment: none

Credits
Jay Althouse
Traditional Spiritual with new words and music by Jay Althouse
Copyright © MMIV by Alfred Music

Notes on Lyrics
Jay Althouse
Language: English and Swahili
Pronunciation: provided for Swahili
Verses: sleeping

Vocabulary
Pronoun: someone
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: someone was defined as the infant Jesus

Basic Form: three-part song with recapitulation

Verse Repetition Pattern: conclusion repeated parts of earlier three sections

Unique Features: assimilated "Kumbaya" into a larger narrative

Notes on Music
Jay Althouse
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5 and own
Time Signature: 4/4
Tempo: quarter note = 76-82 beats per minute
Rhythm: strong pulse
Key Signature: two sharps and three flats

Basic Structure: two parts together and separate
Singing Style: one syllable to one note

Vocal-Accompaniment Dynamics: in the first and second sections, the right hand of the piano played three-note chords and the left hand played octaves while people were singing. In the Swahili section, the right and left hands played octaves in the pauses between singing. The final section returned to the initial pattern, but the left hand part was lower - reaching down as far as low-A and the octave below. This made that part sound like a drum.

Notes on Performance
Pleasant Hill Christian Elementary School
Occasion: Christmas program

Location: stage with three Christmas trees at stage right and evergreen garlands across the front

Microphones: none
Clothing: girls in pastel-colored dresses; boys in slacks and shirts

Milton-Union Middle School
Occasion: December concert
Location: stage
Microphones: none
Clothing: pink, yellow, or peacock blue tee-shirts and gray slacks

Notes on Movement
Pleasant Hill Christian Elementary School
They were arranged in three rows on risers. Most stood with their arms at their sides, but none were trained to stand still. The director stood on the floor before the stage and directed with her hands.

Milton-Union Middle School
The choir entered during the introduction to stand on three risers. People in the first row then sat while they sang. During the Swahili section they stood and sang the first line facing front. On the second line two groups turned to face opposite directions, and returned front on the final line. The front row sat at the end of that section.

Notes on Audience
The parents applauded at the end of the song in both school concerts.

Notes on Performers
Althouse was born in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, to parents whose German ancestors had been in Lancaster County since at least the 1840s. [2] He earned music degrees from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, then worked for Fred Waring’s Shawnee Press for eight years. He spent twenty years composing for Alfred Music, [3] who published his version of "Kumbaya." He then became an independent composer. [4]

Pleasant Hill was owned by the Occidental Community Church, a small, evangelical church [5] in the midst of what local promoters called a "charming, bohemian community." [6] The school was established in 1982. [7] Since the seven grade averaged 40 students a year, [8] it was likely all the children old enough to participate did so. The music director, JoVonne Bolt, studied piano and sang in college choirs. [9]

West Milton’s schools served both the small community and surrounding Union Township in Miami County, Ohio. [10] The four grades together averaged 500 students a year. [11]

Availability
Jay Althouse
Sheet Music: "Christmas Kum Ba Ya." Van Nuys, California: Alfred Music, 2004. Available in SATB, SAB, TBB, and two parts. CD also available.

Pleasant Hill Christian Elementary School
YouTube: "Christmas Kum Ba Yah." Video made by Channel 13, [12] and uploaded by Pleasant Hill Christian School on 27 December 2016.

Milton-Union Middle School Seventh Grade Choir
YouTube: "Kum Ba Yah." Uploaded by Metroislife101 on 13 December 2009.

End Notes
1. Althouse used Italian terms to define his dynamics: piano for soft, mezzo-piano for half-soft, forte for loud, and mezzo-forte for half-loud. (Wikipedia. "Dynamics (Music).)"

2. Find a Grave entries for Althouses’ grandparents go back no farther than for individuals who were born in the 1820s. This suggested they were nineteen-century immigrants.

3. Waring’s widow sold Shawnee Press in 1989 to Music Sales Group. At that time, Alfred Publishing hired a number of their employees. Hal Leonard purchased Music Sales. As implied in the comments on band method books in the post for 27 June 2018, the one company expanded by acquiring copyrights, while the other hired the talent that created the catalog. (Wikipedia. "Shawnee Press.")

4. Tim de Brie. "Althouse, Jay Loren." Composers Classical Music website.
5. Occidental Community Church website.
6. "A Fun Getaway to Occidental." Sonoma County website.
7. Dennis Bolt. "Historic Timeline." Pleasant Hill school website.

8. "Pleasant Hill Christian School," Niche website, and "Pleasant Hill Christian," Great Schools website.

9. "Going Beyond Reading, Writing and Arithmetic." Pleasant Hill school website.
10. Wikipedia. "Union Township, Miami County, Ohio."

11. "Milton-Union Middle School," Niche website, and "Milton-Union Middle School," School Digger website.

12. The nearest and most likely channel 13 was KOVR-TV in Sacramento, California.