Topic: Pedagogy - Vocal Rhythm
Meter existed as a word before rhythm did, and both terms first were applied to language. The Oxford English Dictionary reported meter first appeared around 900, [1] and the first published use of rhythm occurred in 1560. [2] The two appeared in a 1657 commentary on the Book of Common Prayer, the one as a characteristic of hymns and psalms, [3] the other as the way they were sung. [4]
Willi Apel and Grosvenor Cooper suggested rhythm meantime was progressing from the Xxx of polyphony in the 1300s to the Xx of counterpoint in the 1500s. With Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier of 1722 "the effect of the measure-to-measure rhythm became much simpler, because of the strong accents in regular recurrence that pervade and regulate the entire fabric." [5]
The conceptual separation of meter from rhythm occurred in England when scholars began studying rediscovered Greek works. In 1737, Edward Manwaring declared "Metre is therefore Rhythm, but not all Rhythm Metre." [6] A generation later, in 1786, John Gillies observed "accent regulated the melody" and "quantity regulated the rhythm of ancient music." [7]
Metric pattern came to be seen in mathematical terms as even binary subdivisions. Lowell Mason even described the time signature as a fraction in which "the upper figure, or NUMERATOR, showing the number of parts, or kind of measure; and the lower figure, or DENOMINATOR, showing the particular note used on each part of the measure, or the variety of the measure." [8] He then defined the different forms like half notes as derivatives of quarter notes. [9]
This became simplified into a hierarchical tree that appeared in some band books [10] and some teacher’s editions of singing books. [11] At the top was a whole note. Below it were two half notes connected by lines to the parent. Below them were four quarter notes similarly associated to half notes.
At the same time singing schools were emphasizing regular rhythmic patterns, minstrel shows featured singers and musicians who began measures with single eighth notes in syncopated patterns. Stephen Foster’s "Camptown Races," written in 2/4, began with a series of regular eight notes for "De Camptown ladies sing dis song." "Doo-dah!" used the syncopated eighth followed by a dotted-quarter. The left hand of the piano accompaniment played whole or quarter notes on the first beats; the right hand played chords that matched the voice in the verse and even quarter and eighth-note patterns on the refrain. [12]
Ragtime piano, which emerged at the end of the nineteenth century, used a short-long melodic motif played by the right hand against a strong march tempo by the left. [A] Big bands in the 1930s and 40s spread syncopated African-American rhythms via radio and recordings. By 1950, Louis Kifer Myers said "children learn songs with the most intricate rhythmic patterns after hearing them over and over again on the radio," [14] but noted their teachers and songbooks only presented evenly divided metric patterns. The emergence of Elvis Presley in the middle 1950s widened the chasm between what children heard and what they were taught. [15]
Public school music books editors perpetuated the schism between classroom and playground. In their 1971 revision, Eunice Boardman and Beth Landis began their section on music fundamentals with melody and ways to explore music through singing. Rhythm was relegated to dance and playing percussion instruments. There was no concept the voice could have rhythmic qualities. [16]
Charles Leonhard’s team abandoned even that acknowledgment that rhythm existed in popular music in its 1970 revision of Discovering Music Together. They replaced their earlier organization based on American and international folk songs with the pure music theory approach used by Lorrain Watter’s team in 1967. [17] Four units were devoted to melody, rhythm, harmony, and "singing in harmony." The last primarily used echo songs, rather than two simultaneous parts.
They began their fourth-grade text with a summary of music concepts presumably introduced in an earlier volume. Next, nine-year-olds were taught to verbalize a song before they sang it. That meant converting the notes to "do re mi," identifying the note that represented "do," and using coordinating hand symbols as they sang syllables. In addition, they were expected to say the rhythm with the syllables "tah-ah" for a half note, "tah" for a quarter note, and "tee" for an eight note. Finally, they had to clap the rhythm before they were allowed to sing.
The use of "do re mi" went back to Medieval Europe, [18] and was widely used by people like Mason in singing schools. The counting system was borrowed from Alan McHose who trained generations of musicians at the Eastman School of Music concerned with teaching students to read music. [19] Colin Walley attributed the current interest in rhythm syllables to Carl Orff, [20] who "reminded us of the importance of encouraging children to feel rhythms through words," [21] rather than movement or dance.
Leonhard’s group moved "Kumbaya" from the unit on international songs to the opening section on reading music. The version looked the same as it had in the 1966 book because it cost money to change graphics. [22] It showed the first three notes as "do mi sol" that had been used to show the opening phrase was a broken chord. It also still had the symbols for chords that previously had been used for autoharps.
The comments about chords were replaced with observations on the "uneven rhythm" patterns in the song. The measure that began "yah, my Lord" used a dotted eighth, an eighth, and a quarter note. It wasn’t syncopated since it didn’t begin with the short note, but it was irregular. Leonard’s group informed them the first two notes should be counted as "tee dee."
The penultimate measure in fact had hidden syncopation: "Lord" began with an eight note and changed to a dotted quarter. It ended with two eight notes. Students were told that translated to "tee tah-ee tee tee."
To make room for the longer comments and illustrations of motifs, the line with the words for the second and third verses in the 1966 edition was dropped. The song became a simple one-verse iteration of "kumbaya."
The publisher made one other change. The painting of African men poling a long boat, which had appeared with "Kumbaya" in the earlier edition, was moved to the "African Canoe Chant" [23] that had been on the opposing page. The empty space on the "Kumbaya" page was replaced with a photograph of a wooden statue of an African American with his head facing upward and his hands close to his chest.
The book’s designer introduced other photographs drawn from African-American sources into this revision. One was a portrait of N. Nathaniel Dett, who wrote the "Juba Dance" that appeared on page 69. Another was a sculpted head on page 137 of a Black man entitled Self Portrait by Douglas R. Williams.
The graphics designer probably thought the statue represented a man in prayer, but, without the praying verse, the photograph of Minority Man I had no meaning. In fact, the African-American artist, Ed Wilson, intended it as a satire of "a begging attitude minority people were expected to assume" by the dominant society. [24]
Performers
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: class
Instrumental Accompaniment: none
Rhythm Accompaniment: none
Credits
Same as 1966 edition
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: not specified
Verses: kumbaya; 1966 had three verses
Vocabulary
Pronoun: none
Term for Deity: none
Special Terms: none
Basic Form: one-verse song
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Ending: none
Unique Features: none
Notes on Music
Same as 1966 edition
Availability
Book: "Kum Ba Yah." 31 in Discovering Music Together, Book 4. Edited by Charles Leonhard, Beatrice Perham Krone, Irving Wolfe, and Margaret Fullerton. Chicago: Follett Educational Corporation, 1970 revised edition.
End Notes
1. "Ymenbec misenlice metre." Anonymous old English translation of Bede. Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Translated as "book of hymns in varied metre" by Thomas Miller. London: N. Trübner and Company, 1890. 485. Cited by The Oxford English Dictionary. "Metre." Edited by J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989 edition. 9:697. Emphasis added.
2. "For nothinge is more pleasaunte than hys syle, nothynge purer than his speache, nothynge apter or more pleasaunt than hys Rythme." Ihon Daus on Clément Marot. London: Ihon Daye, 1560. 201. Translation of Johannes Sleidanus’ commentaries. Cited by OED, "Rhythm." 13:874. Emphasis added.
3. "They used all decent and grave variety of rhymes and Meeters in their Hymns and Psalms." Anthony Sparrow. A Rationale upon the Book of Common Prayer. London: T Garthwait, 1661. 361. Cited by OED, Metre. 9:697. Emphasis added.
4. "One began and sang in rhythm, the rest..hearing with silence." Sparrow. 314. Cited by OED, Rhythm. 13:874. Emphasis added.
5. Willi Apel. "Rhythm." Revised by Grosvenor Cooper. 729-731 in Harvard Dictionary of Music. Edited by Willi Apel. Cambridge: Belnap Press, 1969 edition. Quotation, 731,
6. Edward Manwaring. Stichology. London: Manwaring, 1737. viii 27. Cited by OED, Rhythm. 13:874.
7. John Gillies. History of Ancient Greece, its Colonies and Conquests. London: A. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1786. I.v 179. Cited by OED, Rhythm. 13:874.
8. Lowell Mason and George James Webb. The Psaltery. Boston: Wilkins, Carter, and Company, 1848 edition. 7. This was the language that drew the ire of Jesse Bowman Aikin mentioned in the post for 1 July 2018.
9. Mason. 8.
10. Harold W. Rusch. Hal Leonard Elementary Band Method. Bb Cornet or Trumpet. Winona, Minnesota: Hal Leonard Music, Inc., 1961. 11.
The Yamaha Advantage, discussed in the post for 11 July 2018 included the chart of page 7 of both the trumpet and percussion books. Accent on Achievement, discussed in the post for 26 August 2018, printed it on page 5 of the percussion book but did not use it in the trumpet book.
11. Eunice Boardman and Beth Landis’ Exploring Music 4 showed the table on page iv of the 1966 teacher’s edition, and page xv of the 1971 teacher’s edition. They were discussed in the post for 24 June 2018.
12. S. C. Foster. "Camptown Races." Baltimore: T. D. Benteen, 1850.
13. Wikipedia. "Ragtime."
14. Louise Kifer Myers. Teaching Children Music in the Elementary School. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1956 edition. 36
15. The gulf between the academy and popular music remained. Debbie Hays remembered: "In 8th grade, when all of us teenage girls (especially me) were falling head over heels in love with the Beatles, we got a class lecture from him about the Beatles, how they were NOT musicians, couldn’t read or write music, blah, blah, blah, but to this day I still love the Beatles and Opera." ("Madison ‘Reb’ Short Was My Choral Director." Facebook group. Comment posted 27 January 2012). The teacher was discussed in the post for 12 August 2018.
16. For more on the text edited by Boardman and Landis, see the post for 24 June 2018.
17. For more on Lorrain Watter’s text, see the post for 12 August 2018.
18. Apel, Harvard. "Solfège," 785-786, and "Solmization," 786-787.
19. J. R. McEntyre and Harry Haines. Rhythm Master. Book 1. Eb Alto/Baritone Saxophone. San Antonio: Southern Music Company, 1992. 33.
20. Orff’s role in music education was discussed in the post for 30 August 2018.
21. Colin Walley, Beth Douglas, and Glen Harrison. Fanfare Act 1. Toronto: Clarke, Irwin, and Company, 1969. 331. ii. Walley identified his method as "French Rhythm Syllables." Paul C. Varley, Junior, traced this and McHose back to "Pierre Galin, Aimé Paris, Paris’ sister, Nanine and her husband Emile Chevé." ("An Analysis of Rhythm Systems in the United States: Their Development and Frequency of Use by Teachers, Students, and Authors; and Relation to Perceived Learning Preferences." EdD diss. University of Missouri-st. Louis, August 2005. 47)
22. Leonhard’s 1966 edition was discussed in the post for 8 July 2018.
23. The song was "Wo-Ye-Le" on page 50.
24. "Ed Wilson." 454-461 in Romare Bearden and Harry Henderson. A History of African-American Artists. NY: Pantheon Books, 1993. 455.
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