Pete Seeger - Kum Ba Yah

Topic: Commercial Folk Music Revival
Pete Seeger was responsible for introducing "Kumbaya" to the commercial folk music revival. It had begun to seep into the repertoire earlier, [1] but his performances were the ones that moved it from the periphery.

Lynn Rohrbough had begun publicizing the common version in 1956. He ran a small company in Delaware, Ohio, that had been producing customized songbooks for churches and youth groups since 1940. [2] He incorporated in 1954, [3] and began expanding the business.

In 1955, "interested agencies" gave his Cooperative Recreation Service a thousand dollars to promote the business with a Song Sampler. [4] The first issue, published in January 1956, contained "Kum Ba Yah," along with the international and religious songs for which he was known. [5]

By 1957, Rohrbough was considering supplementing his songbooks with some illustrative recordings. [6] Tony Saletan, a folk-music revival artists based in Boston, went to Delaware in 1957 to discuss the project. [7] He said he learned "Kumbaya" from Rohrbough. [8] He then sang it at the Swarthmore College folk festival [9] where Joe Hickerson learned it. [10]

Rohrbough apparently also gave a copy to Larry Eisenberg, an old friend who had worked in the Methodist Church’s Youth Department. [11] He taught it at Davidson College in North Carolina in late 1956. [12] That was where Pete Seeger learned it. [13]

Sometime that year, Seeger added it to his repertoire. He was recorded singing "Kumbaya" in October 1957 at a concert sponsored by the Folklore Society of the University of Chicago. [14] In December 1957, Seeger included "Kum Ba Yah" in a commercial recording made of a concert with Sonny Terry at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

By then, Seeger had been aware of the implications of the copyright law for years. To create a version that did not run foul of someone’s copyright, it was necessary to make minor changes to a text or tune.

In October, Seeger used the three CRS verses ("crying," "singing," "praying") in his own order, with his own verse, "sleeping." He first sang the "kumbaya" verse, then told the audience "we ought to get some harmony on this one," and repeated "kumbaya." He paused to recount the song’s origins. After singing the four verses, he ended with "kumbaya."

In December, he did not mention the song’s history. Instead, that appeared in the album’s liner notes. He dropped the "crying" verse and inserted an extra repetition of the "kumbaya" verse between the second and third verses.

Five years later, in Australia, he started with "kumbaya," then told the story about the song’s origins. He added "it does need some harmony" and asked them to make up their own. He then sang three verses and "kumbaya." This time he dropped the religious "praying" and changed "crying" to "weeping," which rhymed with "sleeping."

He usually sang the melody on the first iteration. When the audience started to sing with him, he made some comment about needing harmony. In Chicago and Australia he began singing a lower counter-melody that was like a woman’s alto part. In New York, he went higher on some notes.

If one wonders if a performer was influenced by Seeger’s performances, there are three traits unique to him. One was the use of "sleeping." Second was the lower counter-melody. Third was his pronunciation of "koom bye ah." Anyone who dropped the "y" sound on the last syllable either copied him or was from that part of the New England where that was a typical pronunciation pattern.

Performers
Vocal Soloist: Pete Seeger
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Accompaniment: Pete Seeger, banjo
Rhythm Accompaniment: none

Credits
"The song was published in one of the small camp songbooks put out by that remarkable man, Lynn Rohrbough, who in his Ohio barn prints millions of songbooks and recreation handbooks for churches, Y’s, and camps throughout the world." [15]

Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: koom bye ah

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

Form
Ending: none
Unique Features: sleeping verse

Chicago, October 1957
Basic Form: four-verse song, framed by kumbaya
Verses: kumbaya, praying, crying, sleeping, singing
Verse Repetition Pattern: AAxxxxA where A = kumbaya

New York, December 1957
Basic Form: almost verse-burden
Verses: kumbaya, sleeping, praying, singing,
Verse Repetition Pattern: AxxAxA where A = kumbaya

Australia, October 1963
Basic Form: three-verse song framed by kumbaya
Verses: kumbaya, sleeping, weeping, singing
Verse Repetition Pattern: AxxxA where A = kumbaya

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5

Tempo: In Chicago he varied the tempo of the accompaniment. He slowed it during the "crying" verse and speeded it up during the "singing" verse.

Basic Structure: vocal solo with instrumental accompaniment
Ending: Seeger slowed the last line of the last verse
Singing Style: one syllable to one note

Notes on Performance
Chicago
Occasion: concert, 13 October 1957
Location: Folklore Society of the University of Chicago
Microphones: recording was made

New York
Occasion: concert, 27 December 1957
Location: Carnegie Hall, New York City
Microphones: commercial recording was made

Australia
Occasion: concert, 24 October 1963
Location: someplace with a flat floor

Microphones: two floor mikes, one for his voice and one for his banjo

Clothing: light-colored long-sleeved shirt, with sleeves roll up; no tie and top button undone; medium dark slacks. The video was in black-and-white.

Notes on Movement
Australia
Seeger stood still in the aisle at the front of an audience seated on folding chairs.

Notes on Audience
Chicago and New York
Audiences were heard singing.

Australia
Audience was dressed for an occasion: most of the young men were wearing suits, white shirts, and ties. They could be seen singing. Often, Seeger stopped singing so they could be heard.

Notes on Performers
Seeger’s life through the initial success of The Weavers was discussed in the posts for 11 August 2019 and 18 August 2019. As mentioned in the latter post, Harvey Matusow denounced Seeger as a communist in 1952. The Weavers lost their recording contract with Decca, and had so many tour dates cancelled they stopped performing in the spring of 1953. [16]

Between 1953 and 1955, Seeger supported his family by touring small colleges like Oberlin [17] and Swarthmore, [18] working for Norman Studer at Camp Woodland and the Downtown Community School, [19] and recording for Moses Asch on Folkways. [20]

Then, in 1955 Seeger was subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee, [21] and his bookings again were cancelled. [22] This time, his new business manager engineered a reunion concert in Carnegie Hall for The Weavers. [23] It was after this concert that Seeger performed at Davidson College.

In April of 1957, Vanguard Records issued an album from the Carnegie Hall performance. [24] Bookings for the group increased, but Seeger preferred his revived solo career and left the group [25] on 3 March 1958. [26] It was in this period that he was singing "Kum Ba Yah" on college campuses.

Availability
Album: Pete Seeger. "Kum Ba Ya" in "Goofing Off Suite." Pete Seeger and Sonny Terry. Folkways Records FA2412. 1958. Uploaded to YouTube many times.

Concert Tape: Pete Seeger. "Kumbaya." Pete Seeger Live ’57. Goldenland Records MP3. 2013. No longer available on Amazon or YouTube.

Concert Tape: Pete Seeger. "Kumbaya." Uploaded to YouTube by Kálmán Tóth on 18 May 2014.

End Notes
1. The Weavers, without Seeger, recorded a variant based on his version in 1958. See the post for 3 October 2017 for details.

2. Larry Nial Holcomb. "A History of the Cooperative Recreation Service." PhD dissertation. University of Michigan, 1972. 102.

3. Holcomb. 112–113.

4. "Who Pays." Song Sampler. Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service: January 1956 issue. B.

5. "Come By Here/Kum Ba Yah." Song Sampler. 15.

6. Rohrbough finally issued Songs of Many Nations in 1962. It did not contain "Kumbaya." [21] This may not have been the only CRS recording. Does anyone know of others?

7. Anthony Saletan. Email, 3 May 2016.
8. Anthony Saletan. Letter, 25 February 1977.
9. Saletan was on the festival schedule for Sunday, 14 April 1957. [22]

10. Joseph C. Hickerson. Letter, 8 November 1977.

Chee Hoo Lum. "A Tale of ‘Kum Ba Yah’." Kodaly Envoy 33(3): 5–11:2007.

Joe Hickerson. "Joe’s Jottings #10: The Folksmiths Summer of 1957." Local Lore, January and February 2016. Republished on Portland Folk Music website.

11. Larry Eisenberg. "It’s Me, O Lord." Tulsa: Fun Books, 1992. 51–52.
12. Larry Eisenberg. Letter to Lynn Rohrbough, 29 January 1957.
13. Pete Seeger. Liner notes. Pete Seeger and Sonny Terry.

14. Thomas Stern identified this as a tape from a performance for the Folklore Society of the University of Chicago, 13 October 1957. He was replying to the query "Pete Seeger Live '57" on Mudcat Café website, 2 May 2016.

15. Seeger, liner notes.

16. David King Dunaway. How Can I Keep from Singing? New York: Villard Books, 2008 edition. 188.

17. Dunaway. 190.
18. "Swarthmore College Folk Festival 1953 Setlists." Set List website.
19. Dunaway. 192.

20. Dunaway. 193–194. Asch was discussed in the post for 14 October 2017. Dick Weissman said Asch paid Seeger a $15 weekly retainer in lieu of royalties. [23]

21. Lynn Rohrbough. Songs of Many Nations. World Around Songs LP/2. Delaware, Ohio. February 1962. Contents listed on Discogs website.

22. "Swarthmore College Folk Festival 1957 Setlists." Set List website.
23. Dick Weissman. Which Side Are You On? New York: Continuum, 2006. 88.