Albert Gamse - Kum Ba Ya

Topic: Commercial Folk Music Revival
"Kumbaya" achieved its canonical status within the folk-music revival repertoire when it spread from individuals learning to play guitar to those who grew up playing piano. It appeared in one of the collections created for amateurs who played for themselves and friends in 1968.

Abe Ashley’s music company specialized in such anthologies. The editor of The Best of Folk Music had previously overseen compilations of the World’s Favorite Easy to Play Piano Duets, [1] World’s Favorite Sacred Songs for Church and Home, [2] and World’s Favorite Songs of "The Gay Nineties." [3]

Albert Gamse began writing English lyrics for Latin songs like "Amapola." [4] When musical taste changed after the emergence of Elvis Presley in the late-1950s, a friend recommended him to Ashley. The publisher was looking for a "research man." Irving Fields said Gamse "knew all the composers, knew what was in the public domain, the whole history of composing, lyric writing and so forth." [5]

His Best of Folk Music eschewed the regional-occupational classification used by Carl Sandburg [6] and John Lomax, [7] for a topical organization that featured love songs, love gone wrong songs, and bad men. There was a small section of blues and a larger one of international songs that included "Kum Ba Yah."

The Workers songs mixed the familiar "I’ve Been Working On The Railroad" with Tennessee Ernie Ford’s "Sixteen Tons." [8] The other two were "Drill Ye Tarriers" and "John Henry" that appeared in every folk-song collection.

In addition, the book had an opening section of New Folk Songs that included songs and pictures of Glen Campbell, Bobby Goldsboro, Tom Jones, Buffy Saint-Marie, Trini Lopez, and Peter, Paul and Mary.

The most current songs were copyrighted arrangements whose publishers, no doubt, received royalties. The rest were controlled by Lewis Publications. The primary change in "Kum Ba Yah" was in the pronoun. Gamse substituted "hear me" for someone, and added his own verse, "I need you."

He used no sharps or flats, but used more varied chords than guitar arrangements did for the key of C. The arrangement relied on chords on most notes, with the little finger of the right hand playing the melody in places where it wasn’t used in the chord. It was easily within the abilities of someone who had had only a few piano lessons. [9]

Abe Schlager, the president of Lewis Music, [10] published a second volume in 1969 under the name Alexander Shealy. [11] It followed the same format, with the first songs by popular artists (Joni Mitchell, Bobby Vinton, and The Beatles). [12]

Both books were reissued with modifications in the opening songs to reflect changes in popular taste. [13] The first replaced one song of nine, [14] while the second kept three of ten. [15]

Ashley’s company was both a publisher and a distributor. The exact relationship between it and Slager’s isn’t clear, but the distribution for both seems to have been transferred to Charles Hansen in 1971. [16] Hansen also handled works recorded by Campbell. [17]

Hansen issued the two Lewis volumes as the Golden Encyclopedia of Folk Music in 1973. [18] It dropped most of the songs that required royalties plus a few others that may have had copyright problems like "The Crime of Tome Dula" [19]

The legal relationship between Hansen, Ashley, and Lewis may have been contractual rather than proprietary. Much of Hansen’s catalog "was acquired by Warner Brothers Publications, then subsequently sold to Alfred Publications," [20] while the others became part of the Music Sales Group. [21] It sold its operations to Hal Leonard in 2018. [22]

Leonard continues to distribute the Golden Encyclopedia under the Lewis Publishing Company name. However, WorldCat listed Leonard as the distributor in 1985. Leonard’s books carry no publication information.

Gamse’s version of "Kumbaya" did not enter tradition. People who bought his collection may not have cared. Most were capable of playing music and singing their own words. [23] Ashley and Schlager assumed people bought their books because they wanted to play songs they already knew, not learn new ones. Their goal was not edification, but gratification.

Performers
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: unison
Instrumental Accompaniment: piano, guitar
Rhythm Accompaniment: none

Credits
"This Nigerian melody found its way into a negro spiritual called ‘Come by Here, Oh Lord’ and (through the rephrasing of which the tongue is so often guilty) it became popularly known as ‘Kum Ba Ya,’ and as such it took its place in our folklore."

© 1968 by Lewis Music Publishing Co., Inc.

Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: no note
Verses: kumbaya, hear me crying, hear me praying, I need you

Vocabulary
Pronoun: me, I
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: none

Basic Form: 4-verse song
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Ending: none
Unique Features: use of first-person pronoun

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Time Signature: 4/4
Tempo: slowly (like a hymn)
Key Signature: no sharps or flats
Chords: C Em Am Dm⁷ G⁷ F

Basic Structure: strophic repetition
Singing Style: one syllable to one note except for final "Lord"

Vocal-Accompaniment Dynamics: piano plays triads in the right hand and 1-5 chords in the left on every syllable except "kum ba" and "my Lord"

Notes on Performers
The only biographical information available on Gamse on the internet was he was born 31 July 1901 "in Russian Empire [now Latvia]" and died March, 1974 "in Bronx, New York" [24]

His first work listed by Discogs was the 1940 "Rhumba-Cardi" recorded by Xavier Cugat with Dinah Shore singing. [25] The next year, bands led by Count Basie, Les Brown, Bob Crosby, Benny Goodman, Harry James, Glenn Miller, and Alvino Rey recorded songs with lyrics he’d written. [26]

Herbert Marks [27] introduced Gamse to Irving Fields. [28] Fields recalled:

"Gamse is a genius. I wrote most of my biggest hits with him. He was a very quiet man who didn’t care about money or material things. He just loved to write lyrics. His biggest thrill was to go to Mexico once a year and he was fantastic with Latin music." [29]

Fields added "Albert had a sense of humor, and he was very articulate, sort of like a Rex Harrison type, very suave." [30]

Gamse’ taste may have been his most indelible quality. A recorder player said she "always liked the Albert Gamse books [. . .] for the variety of folk literature and historical repertoire. The player is able to enjoy some known melodies, but is challenged to learn much unfamiliar music." [31]

Availability
Book: Albert Gamse. "Kum Ba Ya." The Best of Folk Music. Book 1. New York: Lewis Music Publishing Company, 1968; sixth printing of March 1969. 222.

Book: "Kum Ba Ya." Golden Encyclopedia of Folk Music. New York: Charles Hansen Educational Music and Books, 1973. 316. WorldCat listed Alexander Shealy as compiler and Albert Gamse as editor.

Book: "Kum Ba Yah." Golden Encyclopedia of Folk Music. New York: Lewis Publishing Company, 1985; distributed by Hal Leonard. [32] 316.

End Notes
1. Albert Gamse. World’s Favorite Easy to Play Piano Duets. New York: Ashley Publications, Inc. 1960.

2. Albert Gamse. World’s Favorite Sacred Songs for Church and Home. New York: Ashley Publications, 1961.

3. Albert Gamse. World’s Favorite Songs of "The Gay Nineties." New York: Ashley Publications, 1962.

4. "Amapola" was written in 1920 by Joseph Lacalle. [33] It was recorded throughout the 1920s and 1930s by Latin artists. [34] Gamse wrote the now familiar English lyrics in 1940. [35] It was recorded by Xavier Cugat, Les Brown, Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, [36] and Sammy Kay in 1941. [37]

5. Irving Fields. The Pianos I Have Known. As told to Tony Sachs. New York: Roman Midnight Music, 2012. 91–92.

6. Sandburg was discussed in the post for 5 May 2019.
7. Lomax was discussed in the post for 12 May 2019.

8. "Tennessee" Ernie Ford. "Sixteen Tons." Capitol Records F3262. 1955. [38] The song was written and first recorded by Merle Travis. [39]

9. One Amazon customer had problems with the standard publishing format. CDH complained "that in songs with multiple verses, the lyrics after the first one or two verses are shown separately at the bottom of the score. This Is probably not an issue for a more accomplished musician than myself." [40]

10. New York Supreme Court. Appellate Division–First Department. Lewis Music Publishing Company, Inc., against Shapiro, Bernstein and Company, Inc. 1969. 35.

11. The copyright catalog for 1973 identifies Alexander Shealy as a pseudonym for Abe Schlager. [41]

12. Alexander Shealy. The Best of Folk Music. Book Two. New York: Lewis Publishing, 1969. The first pages were missing from my copy, so I don’t know which printing.

13. I don’t know how often the two collections were revised. Each went through a number of printings, and I only purchased two copies of each.

14. Albert Gamse. The Best of Folk Music. Book One. New York: Lewis Music Publishing Company, tenth printing in 1970.

15. Alexander Shealy. The Best of Folk Music. Book Two. Miami Beach, Florida: Hansen Publications, fifth printing in 1971. My copy has a Japanese subtitle on the front cover and appears to be a photocopied version.

16. "Hansen-MDS In Buy Talk." Billboard. 4 December 1971. 4. MDS was "Abe Ashley’s Music Dealers Service."

17. Wikipedia. "Chas. H. Hansen Music Corp."
18. The date "9-25-73" appeared on the inside cover advertisements for the Hansen book.

19. The legal fight over the rights to "Tom Dooley" were mentioned in the post for 20 October 2019.

20. Wikipedia, Hansen.
21. Wikipedia entry for "Music Sales Group" listed them as imprints.

22. "Music Sales is now a pureplay publisher with $50m+ in the bank, after selling books and retail business." Music Business Worldwide website. 4 April 2018.

23. One Amazon customer begged to differ. Mary PB wrote "I don’t know where they got the versions of some of these songs. I played some of my favorite songs and either the melody line was strange or the lyrics different or both." [42]

24. "Albert Gamse (1901–1974)." Google’s Internet Movie Database (IMDb) website.

25. Dinah Shore and Xavier Cugat Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra. "The Rhumba Cardi." Victor 26665. Recorded 26 June 1940. [43] Discogs mistakenly listed it as 1938.

26. "Albert Gamse." Discogs website. It has a photograph of him.

27. Herbert Marks was the son of the man who founded Edward B. Marks Music Company. In 1929, he heard "The Peanut Vendor" in Havana, Cuba, and introduced it into the United States. The New York Times credited him with starting a "demand for Latin American music." [44] He took over the publishing company when his father died in 1945. [45]

28. Fields. 90.
29. Fields. 91.
30. Fields. 91.

31. Kay Hettich. Comment posted 1 July 2013. Amazon website for Hal Leonard’s 1996 edition of The Best Recorder Method - Yet!: Book 1. Lewis Music Publishing issued it in 1974.

32. WorldCat.
33. Wikipedia. "Amapola (Song)"
34. "Amapola (Pretty Little Poppy)." Second Hand Songs website.

35. "Amapola." Library of Congress. Copyright Office. Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third series. July-December 1967. 2303. Copyright renewal notice.

36. Second Hand Songs.
37. "Victor Matrix BS-060462." Discography of Historic American Recordings website.
38. "‘Tennessee’ Ernie Ford – Sixteen Tons." Discogs website.
39. Wikipedia. "Sixteen Tons."

40. CDH. Comment posted 26 January 2018. Amazon website for Hal Leonard’s 1985 edition of Golden Encyclopedia Of Folk Music.

41. Catalog of Copyright Entries; Third Series. January-June 1973. 1598.

42. Mary PB. Comment posted 24 May 2014. Amazon website for Hal Leonard’s 1985 edition of Golden Encyclopedia Of Folk Music.

43. "Victor matrix BS-051569." Discography of American Historical Recordings website.
44. Herbert Marks. Obituary. The New York Times 2 November 1984. D18.
45. "The Marks History." Edward B. Marks Music Company website.