Virtual Choirs - Kumbaya

Topic: Pandemic Versions
The Coronavirus variant that causes COVID-19 is transmitted through drops of water expelled from mouths of infected individuals.  Choral singing became suspect after disease outbreaks were traced to choir rehearsals in Amsterdam, Berlin, [1] and Skagit County, Washington, in March 2020. [2]  Germany and the Netherlands banned all group singing. [3]  The Trump administration overrode the Centers of Disease Control. [4]

Those churches that already were limiting access to their buildings paid heed, and turned to other sources for the music that accompanied their remote services.  An Episcopal church in Brookline, Massachusetts, posted a virtual choir version of “Come by Here” on 11 April 2020.

Such videos sound easy.  All participants need are smartphones to record their singing and computers with headphones to listen to a guide track while they are singing.  The difficult part comes after they email their videos to the church, and someone with technical skills has to put them together.  While many may have tried such experiments, [5] I found only six versions of “Kumbaya” or “Come by Here” posted to YouTube in the United States. [6]

The unmentioned prerequisites are the musical skills emphasized by Kristin Young and Katherine Hicks, in the post for 13 June 2021.  Individuals must be able to produce a particular sound when they see notes on a staff.  They also have to interpret duration signals in sheet music.  Unlike live performances, video editors have the discretion of muting those who do not meet these criteria while showing their faces.

Sheet music publishers have recognized that, while sight reading is the official media for learning music in this country, the reality is most people, who sing in groups, take their cues from the people around them.  For some time, publishers have been providing various sorts of audio tracks so people could learn their parts, hear the arrangement, or have a professional accompaniment.

For instance, the Santa Barbara Music website for Nicholas McKaig’s “Kumbaya” includes a version by the University of Southern California Chamber Singers that can be listened to or purchased for $2.00.

Lockdowns that followed the invasion of the virus spread a knowledge of communication software from savvy adolescents to their parents and grandparents.  Even so, the participants in virtual choirs are probably the younger members.  Of the 92 who appeared in adult videos, [7] about a fourth had gray hair.  In contrast, the median age of individuals who attended the ill-fated choir rehearsal in Skagit County was 69 years. [8]

Traditional church music is written in four parts, two male and two female.  However, in Skagit County, 84% of the people who attended the rehearsal were women. [9]  Choir directors deal with these imbalances in a number of ways.  The version used by Imgyu Kang with a Korean Presbyterian church was for female voices only.  Excluding that choir, the gender divisions in the virtual choirs was about 43% male and 57% female. [10]

The sources for the arrangements were typical of church choir music.  Three were purchased: the one by McKaig, and another by Kyle Pederson used by churches in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Marinda Studios provided the guide tape for an African-American church near Dayton, Ohio, while the Brookline church choir director created his own version.  Kang also may have composed his choir’s arrangement.

The arrangements varied in complexity.  African American children sang “Kumbaya” in unison at a slow tempo.  However, the soundtrack changed key part way through.  The seven members of New Seasons Ministry in Huber Heights, Ohio, appeared in four boxes.

The other arrangements tended to use a more complex type of unison: they featured long sections sung by one vocal group, rather than the chordal harmony of hymnals.  This made it easier for their voices to be synchronized by a technician.

Video choir members may perfect their parts by singing with a tape, but they do not get the corrections they would in a rehearsal.  A choir director no doubt would have chided the man in one group who trilled the “ba” in “Kumbaya.”

McKaig’s arrangement faced other problems.  He used human voices like drums in African music where each instrument repeats one pattern to produce complex rhythmic overlays. [11]  Men are used to subservient roles, but the sopranos simply could not stop themselves from turning their parts into melodies.  This was not just the case with the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City.  The USC Chamber Singers created a descant effect, while the young women in the Desert Oasis Concert Choir in 2011 tried to dominate in a version, even after rehearsals.

McKaig violated other music conventions.  He began and ended with a tenor solo that used an elaborated melody that sounded like a cantor or Arabic music.  That part was as slow as many think hymns should be.  McKaig changed the tempo to an allegro of 160 beats per minute for the choral section.  The Santa Barbara website advised the arrangement would take 3:35 minutes to perform.  The Chamber Singers took less, 3:25.

The Desert Choral slowed the middle section so the entire performance took nearly a minute longer, 4:24 minutes.  The only reason their version did not drag is the conga drum added a strong pulse.

The New York group took 4:09 minutes and dispensed with the suggested conga drum.  Instead of polyrhythm, they sounded like they were singing a round or counterpoint.  Rehearsals would have helped, but overcoming aesthetic biases absorbed from parents and other elders is more difficult.  It has been 35 years since Paul Simon introduced South African vocal music on his Graceland album in 1986, [12] but only McKaig, born in 1988, was able to incorporate the idea of ostinato into a choral rendition of a sacred song.

Performers
Vocal Soloist: Johnny Scott sang the tenor part for Desert Oasis; Nathan Fletcher was the Presbyterian soloist

Vocal Group: SABT
Instrumental Accompaniment: none, but a piano part is available for rehearsals
Rhythm Accompaniment: conga drum in places

Credits  
Traditional Folk Song
Arr. Nicholas McKaig
© Copyright 2009 by Santa Barbara Music Publishing Inc.
Dedicated to Tom Cochran

Notes on Lyrics
Language: English

Pronunciation: “when ‘someone’ and ‘kumbaya’ occur of this rhythmic pattern (quarter note, eighth note) close immediately to the ‘m’”; drops terminal /g/

Verses: kumbaya, laughin’, cryin’, prayin’, singin’
Pronoun: someone
Term for Deity: Lord
Basic Form: four-verse song, framed by “kumbaya”
Ending: repeat “oh, kumbaya” twice

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Time Signature: 3/4, although some measures are 5/8, 4/4, or 6/8
Tempo: freely, quarter notes = 50 beats per minute for solos and 160 beats for the rest
Key Signature: two sharps
Basic Structure: ABA
Singing Style: generally one note to one syllable except for the solo
Vocal-Accompaniment Dynamics: all parts are equally important
Vocal-Rhythm Dynamics: ostinato
Ending: slower and softer

Notes on Performance
Desert Oasis Concert Choir
Occasion: concert
Location: stage with risers and shell enclosure for group
Microphones: four floor mikes in front of group, one in front of the conga player

Clothing: men wore black suits and ties; the women wore floor-length black sheaths with white gores on the sides

Notes on Movement
The Desert Choral was a culturally diverse high-school vocal group.  Some of women twisted their bodies from side to side, and some men stepped from side to side.  While most of the children stood, three swayed as they sang.  No one in the other virtual choirs moved, and few had animated features.  They were posing for their video cameras.

Notes on Performers
McKaig earned his music degree from the University of Southern California in 2011, two years after he published “Kumbaya.”  His mentor was Jo-Michael Schiebe, who created the demonstration tape for Santa Barbara Music. [13]  Perhaps singing bass and baritone [14] influenced his perceptions of choral texture.

About a third of the Desert Oasis High School students are white, a quarter are Hispanic, a quarter are Asian or Pacific Islander, and a sixth are Black or mixed-race. [15]  Michael Polutnik has been the choral director since it opened in Enterprise, Nevada, in 2008. [16]  He was raised in Great Falls, Montana, [17] and earned his bachelor’s degree in music education from Montana State University in 1994. [18]

The Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church congregation was established in 1808, and its red-sandstone Gothic church has towered over the intersection with 55th Street since 1875. [19]  The choral director, Ryan Jackson, was raised in Bracebridge, Ontario. [20]  During his senior year at the University of Toronto he won the The Tecumseh Sherman Rogers prize that funded his study at Yale and Juilliard. [21]  When the Canadian school asked him about the impact of the pandemic, he said:

“It has been a very steep learning curve.  Of course, we can’t do communal music making which is so much of what my job is as Music Director.  In our particular case, the church has moved to online worship services that are pre-recorded.  Musically, we’ve been doing a couple of different things: virtual solos where I accompany a singer with side-by-side video; using archival concert and worship material; and virtual choir, which has been the most advanced thing we’ve done.  I’ve had to learn, very quickly, some fairly advanced editing skills for audio and video.  At first it was overwhelming, but now that I’ve been learning more about it, I’m enjoying discovering a new skill and a new way for us to make music together.” [22]

Availability
Sheet Music: Nicholas McKaig.  “Kumbaya.”  Santa Barbara, California: Santa Barbara Music Publishing, 2009.

Video: The FAPC Virtual Choir.  “Kumbaya.”  Uploaded to YouTube by FAPCinNYC on 22 February 2021.  Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church is in New York City.  “Directed and Edited by Ryan Jackson” with Nathan Fletcher as tenor soloist.

Video: Desert Oasis Concert Choir.  “Kumbaya.”  Uploaded to YouTube by Brad Pierson on 22 July 2011.  Johnny Scott, soloist; Michael Polutnik, high school choir director.

Virtual Choirs (in chronological order)
Video: Saint Paul’s Choir.  “Come by Here.”  Uploaded to YouTube by Andrew E. Clarkson on 11 April 2020.  The arrangement was by Clarkson and was inspired by the story of the Gullah origins.  The Episcopal church is in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Video: “Come by Here Virtual Choir.”  Uploaded to YouTube by Gather Austin Oak-Park Church on 21 May 2020.  The United Church of Christ congregation was founded in the Chicago area by Tim Wolfe.  He planned to use an arrangement by Walter Hawkins.

Video: Saehan W Ensemble Virtual Choir.  “kum ba yah.”  Uploaded to YouTube by sunmie yuh on 29 July 2020.  Directed by Imgyu Kang; edited by James Kang.  The Korean Presbyterian church probably is in Alpharetta, Georgia.  Kang used a grand piano and floor drum.

Video: “Come by Here.”  Uploaded to YouTube by Paradise Hills UMC Music Ministry on 1 November 2020.  Video production was done by the choir director, Becky Talbott; audio engineering by Dale Talbott.  The United Methodist Church is in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Video: Mayflower UCC.  “Come By Here.”  Uploaded to YouTube by Mayflower MPLS Worship on 9 March 2021.  The former Congregational Church is in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Video: NSM Virtual Choir.  “Kumbaya My Lord.”  Uploaded to YouTube by nsm4925 on 3 April 2021.  New Seasons Ministry is a Baptist church [23] in Huber Heights, Ohio, founded by Kent O. Jackson. [24]  Music provided by Ray Turner’s Marinda Studios; [25] he probably did the editing.

End Notes
1.  Prateek Bahl, Charitha de Silva, Shovon Bhattacharjee, Haley Stone, Con Doolan, Abrar Ahmad Chughtai, and C. Raina MacIntyre.  “Droplets and Aerosols Generated by Singing and the Risk of Coronavirus Disease 2019 for Choirs.”  Clinical Infectious Diseases, 27 August 2020.

2.  Lea Hamner, Polly Dubbel, Ian Capron, Andy Ross, Amber Jordan, Jaxon Lee, Joanne Lynn, Amelia Ball, Simranjit Narwal, Sam Russell, Dale Patrick, and Howard Leibrand.  “High SARS-CoV-2 Attack Rate Following Exposure at a Choir Practice — Skagit County, Washington, March 2020.”  Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 69:606–610:15 May 2020.  “Among 61 persons who attended a March 10 choir practice at which one person was known to be symptomatic, 53 cases were identified, including 33 confirmed and 20 probable cases [. . .]  Three of the 53 persons who became ill were hospitalized (5.7%), and two died (3.7%).”
 
3.  Bahl.

4.  Bill Chappell.  “CDC Quickly Changed Its Guidance On Limiting Choirs At Religious Services.”  National Public Radio website, 29 May 2020.

5.  Tim Wolfe posted a video explaining how to participate in a virtual choir, He did not post the choir itself.

6.  A Canadian church posted a version of Jay Althouse’s “Christmas Kum Ba Ya” to YouTube on 28 November 2020.  Manny Lefebre said “St. Peter’s Chorus virtual choir #3 in isolation because of the pandemic.”  The group was associated with Saint Peter’s College, Muenster. Saskatchewan.

7.  The children’s choir is not included in the total.
8.  Hamner.  607.
9.  Hamner.  607.
10.  The children’s choir is included in the total.

11.  The Santa Barbara Publishing website for the arrangement said “the heart of the piece features genuine South African rhythm.”

12.  Paul Simon.  Graceland.  Warner Brothers Records 1-25447.  Released 1 September 1986.  “Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes” and “Homeless” featured Ladysmith Black Mambazo. [Discogs entry]

13.  “Nicholas McKaig.”  Santa Barbara Music Publishing website.

14.  Concert program for University of Southern California Concert Choir and Chamber Singers, 22 October 2010.

15.  “Desert Oasis High School.”  Great Schools website.
16.  Wikipedia. “Desert Oasis High School.”

17.  “Ernest and Annette Polutnik.” Great Falls Tribune, Great Falls, Montana, 12 September 2015.

18.  Santa Barbara Music, McKaig.
19.  “A Brief History.”  Fifth Avenue Church website
20.  “Ryan Jackson”  Organix Concerts website.
21.  “Graduating Awards at 15: Ryan Jackson.”  University of Toronto website.
22.  University of Toronto.
23.  “New Season Ministry.”  Join My Church website.

24.  Steven Matthews.  “Huber Heights Voters Not Impacted by Sale of Church.”  Dayton Daily News, Dayton, Ohio, 28 August 2016.

25.  “Ray Turner.”  LinkedIn website.