Cooperative Recreation Service’s Repertoire

Topic: CRS Versions
Lynn Rohrbough offered a variety of songs for inclusion in his custom songbooks in 1944.  A comparison of four songbooks mentioned in the post for 20 February 2022 suggests which his customers preferred.

None included the sorts of songs then sung in many camps like “Dummy Line,” [1] although CRS offered it.  They were being replaced by folk songs.  They constituted 45% of the master list, and 42% to 43% of the choices made by E. O. Harbin, Olcutt Sanders, and Edward Schlingman.

Only Paul Albery used a fewer number, 25%.  Instead, he had more hymns, 30%.  This compares with 23% by Harbin, 17% by Sanders, 15% by Schlingman, and 14% on Rohrbough’s master list.  This may reflect concerns of the Methodist Church in Michigan.  Douglas MacNaughton says conservative leaders within the conferences argued “evangelism and education should go hand in hand,” and more “Biblically based” materials should be used. [2]

None of the hymns were by Charles Wesley.  In place of traditional Methodist lyrics, the most common religious songs, used by all four editors, were written by men who had been affected by World War I: “God of Grace and Glory,” [3] “In Christ There Is No East and West,” [4] “The New World,” [5] and “We Would Be Building.” [6]

This emphasis on universal fellowship may seem odd in the midst of World War II.  In 1940, the national meeting of Methodist Youth had discussed topics like “The Christian and War,” “Christian Pacifism in Time of War,” and “Goals and Techniques for an Enduring Peace.” [7]  However, after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor Japanese in 1941, many enlisted.  As Thomas Bergler notes, the organization changed from a shared view that war was bad to equal support for draft resistors, conscientious objectors, and men in the military. [8]

The editors of the songbooks avoided the conflict between religious tradition and current reality by looking toward the future, rather than dwelling on the present.  Three editors selected only two patriotic songs from Rohrbough’s list of six, “My Country Is The World” [9] and the familiar “America the Beautiful.”  This does not mean patriotic and war-time songs were not sung at meetings, but only that the editors did not feel the need to spend money printing what was commonly known. [10]

Rohrbough’s concept of a folk song was eclectic and included popular and national songs.  The largest number in his 1943 list of 292 songs came from England (14), but none were Child ballads.  However, he did include a number of songs from the South, especially Tennessee (12) and Kentucky (11).

The other European countries whose songs he used were Germany (8), Italy (8), and Denmark (8).  He offered eight songs in Spanish from Chile and México.  He also included popular work songs: six chanties, five with cowboy themes, and two railroad lyrics.  Songs about farming were mixed with the international songs.

His sources still were people he had met.  The Danish songs came from the Danish American Young People’s League, [11] his Bohemian ones from Victor Pisek, [12] and his southern songs from his interest in play parties and his work with Flora and Lucien McDowell, and with Edna Ritchie. [13]

He did not draw upon academic collections or popular ones like those produced by Carl Sandburg [14] and John Lomax. [15]  The scholarly anthologies rarely contained tunes, and so were not useful.  The others were copyrighted, so that, while they contained folklore, the lore had moved out of the public domain.

Instead, Rohrbough tended to use sheet-music folios that had folk sources, but had been arranged with piano accompaniments like those published by Augustus Zanzig [16] and E. C. Schirmer. [17]  One might call these ethno-American [18] collections because they contained songs with roots in culturally distinct groups that had been altered to fit the expectation of middle-class individuals who had been trained in western aesthetics in public schools. [19]  Such songs were used by subgroups within the middle class and sung in special contexts, like summer camps and club meetings.  They were neither folk, as defined by academics, nor popular music, if the latter refers to songs heard on radio.

The four songbook editors who used Lynn Rohrbough’s CRS service in the early 1940s were less experimental than he.  Of the ethno-American songs selected by at least two of the men, six came from Italy, [20] five from the South [21] or Czechoslovakia (including Bohemia), [22] and three came from England [23] or Germany. [24]  That is, they chose 75% of those available from Italy, 55.5% of those from Czechoslovakia, and 37.5% from Germany.  In contrast, only 21% were from England and 15.6% from the South.

It would appear the ethnic origin of the song was not particularly important.  The trait that characterizes them is their use of the sung syllables, which are discussed in the post about Carl Edward Zander and Wes Klusmann for 5 December 2021.  Strings of vocables were used in 50% of the Italian songs, [25] 37.5% of the German, [26] and 22% of the Czech. [27]  Only 3% of the Southern songs had them, [28] and none of the English ones.  The use of such vocables was less common in the cultural groups who songs were selected by only one of the editors.

These men, especially Harbin and Sanders, were aware of the regional and occupation classifications used by Sandburg and Lomax.  However, only one chantey and two songs with cowboy themes were selected by a plurality of the editors.  As mentioned in the post for 5 December 2021, these were more likely to be selected by camps with programs that emphasized the sea or the west.  It is similar to the problem with ballads mentioned in the post for 28 November 2021: they came from singing traditions that did not fit the congregational aesthetic in religious camps.

Spirituals were the other important group of songs in these collections.  Although the numbers may be small, less than 10% of each songbook, [29] this was greater than the 6% of such songs in the master list.  They form a special class between the ethno-American and hymns, because they, in fact, are both rooted in folk tradition and have religious content. [30]

A number of rounds appeared in each book, averaging nearly 13% of the content of each.  However, it is not clear if they were selected for themselves, or were used as filler.  They never occupy more than two lines of print, and could be placed at the bottoms of pages.  It is hard to find any other explanation for why “To Ope Their Trunks” appeared in the hymn section of Melody in Michigan. [31]  Unlike many publishers, Rohrbough did not fill empty space with artwork or texts; he delivered songs. [32]

Graces [33] use as little space as rounds, but tend to be grouped together where they easily can be found.  They represent another type of song included in CRS songsters, the ceremonial ones that serve utilitarian purposes in camp programs.

End Notes
1.  “Dummy Line” is an authentic American folk song.  It has been collected in many variants from a number of places over a number of years. [34]  Some of the oldest versions collected from African Americans have an identifying verse that begins “some say a dummy line won’t run” and a chorus. [35]  However, by the time it was reported, the chorus or first verse was sung with other, common ones heard in other songs. [36]  Mudcat Café has a discussion where people are sharing their versions. [37]  Camp Songs, Folk Songs quotes lyrics from five variants found in camps. [38]

2.  A. Douglas MacNaughton.  The Methodist Church in Michigan: The Twentieth Century.  Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, 1976.  223.  This is similar to the conflicts between Lutheran ministers and Walther League discussed in post for 21 June 2020.  Incidentally, the International Walther League already had published its version of Sing Again when Rohrbough made his list.

3.  Harry Emerson Fosdick.  “God of Grace and Glory.”  Written in 1930 to music by John Hughes for the dedication of Riverside Church in New York City, [39] and included in The Methodist Hymnal in 1935. [40]  Fosdick was a Baptist who accepted evolution.  In his 1933 sermon on “The Unknown Soldier,” he said he had been a “gullible fool” to support World War I. [41]

4.  John Oxenham.  “In Christ There Is No East and West.”  Written in 1908 to music by Alexander Reinagle for a program presented by the London Missionary Society for an exhibition, The Orient in London. [42]  It was published in this country by The Methodist Church in 1927. [43]

5.  Jay Holmes Smith.  “Come Forth, Ye Men of Every Race and Nation!”  Written to “The Heavens Are Telling” from Haydn’s The Creation. [44]  Smith was a Methodist missionary to India who was expelled in 1940 for criticizing British rule.  He founded the Harlem Ashram in New York City to promote Gandhi’s ideas. [45] The first publication known by the Hymnary website was by the Disciples of Christ in 1941. [46]

6.  Purd E. Dietz.  “We Would be Building.”  Written to Jean Sibelius “Finlandia” and copyrighted in 1932 by the Presbyterian Board of Christian Education.  [Hymnary website]

7.  Letters, minutes, and other papers from the 1940 meeting of The National Council of Methodist Youth that were uploaded as a single document to the internet.  Section on “Commissions,” 3–4 of section, 9–10 of packet.

8.  Thomas E. Bergler.  “Youth, Christianity, and the Crisis of Civilization, 1930–1945.”  Religion and American Culture 24(2):259–296:Summer 2014.  266.

9.  Robert Whitaker.  “My Country Is the World.”  Written to “America” and published in My Country and Other Verses.  San Francisco: James H. Barry Company, 1905, copyrighted 1904. [47]  He was born in England, where “America” is “God Save the Queen.”  During World War I, he was a Pacifist. [48]  CRS credited a Farmer Union Song Book. [49]  It may be from the group who sponsored Selected Songs with the Manitoba Federation of Agriculture.

10.  This also may be the reason the editors included few standard hymns, nineteenth-century popular songs, or humorous children’s camp songs.  What was known did not need to be printed.  The collections were not intended to replace existing hymnals, but supplement them with material not yet in the canon.  In this sense the hymn choices, like the collections, reflected ideals to be passed on to youth in senior institutes, not realities.

11.  For more on Rohrbough’s contact with the Danish American Young People’s League, see the post for 26 September 2021.

12.  For more on Pisek, see the post for 19 September 2021.
13. The McDowells and Ritchie are discussed in the post for 12 December 2021.

14.  Carl Sandburg’s The American Songbag is discussed in the post for 5 May 2019.  The CRS list includes the following songs also published by Sandburg: “Cielito Linda” (4), “Down in the Valley” (3), “Sourwood Mountain” (3), “I Ain’t Gwine Study War No More” (3).  Sandburg’s version of “Down in the Valley” was from Frances Ries of Batavia, Ohio.

15.  John and Alan Lomaxes’ American Ballads and Folk Songs is discussed in the post for 12 May 2019.  The CRS list includes the following songs they also published: “Down in the Valley” (3), “Sourwood Mountain” (3), and “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” (3).

16.  For more on Augustus D. Zanzig, use the keyword in the index at the right.

17.  E. C. Schirmer is mentioned in the posts for 5 September 2021, 19 September 2021, and 5 December 2021.

18.  When I checked with Google on 16 January 2022, I did not find any academic was using the term “ethno-American.”  It was used on YouTube by Walter Maksimovich for recordings of polka music.  This music is another example of the broad class of music I mean with the term.

19.  A 1924 advertisement for folk-song collections intended for grades five and six promised: “Great care has been exercised in collecting the folk tunes that are used in these books.  It is not enough that a tune is merely folk music; it must possess definite racial characteristics; it must be obvious enough in rhythmic and melodic content to interest a child, it must present no unreasonable difficulty, it must tell its own story without help of the harmonic arrangements, and above all it must possess melodic beauty and charm.” [50]

20.  “Marianina” (4), “Tiritomba” (4), “Funiculi” (3), “My Banjo” (3), “The Silver Moon Is Shining” (3), and “Santa Lucia” (2).

21.  “Down in the Valley” (3), “Sourwood Mountain” (3), “Mingo Mountain” (2), “Pretty Saro” (2), and “Shuckin’ of the Corn” (2).

22.  “Came A-Riding” (4), “Over the Meadow” (4), “Walking at Night” (4), “Good Night Beloved” (3), and “The Lover’s Quest” (2).

23.  “The Keeper” (4), “Green Grow the Rushes Ho” (3), and “John Peel” (3).  “The Keeper” and “Rushes” are discussed in the post for 5 December 2021.

24.  “The Generous Fiddler” (3), “The Foot Traveler” (2), and “Holla Hi, Holla Ho” (2).

25.  “Marianina” (4), “Tiritomba” (4), “Funiculi” (3), and “My Banjo” (3).  The first three are discussed in the post for 5 December 2021.

26.  “The Generous Fiddler” (3), “The Foot Traveler” (2), and “Holla Hi” (2).  “Foot Traveler” is discussed in the post for 5 December 2021.

27.  “Came A-Riding” (4), “Walking at Night” (4), and “The Lover’s Quest” (2).  “Riding is discussed in the post for 9 February 2020.  “Walking” is discussed in the post for 5 December 2021.

28.  “Sourwood Mountain” (3).

29.  “Jacob’s Ladder” (4), “Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit” (3), “I Ain’t Gwine Study War No More” (3), “I Want To Be Ready” (3), “Lord, I Want To Be a Christian” (3), “O Nobody Knows” (3), “Steal Away” (3), “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” (3) and “Go Down Moses” (2).  The words to James Weldon Johnson’s “Lift Every Voice and Sing” also were selected by all four editors.

30.  I plan to discuss Rohrbough’s use of spirituals at a later date, and so will not speculate now on why they were so popular.

31.  “To Ope Their Trunks.”  38 in First Years in Song-Land, edited by George F. Root.  Cincinnati: John Church, 1879.  In Melody in Michigan, it appeared on page 12 with “Make Me a Captive Lord” by George Mathewson.  The latter was set to “Leonminster.”

32.  See the placement of the round “Where Is John” in the illustration in the post for 20 February 2022.

33.  “O Give Thanks” (4); “Praise for Bread” (4), which begins “Morning has come”; “A Round of Thanks” (4), which begins “For health and strength,” and “Chimes Grace” (2), which begins “Hark to the chimes.”

34.  Louise Pound.  “Introduction.”  xii–xxxvi in American Ballads and Songs.  New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1922.  xii–xvi.  This is cited in the post for 12 May 2019.

35.  Dorothy Scarborough.  244–245 in On the Trail of Negro Folk-Songs.  Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1925.  Collected from Dr. Moore of Charlotte, North Carolina.

E. C. Perrow.  “Songs and Rhymes from the South.”  Journal of American Folklore 26:123–173:1913.  In the 1909 W. P. Bean manuscript from Mississippi Negroes.

The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore.  521 in Volume 3, Folk Songs from North Carolina, edited by Henry M. Belden and Arthur Palmer Hudson.  Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1952.  From Eura Mangum of Durham, North Carolina.

36.  Perrow.  In the 1908 W. O. Scroggs manuscript from Alabama Negroes.

37.  “Lyr Add: The Dummy Line (additional verses).”  Mudcat Café website, thread begun by Owlkat on 28 October 1999.

“Origins: The Dummy Line - What’s a dummy train?”  Mudcat Café website, thread begun 2 January 2001 by Chris Seymour.

38.  Camp Songs, Folk Songs.  107–108, 283–284, 289, 321–322.

39.  Michael Hawn.  “History of Hymns: ‘God of Grace and God of Glory’.”  United Methodist Church Discipleship website.

40.  279 in The Methodist Hymnal.  New York: Methodist Book Concern, 1935.  [Hymnary website.]

41.  “Harry Emerson Fosdick.”  Wikipedia website.
42.  “In Christ There Is No East or West.”  Hymnology website.

43.  Great Hymns of the Church, Selected from the Methodist Hymnal, edited by Wilbur P. Thirkield.  New York: Methodist Book Concern, 1927.  [Hymnary website.]

44.  “Come forth, ye men of every race and nation.”  Hymnary website.
45.  “Jay Holmes Smith.”  Hymnary website.

46.  “Come Forth, Ye Men of Every Race and Nation!”  487 in Christian Worship, edited by Fred Wise.  Saint Louis, Missouri: Bethany Press, 1941.

47.  WorldCat entry.  This was brought to my attention by Alfred J. Waterhouse.  “Robert Whittaker’s ‘My Country’.”  Sunset: The Magazine of the Pacific and of All the Far West 16:106:November 1905.

48.  Martha Jenks.  “Inventory of the Robert W. Whitaker Collection.”  Graduate Theological Union Archives, Berkeley, California, website.

49.  Citation from Songs of Many Nations, page 35.

50.  Advertisement for Marie Teresa Armitage.  Folk Songs & Art Songs for Intermediate Grades.  Boston: C. C. Birchard, 1924.  The ad appeared on the back cover of Music Supervisors’ Journal 10(5):May 1924.  This collection is mentioned in the post for 20 February 2022.