CRS Custom Songbooks

Topic: CRS Versions
The term “custom songbook” came to have a particular meaning for Lynn Rohrbough’s Cooperative Recreation Service (CRS).  In 1944, he told potential customers that he understood “copyright restrictions” and engraving costs prevented many from producing their own songbooks, but Cooperative Music Publishing had a solution.

“A score of organizations have pooled their resources, arranged for use of scores of copyrights and have assembled over 300 engravings for cooperative music service.”

As a result, “an organization can select its favorite songs, organize them to suit, and have its own title and imprint at a very moderate cost.”  He also said, “new plates can be made if desired” for songs if they were not copyrighted. [1]

Larry Holcomb says the Evangelical and Reformed Church and American Country Life Association [2] were the first to avail themselves in 1940, followed by Methodists in Maine and Michigan in 1941. [3]  Edward Schlingman oversaw the first and Paul Albery was the likely editor of Melody in Michigan.  Maine leaders were renting Tanglewood [4] from the Bangor YMCA. [5]  Holcomb says the Tanglewood Songster was prepared for the Eastern Maine Senior Institute. [6]

Rohrbough’s advertisement was inserted into a version of Joyful Singing he issued for the national office of the Methodist Youth Fellowship (MYF).  He intended the collection to be a template customers could use to create their own anthologies.  He compiled it by collating the choices of 32 groups who had used his service in 1942. [7]  E. O. Harbin was the one who probably oversaw the custom version.

Only four of his buyers that year were secular: Camp Adahi [8] and three farm groups. [9]  More than half (17) were Methodist, [10] and nearly half (14) were ordered by groups in Ohio or a neighboring state. [11]  The Methodist Church emerged from the unification of the Northern and Southern branches of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1939. [12]  Its new Discipline directed each conference to appoint an Executive Secretary for Christian Education who should develop programs for children, youth, and adults. [13]

The Joyful Singing advertisement was followed by a list of songs in the CRS library.  I have been able to locate early copies of the Evangelical and Reformed and Michigan Methodist songbooks.  A comparison of those two songbooks, along with the MYF version of Joyful Singing and the earlier collection by Olcutt Sanders for conscientious objectors shows the continued evolution of his company.

At this time, Rohrbough still was using an outside printer, so added the MFY songs into the middle of Joyful Singing.  Instead of numeric page numbers, the blue-colored pages were identified by letters. [14]  In the 1944 edition of Songs of Many Nations, the first and last three pages are heavier stock than the rest, and the first two pages are not numbered.  All the pages in Melody in Michigan are the same dark-goldenrod yellow and numbered.

Rohrbough had begun to standardize on a single melody line.  More than half in the Michigan booklet still used two staffs, but two-thirds of those were hymns or arranged spirituals. [15]  The six without music either were religious, familiar like “Just a Song of Twilight,” [16] or copyrighted, like “Funiculi, Funicula.” [17]

Equally important, Rohrbough was having plates remade so the musical notes were the same size.  The version of “Shuckin’ of the Corn” in Sanders’ songbook had been redone by the time Schlingman used it in 1944.
 

In addition to issuing revised songbooks without publicizing the changes, another habit had crept into CRS business practices. [18]  Whenever Rohrbough first publishes a song, he gives a complete credit.  After that, he tends to abbreviate.  In Melody in Michigan, “Evening Star” is credited to “World of Song, Danish American Young People’s League, Grandview College, Des Moines, Iowa,” [19] while “Bendemeer’s Stream” is from “A World of Song.  Copyright 1941, D. A. Y. P. L.” [20]

Rohrbough also credits his immediate source, not the original one.  Thus, the YWCA’s “Each Camp Fire” comes from “A World of Song.” [21]  In his defense, it was much more difficult to track down authorships then than it is now, and, whenever anyone gave him more accurate information, he changed the plate. [22]  He changed Mrs. L. L. McDowell to Flora McDowell in the above example.  The Camp Fire Girls’ “Canoe Round” now is described as “Arr. by Vera Hollenffer” rather than “contrib. by” here. [23]

One suspects templates like Joyful Singing led to hybrid booklets that began with set packages that were altered considerably.  For many, it is easier to change a draft than start from scratch.  Sometime between 1946 and 1955, [24] Rohrbough produced editions of Joyful Singing for the Camp Fire Girls. [25]  I have two copies with one containing three more songs than the other.  The covers of both show a straight river in diminishing perspective.  The older one has a light blue cover. [26]  The other is darker blue. [27]

Still later, Rohrbough published the revised template.  The 1962 songster has none of the CFG songs.  Not only did he reuse songs from his inventory, but he recycled the cover art.  The design on the back cover of Melody in Michigan was used on the title page of Handy II reproduced in the post for 12 December 2021.  He already had reused the songbook title: Joyful Singing was the title he use for his social songs Kit S in 1938, according to Holcomb. [28]

Availability
Book: Joyful Singing, for The National Convocation of the Methodist Youth Fellowship.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, Custom Printed Songs.

Book: Melody in Michigan, for Detroit Area of the Methodist Youth Fellowship.  Delaware, Ohio: Coop. Recreation Service, Cooperative Song Service.

Book: Pocket Songster, edited by J. Olcutt Sanders for Fellowship of Reconciliation.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, Custom Printed Songs.

Book: Songs of Many Nations, for Evangelical and Reformed Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, Custom Printed Songs, 1944.

Graphics
1.  Joyful Singing, MYF.

2.  “Shuckin’ of the Corn,” recorded by Flora McDowell and first published by CRS in Tennessee Folk Songs.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, 1939.

“Where Is John” to a melody by Friedrich Smetana.  Uncredited, but first published by Teresa Armitage in 1924. [29]

Left: Pocket Songster, page 25.
Right: Songs of Many Nations, 32.

3.  “Each Camp-fire Lights Anew.”  Reprinted on page 56 of Melody in Michigan.  “From A World of Song, Copyright, 1941, D.A.Y.P.L.”  This song is reproduced in the post for 28 November 2021 and is mentioned in the post for 5 December 2021 and 13 March 2022.

4.  Left: Melody in Michigan.

Right: Joyful Singing.  Delaware, Ohio: World Around Songs, Informal Music Service, 1962 revised edition.

End Notes
1.  “Cooperative Music Publishing.”  57 in Joyful Singing, MYF.  Holcomb said: “One of the keys to the growth of this service was the requirement that new song plates made for a given group had to be added to the pool of CRS songs available to other groups.” [30]  This is not mentioned in the MYF booklet.

2.  The Country Life Association is mentioned in the post for 28 November 2021.

3.  Larry Nial Holcomb.  “A History of the Cooperative Recreation Service.”  PhD dissertation.  University of Michigan, 1972.  104.

4.  Elwin L. Wilson.  “The Long Road to Mechuwana.”  Mechuwana website.

5.  Tom Groening.  “Tanglewood 4-H Camp Celebrates 30th Year.”  Bangor Daily News, Bangor, Maine, 26 August 2012.

6.  Holcomb.  104.  A senior institute would have been a session for high-school-aged students.

7.  Rohrbough listed the songbooks he used, perhaps as another form of advertising in the form of testimonials.  He included one outside book in his list of sources: Let’s All Sing the Same Songs, edited by Augustus D. Zanzig.  New York: National Recreation Association.  The cover has a “V” for victory symbol, and the only non-American songs are the Canadian “Alouette” and the Mexican “Cielito Lindo.”  The rest, primarily, are chanties (4), spirituals (3), and nineteenth-century songs (3).  “The Star-Spangled Banner” is balanced by “Dixie.”  The only hymn is the Dutch “We gather together.”

8.  In 1974, Adahi was a Camp Fire Girls’ camp being run by Reading-Berks County Council in Reading, Pennsylvania.

9.  Selected Songs for the Farmer’s Union and Manitoba Federation of Agriculture; Songs for Sings for Rural Youth of Illinois, and Pan America Sings for Minnesota State Agricultural Extension.

10.  One was Epworth Forest Sings, published for the “N. Indiana Conf.”  Epworth Forest is discussed in the post for 30 May 2021.

11.  Eight customers were from Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, or Pennsylvania; six from other Midwestern states, three from the West, Northeast, or Border South, and one from the Deep South or Canada.

12.  “Methodist Church (USA).”  Wikipedia website.

13.  A. Douglas MacNaughton.  The Methodist Church in Michigan: The Twentieth Century.  Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, 1976.  195.

14.  As mentioned in the post for 28 November 2021, Carl Edward Zander and Wes Klusmann did the same thing with their early customized books.  The use of an insert was an easy solution to the difficulties and costs of working with a printer.  It is not likely Rohrbough copied them, but came up with the idea himself.

15.  My copy of Melody in Michigan is missing the middle eight pages, 37–44.  They contain 13 songs.  Of the remaining, 53% have two staffs and 40% have one.  Of those with two staffs, 69% are religious.  The index has three titles that have been replaced in the innards. [31]  “Just a Song of Twilight,” “Kookaburra,” and “MacNamara’s Band” appear in the text but not the index.  The second was published in this country in 1939. [32]  The last was introduced into British music halls in 1889. [33]

16.  James Lynam Molloy and G. Clifton Bingham.  “Love’s Old Sweet Song.”  London: Boosey and Company, 13 October 1884. [36]  Reprinted without music as “Just a Song at Twilight” on page 60 of Melody in Michigan.

17.  Luigi Denza and Peppino Turco.  “Funiculì, Funiculà.”  Milan, Italy: Ricordi, 2 October 1880. [37]  Reprinted without music as “Funculi, Funicula!” on page 58 of Melody in Michigan.

18.  Since most CRS songbooks are undated, these variations are helpful, if one has enough books to arrange a sequence.  Otherwise, they may lead to false conclusions.  In 1957, the YWCA said Rohrbough had “published several editions of SING ALONG for us.  While each revision has been an improvement, there is confusion when old and new books are used the same time.  This edition will not be changed for several years.  Users may depend upon it for some time to come.” [38]  Little did the editors know that, while the content was fixed, the plates were not.  Each time CRS made a slight change in “Kum Ba Yah,” it appeared in the next printing.

19.  Melody in Michigan.  34.
20.  Melody in Michigan.  49.

21.  Melody in Michigan.  55.  Camp Songs, Folk Songs identifies Hollenhoffer on page 515.

22.  See the version of “Each Camp Fire” in the post for 13 March 2022.

23.  The composer of “My Paddles Keen and Bright” is mentioned in the posts for 14 October 2020 and 5 December 202.  Margaret Bradshaw McGee is profiled in Camp Songs, Folks Songs, 445 and 565.

24.  They were prepared for The Campfire Outfitting Company, New York City, and contain songs arranged by Leonhard Deutch in 1946.  These were produced before 1955 when I ordered a copy of Music Makers, which mentioned the Camp Fire Girls, Supply Division.

25.  These editions include three CFG songs: Katherine Court’s “Campfire Goodnight,” Abbie Gerrish-Jones’ “Song of Flame,” and Jean Taylor’s “Now the Day Commences.”  The second added the “Canoe Round.”

26.  Joyful Singing, Campfire Girls Edition.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, Cooperative Song Service.  Light colored cover.

27.  Joyful Singing, Campfire Girls Edition.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, Cooperative Song Service.  Dark colored cover.  Copy provided by Josephine Weber of the Winnebagoland CFG Council, Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

28.  Holcomb.  59.  It is discussed in the posts for 19 September 2021 and 26 September 2021.

29.  Aber Horne.  “Where Is John” to a melody from The Bartered Bride by Friedrich Smetana.  23 in Folk Songs & Art Songs for Intermediate Grades, Book 1, edited by Marie Teresa Armitage.  Boston: C. C. Birchard, 1924.  Book I is for grade 5.

30.  Holcomb.  102.

31.  Songs that appear in the index but not in my copy of the book are “Holy, Holy, Holy,” “Taps,” and “Wesley Grace.”

32.  “Kookaburra” was written in 1934 by Marion Sinclair for the Girl Guides in Australia.  Janet Tobitt published it in 1939 in Yours for a Song.  “Kookaburra” is one of the featured songs in Camp Songs, Folk Songs, 115–121, 650–653.  It is reprinted on page 61 of Melody in Michigan.

33.  Shamus O’Connor and John J. Stamford.  Written for a music hall owned by  Billy Ashcroft. [34]  Arrangement by Alta May Calkins reprinted on page 79 of Melody in Michigan.  Calkin’s husband, Gilman Calkins, worked for the Ohio Farm Bureau. [35]

34.  Wikipedia, McNamara.
35.  Camp Songs, Folk Songs.  58.

36.  James J.  Fuld.  The Book of World-Famous Music.  New York: Dover Publications, 2000 edition.  342–343.

37.  Fuld.  240.

38.  Mary Wheeler, Lura Mohrbacher, and Augustus D. Zanzing.  Sing Along, for the YWCA.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, 1957.  1.