Topic: CRS Versions
If Lynn Rohrbough had done nothing more than he had done in the early 1940s, he would have had a comfortable business producing songbooks for churches and religious organizations. Larry Holcomb says that, over the years, The Methodist Church ordered 520,000 copies of Larry Eisenberg’s Sing It Again, while the Evangelical and Reformed Church ordered 385,000 copies of Songs of Many Nations through multiple editions. [1]
The Columbus, Ohio, Indianola Methodist Church still would have published Indianola Sings, and John Blocher, Jr., still would have transcribed “Ku Bah Ya” for it. However, the song probably would not have spread much farther than Methodist Youth Fellowship (MYF) networks and local youth camps.
What allowed “Kum Bah Ya” to become an international song was Rohrbough’s access to secular markets. That began in 1942, when his Cooperative Recreation Service (CRS) published Sing Along the Way for the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA). More than 145,000 copies had been produced by the early 1970s. [2]
Of all the organizations that sponsored youth groups, the YWCA had perhaps the greatest interest in music. A librarian at Smith College thinks this was an outgrowth of its religious origins, and that “ participatory singing of hymns and folk songs from all over the world, was a part of Association meetings and events from very beginning.” [3]
There is no single founder or parent organization. In England, several groups with similar names were formed in the 1850s to respond to the needs of working women. Similarly, in this country, prayer groups in cities like Boston and New York evolved into a national organization in 1907. [4]
The Boston group organized in 1866, and immediately began offering classes in singing. Two years later it was running a boarding house for young working women in the city. [5] This was a forerunner of the Bethany Girls Center where Rohrbough worked in Chicago in the 1920s. [6]
One of the Y’s first music publication efforts was initiated by the Department for Work with Foreign-Born Women after World War I. Florence Hudson Botsford began publishing collections of immigrant folk songs in 1921. [7] Two entered residential camp singing traditions: “Baby Owlet” [8] and “Weggis Song.” [9]
In 1918, when denominational groups like the Epworth League were expanding, the Y organized Girl Reserves clubs for girls of all ages. [10] Mildred Roe oversaw its first songbook in 1923.
The format anticipates that of Lynn Rohrbough’s Handy books, [11] and, so far as I have seen in early camp songsters, was unique to the Y. [12] The leatherette cover, which measures 3 5/8" x 7", extends beyond the 3 3/4" x 6 3/4" pages like a Bible. My copy has 64 pages, and is held together by two metal butterfly fasteners. Many of the songs are cheers and stunt songs like those published a few years later by E. O. Harbin for the Methodist Episcopal Church South. [13]
Girl Reserves primarily were interested in school-based clubs. However, its section on camp songs indicate a number of popular ones like “Father time is a crafty man” [14] and “Mister moon moon” [15] already were in tradition. Roe included a version of “Each camp fire lights anew” that later was used by Carl Edward Zander and Wes Klusmann, and is reproduced in the post for 28 November 2021.
Katharine Blunt Parker took over the chairmanship of the music committee and, in 1925, asked Imogene Ireland to direct music at conferences. [16] She issued a new Y songbook in 1926 that contained all but six of the 117 songs published by Roe. [17] The 22 new songs were mainly hymns, Girl Reserve songs, and graces.
Someone, perhaps Margaret Hall, [18] published a Girl Reserve Song Book through Zander and Klusmann’s company in 1941. While the cover design features the organization’s logo, the overall format is the same as their other collections. It is 3 5/8" x 6 15/16", and bound by two staples.
This does not mean a wholesale change in repertoire. Many of the songs, like those from the Botsford collection, did not become popular, and were replaced by the newer European folk songs like “Came a Riding” [27] and “Tiritomba.” [28] It uses Augustus Zanzig’s version of the “Weggis Song” rather than the Botsford one. [29]
The purpose of the songbook was not to include the entire YWCA repertoire, but to provide versions of songs that had were being sung in many camps, but were not yet well-known. [30] Thus, while there was no need to provide versions of “Father Time” and the “Year Song,” there may have been a need to provide texts or tunes for “The Curtains of Night” [31] and “Tell Me Why.” [32]
This may be the last special songbook published by Zander and Klusmann. When the Y wanted to publish a new book in 1942, it turned to Rohrbough’s company.
Notes on Performers
Florence Hudson Botsford was born Florence Topping in Cairo, Illinois, in 1868. [33] She graduated from Shimer College of Chicago in 1888, then taught music for a year. [34] In 1890, she was singing for the State Street Methodist Church in Troy, New York, where she entranced her audience with versions of “Annie Laurie” and “Comin’ Thro’ the Rye.” [35] She married Charles Hull Botsford in 1893. [36] He was involved with oil in the Balkans before World War I. [37] This exposure may have abetted her interest in European music.
Mildred Roe grew up in Buchanan, Michigan, where her grandfather had a lumber business [38] and played a violin he had purchased from a local German farmer [39] She studied piano in Chicago, [40] then matriculated to Smith College where she graduated in 1920. She immediately went to work for the YWCA as a field secretary. [41] Before and after World War II, she worked with Japan for the Y. [42]
Imogene Belle Ireland graduated from Barnard in 1913, where she was treasurer of the YWCA and wrote music for school programs. [43] The next semester she entered Columbia College. [44] She was involved in public school music in 1915, [45] then, with World War I, went to France as secretary to the Y’s Industrial Commission. [46]
Margaret Hall not only is a common name, but is the name of a women’s college at Oxford University and was a dormitory at Iowa State University that burned in 1938.
Availability
Florence Hudson Botsford. Folk Songs of Many Peoples. New York: The Womans Press, volume 2, 1922. Republished as Florence Hudson Botsford. Botsford Collection of Folk Songs. New York: G. Schirmer, 1930.
Girl Reserve Song-Book. New York: The Womans Press, 1923. The Girl Reserve Song-Book Committee included Mildred Roe, chairman, and Imogene B. Ireland.
Imogene B. Ireland. The Song Book of the Y. W. C. A. New York: Womans Press, 1926.
Girl Reserve Song Book. Inglewood, California: Songs ’n’ Things, 1941. “To Margaret Hall for her invaluable aid in editing.” Camp Songs ’n’ Things was owned by Carl Edward Zander and Wes Klusmann.
Graphics
1. Roe. Front cover.
2. “Each camp fire lights anew” to “May Madrigal.” 29 in Roe.
3. Carl Edward Zander and Wes Klusmann. Front cover.
End Notes
1. Larry Nial Holcomb. “A History of the Cooperative Recreation Service.” PhD dissertation. University of Michigan, 1972. 106. Sing It Again is discussed in the post for 9 February 2020. Songs of Many Nations is mentioned in the posts for 20 February 2022 and 27 February 2022.
2. Holcomb. 105.
3. Anonymous overview of the YWCA archives in the Sophia Smith Collection. Smith College website.
4. “YWCA of the U.S.A. History.” International Directory of Company Histories, edited by Jay P. Pederson. Detroit, Michigan: Saint James Press, volume 45, 2002. Reposted on Funding Universe website.
5. Elizabeth Wilson. “To Refute or Verify.” The Association Monthly, December 1914. Cited by “YWCA Boston.” Wikipedia website.
6. The Bethany Girls are mentioned in the post for 12 September 2021.
7. Smith College.
8. “The Owlet.” 2:86 in Botsford (1922) and 1:31 (1930). Arranged by Elena Landázuri; English text by Muna Lee. Reprinted on page 46 of Roe. More information is provided in the post for 21 January 2018.
9. “Weggis Song.” 2:160–161 in Botsford (1922) and 3:265–266 (1933). English by Margaret Widdemer, arranged by Jean Binet. Reprinted on page 47 of Roe. This is mentioned in the post for 5 December 2021.
10. Noriko Namiki. “A Moment in Our History: Touching the Lives of Future Generations: From Girl Reserves and Y-Teens to Girls’ Summit.” YWCA Oahu website, 28 April 2020.
11. A copy of Handy II appears in the post for 12 December 2021.
12. The camp songbooks I have seen from the 1920s and 1940s were more square than oblong. Blue Triangle Songs, issued by the Louisville, Kentucky, YWCA in 1924, is 3 ½" x 5 ½".
13. E. O. Harbin. Paradology, Songs of Fun and Fellowship. Nashville: Cokesbury Press, 1927. This is discussed in the post for 9 February 2020.
14. “Father Time” to “Father Time.” 29 in Roe.
15. “Oh, Mister Moon, Moon” to “Moon, Moon.” 30 in Roe.
16. Smith College. Parker is discussed briefly in Camp Songs, Folk Songs. 57.
17. Ireland replaced two hymns and three old songs with others of the same genres. The Romanian Girl Reserve song, “Come, Girl Reserves, with quickened step,” [47] was replaced with a Czech song from the Botsford Collection. [48] Neither contained the sung syllables mentioned in the post for 5 December 2021.
18. Zander and Klusmann. 8.
19. This number excludes hymns, spirituals, rounds, and older songs like those of Stephen Foster that are not unique to either songbook.
20. “As the bright flames ascend to heaven” to “Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes. 29 in Roe.
“As the Bright Flames.” 60 in Ireland.
“As the Bright Flames Ascend” to “Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes.” 61 in Zander.
21. “The Camper’ Song” to Stevenson’s “Swing Song.” 28 in Roe.
“Follow the Trail to the Open Air. 58 in Ireland.
“Follow the Trail” by Agatha Deming. 56 in Zander.
Camp Songs, Folks Songs has details on page 463 on Deming’s involvement with the Woodcraft league mentioned in the post for 28 November 2021.
22. Sallie Hume Douglass. “Follow the Gleam.” 18 in Roe.
“To Knights in the Days of Old.” 29 in Ireland.
“Follow the Gleam.” Words and music copyrighted 1922 by Sallie Hume Douglas. 91 in Zander.
The words by Helen Hill Miller are written to “Garden of Paradise” by Sallie Hue-Douglas. Camp Songs, Folk Songs has more details on pages 365–366 and 457.
23. “For the Year That Came from Thee.” S1-11 in Ireland.
“Girl Reserve Litany of Thanks” by John H. Gower and Abbie Graham. 86 in Zander.
24. “Gracious in Manner” to “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles.” 16 in Roe.
“Gracious I Will Be in Manner.” 26 in Ireland.
“Girl Reserve Code Song” by Eleanore Weddell Roberts. 9 in Zander.
25. “O God, Grant Our Daily Bread.” S1-16 in Ireland.
“Girl Reserve Grace.” 13 in Zander.
26. “Witchcraft.” Used by permission of Margaret Snyder. 10 in Zander. This is discussed in the post for 5 December 2021.
27. “Came A-Riding.” Czech with English by Martha C. Ramsey. 35 in Zander. This is discussed in the post for 9 February 2020.
28. “Tiritomba.” From Folk Songs, Ballads and Songs of Great Composers. Selected by Augustus D. Zanzig under the auspices of the National Recreation Association. Set III. Copyright, 1936, by E. C. Schirmer Music Co.” WorldCat says “Tiritomba” is in Set 1. Zander used a text by Anne G Molloy of page 32. For more on the song, see the post for 5 December 2021.
29. Although the YWCA sponsored the Botsford collection, it was published by G. Schirmer. There may have been copyright issues in reprinting some of the material after the rights were transferred to G. Schirmer in 1929.
Incidentally, there are two Schirmer music companies. G. Schirmer was founded by Gustav Schirmer in New York in 1866. His grandson, also Gustav, ran the company from 1919 to 1921. It specialized in classical music, then branched into other areas. [49] Gustav’s nephew, Ernest C. Schirmer, apprenticed with the company, then ran the Boston Music Company. In 1921, he started his own company, E. C. Schirmer, which published works for the Concord School. [50]
30. Another reason songs sung in camp may have been omitted is that many are written to popular songs. While the right to create a parody is protected by the first amendment, the right to sing the tune is limited by copyright law. This is the reason someone who was not present when “Follow the Gleam” was written gets credit, rather than the actual writers mentioned above in note 22. Oliver discusses the problems the Y had in getting permissions in “How To Write a Parody.” 17 in Let’s Have Music. New York: Woman’s Press, 1948 edition.
31. “The Curtains of Night.” 57 in Zander. “We are indebted to Hazel Bell Withrow and Mrs. Maude Henderson” for this version. See April 1936 Woman’s Press for story of its origins.”
32. “Tell Me Why.” 80 in Zander. Roe has a local version that begins “Why do we love you, O Girl Reserves” to the tune “Because God Made You” on page 14. Zander has a blank in the last line for the camp name.
33. “Florence Botsford.” Shimer College Fandom website.
34. “Florence Hudson Botsford.” Prabook website.
35. “Miss Florence Topping Captivates the Hearts of Her Hearers.” The Morning Telegram, Troy, New York; republished by The Ottawa Daily Republic, Ottawa, Kansas, 14 May 1890. 4. Posted to the internet by reedlr on 05 November 2019.
36. Shimer College.
37. Thomas W. Hawley. “Charles H. Botsford ’75.” Princeton Alumni Weekly 31:390:23 January 1931.
38. Mildred Roe. From her “History of Certain Roe and Tichenor Families in the U.S. A.” October 1965. 31.
39. Roe, History. 32. He then was living in Portage Prairie in Berrien County, Michigan. Buchanan is in the same county.
40. “Pupils of Edward Ehrhand.” Music News, Chicago, Illinois, 8:8:19 May 1916.
41. Item. The Smith Alumnae Quarterly 12:173:November 1920. She was tapped for Phi Beta Kappa.
42. Karen Garner. “Global Feminism and Postwar Reconstruction: The World YWCA Visitation to Occupied Japan, 1947.” Journal of World History 15:191–227:2004. 206.
43. Mortar Board. Barnard College yearbook, 1912.
44. The Columbian. Columbia College yearbook, 1914. 288.
45. “Yonkers Festival Triumph of Public School Music System.” Musical America, 15 May 1915. 47.
46. “Industrial Commission Will Sail to France.” War Work Bulletin, 7 February 1919. 59.
47. Roe. 14.
48. “Andulko.” Botsford, volume 1 (1921) and 3:30–31 (1933). English by John Mokrejs, arranged by LudmilaVojáĉkova-Wetche. Reprinted on page S1-8 of Ireland.
49. Nicolas Slonimsky, Laura Kuhn, and Dennis McIntire. “Schirmer, G., Inc.” Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, a publication of G. Schirmer. Reprinted on Cengage Encyclopedia website.
50. “E. C. Schirmer Music Company.” ECS Publishing Group website.
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