Topic: Choral Arrangements
Fred Waring’s Shawnee Press was the first music publisher to challenge Lynn Rohrbough’s publication of “Kumbaya.” The exact chronology is lost; only some letters between Rohrbough and Shawnee representatives remain, and they appear to come toward the end of the correspondence.
Rohrbough’s company, Cooperative Recreation Service (CRS), first published “Kum Ba Yah” in a songbook prepared in 1955 [1] by Kathryn Thompson Good and John Blocher, Jr., for Indianola, a Columbus, Ohio, Methodist family camp. Blocher did the transcription from Good’s singing. [2]
No copyright was registered, and no ownership notice was appended. The law dictated that copyright owners print a notice under a song in every publication to maintain a copyright. As seen in the reproduction of Indianola Sings posted on 29 May 2022, this did not occur.
The lawyer for later owners of CRS told them that, under the law in effect in 1955, “the printing of one book (one copy) with out proper Copyright notice can lose you the copyright.” He added that “some folks judged a little less strictly than others, but certainly if more than one whole printing has gone out with songs uncredited, he feels that there is no question; the song has fallen in to the public domain.” [3]
Instead, Rohrbough included “Come By Here: Kum Ba Yah,” without an ownership notice, in a Song Sampler published in January 1956 that was distributed to “200 organizations in every state and to correspondents in 60 overseas countries.” He informed recipients that “bulk lots are available to organizations for mailing lists, in conferences, and try-outs.” [4]
Rohrbough believed the next publication of “Kum Ba Yah” was in a collection compiled in February and March 1956 for the North East Ohio Conference of the Methodist Church. Bliss Wiant, one of the editors, created a four-part arrangement that did carry a copyright notice.
This only asserted ownership of the arrangement, and did not cover the original song. A copy is included in the post for 2 October 2022, and I have yet to see another publication reproduce this particular version.
Shawnee published a version of “Koom Ba Yah” in 1958 by Harry Harter. The sheet music carried a notice at the bottom of the first page.
Shawnee’s editors apparently learned about the CRS version soon after it released Harter’s arrangement. It must have contacted the company about copyright infringement because Rohrbough included the following credit in a 1958 songbook produced for Lake Poinsett: [5]
Meantime, Shawnee was publishing another version of “Koom Ba Yah” in 1959 by Livingston Gearhart for boys’ vocal ensembles. The book carried a notice on the title page, which was intended to cover all the songs in it. [6]
Rohrbough may then have written back to Shawnee to assert his prior publication of “Kumbaya.” This is where the evidence begins. In the first letter saved in a CRS file on the song, the company’s editor wrote Rohrbough on 13 February 1959:
“Our contributor, Hr. Harter maintains that he learned the song directly from an African missionary, who said it was widely sung in Africa. Its popularity there is further attested to by the fact that one of our editorial assistants learned it at a church camp from another African missionary. It would appear that this song may be a true folk song, which can be collected any number of times from authentic but different sources - namely the folk themselves. Our understanding of such songs is that they can be published by anyone who gets them from an original source, and does not use another publishers’ printed version for a source. (In this instance, Hr. Harter was under the impression that he was the first person to write down the song, so was unaware of the existence of a printed source.)” [7]
At this point, Rohrbough did not seem to be aware that “Kumbaya” was an original publication of CRS. Indeed, he seems to have fully accepted the history of the song that was presented by Larry Eisenberg at Davidson College in 1957. [8] This is where Peter Seeger heard the song, and he subsequently spread the legend about an African missionary. [9]
On 16 February 1959, Rohrbough wrote: “Of course this song was widely known by missionaries. Probably it is only a question of who first published it.” [10]
However, Rohrbough noted: “The fact that your contributor followed the spelling “Koom” in our footnote would indicate that your missionary friend had seen our printed copy. [11]
Shawnee’s lawyer then contacted Harter, and wrote back on 14 May 1959: “Our contributor, Harry Harter learned of the spiritual in 1957 from an African missionary. However, we have determined that the missionary actually first heard the selection in a recreational laboratory workshop in Minnesota about 1954 but the missionary also had the understanding that Rosa Page Welch heard the work while travelling in Africa and brought the song to America. Tracking that down, we have determined that Rosa Page Welch actually first heard the work at the World Christian Student conference at Athens, Ohio about 1956 when an African student led the conference in singing it.” [12]
Rohrbough responded on 4 June 1959 that “we did the Northland Songs for the Rec. Lab. at St. Paul.” [13] When I contacted members of the Northland Recreation Laboratory, they indicated Rohrbough had not attended their annual workshops since 1936. [14] The group published collections from workshops, and there was no evidence that the song ever was sung there in the middle-1950s. One member, however, did remember learning the song at the annual conference of the Methodist Church, which was held in 1956 in Minneapolis. [15] That may be the source for Harter’s reference to Minnesota.
Rohrbough also described the Student Volunteer Movement meeting in Athens, Ohio, and Welch’s role as a song leader. [16]
At this point, Shawnee’s lawyer realized that Harter was an unreliable source and that oral tradition had engulfed the song. He wrote Rohrbough: “we are agreeable to making acknowledgment in our reprints of KOOM BA YAH to your organization as first collectors of this spiritual in the U. S. and in consideration of your position as said first collector of the selection we would pay you a nominal fee of $1.00 with the understanding that in making such acknowledgment to you we do so without prejudice to our copyright in KOOM BA YAH.” [17]
Shawnee was able to publish Harter’s version for women’s voices later that year. [18] The following credits appeared at the bottom of the page.
The Poinsett note was used for a reprint of the Young Women’s Christian Associations’ Sing Along that originally had been published in 1957. CRS simply used the current plate. [19]
Rohrbough did not reprint the reference to Shawnee Press again in his songbooks. The closest he came in 1962 was to follow Shawnee’s hint about sources and list the first dates for Wiant’s arrangement of “Kum Ba Yah” and Van Richards’ “Come by Here.” The latter, published in 1958, is discussed in the post for 15 January 2023.
Graphics
1. “Kum Ba Yah.” 31 in Hymns of Universal Praise, edited for North East Ohio Conference of the Methodist Church by Bliss Wiant and Carlton Young. Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, Cooperative Song Service, 1956.
2. Harry Harter. “Koom Ba Yah.” Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania: Shawnee Press, Inc., 1958 edition for SATB.
3. “Kum Ba Yah.” 50 in Lake Poinsett Fellowship Songs. Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service Cooperative Song Service, revised 1958.
4. “Koom Ba Yah.” 59–61 in Gentlemen Songsters, edited by Livingston Gearhart. Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania: Shawnee Press, Inc., 1959.
5. Harry Harter. “Koom Ba Yah.” Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania: Shawnee Press, Inc., 1960.
6. “Kum Ba Yah.” 11 in Songs to Keep, edited by Augustus Zanzig. Delaware, Ohio: Informal Music Service. © 1962, Cooperative Recreation Service, Inc., Delaware, O.
End Notes
Bruce Greene, owner of World Around Songs, has sent the surviving papers, songbooks, and other documents of CRS to the Library of Congress, who now has the originals. I kept scans of all the papers in the company’s “Kumbaya” folder, which Mr. Greene lent to me in 2016.
1. Lynn Rohrbough. Letter to Shawnee Press, 16 February 1959. Copy courtesy of Bruce Greene.
2. Patricia Averill with John Blocher, Jr. “‘Kumbaya’ and Dramatizations of an Etiological Legend.” Voices 46:26–32:Spring–Summer 2020. Copy available from Academia.edu.
3. Letter from one owner of World Around Songs to another, 3 May 1979. Copy courtesy of Bruce Greene.
4. Song Sampler number 1, January 1956. Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, Cooperative Song Service, 1956. B. The post for 31 July 2022 reproduces the Song Sampler variant.
5. Lake Poinsett is discussed in the post for 9 July 2023.
6. Gearhart’s is discussed in the post for 8 October 2023.
7. Shawnee Press editor. Letter to Lynn Rohrbough, 13 February 1959. Copy courtesy of Bruce Greene.
8. For more on the event at Davidson College, see the post for 16 October 2022.
9. Averill and Blocher.
10. Lynn Rohrbough. Letter to Shawnee Press editor, 16 February 1959. Copy courtesy of Bruce Greene.
11. Rohrbough, 16 February 1959.
12. Shawnee Press lawyer to Lynn Rohrbough, 14 May 1959. Copy courtesy of Bruce Greene.
13. Lynn Rohrbough, letter to Shawnee Press lawyer, 4 June 1959. Copy courtesy of Bruce Greene.
14. For more on Northland Recreation Workshop, see the post for 26 September 2021.
15. For more on the Methodist conference, see the post for 9 October 2022.
16. Rohrbough, 4 June 1959. The post for 31 July 2022, has more on the Athens meeting.
17. Shawnee Press lawyer.
18. Harter’s arrangement is discussed in the post for 29 October 2023.
19. Sing Along is discussed in the post for 11 December 2022.
