Augustus Delafield Zanzig

 Topic: CRS Version
John Blocher learned “Kumbaya” from Kathryn Thompson Good when they were preparing a songbook for the Indianola camp in Columbus, Ohio. [1]  Her family told him she probably heard it at a Buckeye Recreation Workshop. [2]

The Buckeye workshop was an annual meeting that lasted a week, and, in the early 1950s, met in Urbana, Ohio. [3]  Its roots go back to the early days of teacher education, before states established normal schools.  The Land Ordinance of 1785 had decreed one section of every township in the Northwest Territory should be used to finance public schools. [4]  The appearance of those buildings came with settlement.

In Ohio, many early teachers were men who could not otherwise support themselves. [5]  At first, they merely were expected to be of good character.  Eventually, parents demanded more.  In 1825 the legislature added the stipulation that teachers demonstrate some knowledge of “reading, writing, and arithmetic.” [6]

The colleges then in existence primarily were interested in educating ministers.  Those individuals, who had some educations, ran private schools in communities large enough to support them.  For instance, a private boarding school opened in Aurora, New York, in 1800.  By the time Salem Town became principal of Cayuga Academy in 1829, he had a master’s degree from Middlebury College. [7]

Teachers themselves provided the solution with short institutes. [8]  Henry Barnard introduced the concept in Connecticut in 1839. [9]  The success led to imitations, and, in 1843, Jacob Denman used the term “institute” for the first time for a two-week session in Ithaca, New York.  Town was one of his three instructors. [10]  Two years later, Town led the first institute in Ohio. [11]  Two years after that, in 1847, eleven Ohio counties held institutes, including Delaware County. [12]

Normal schools emerged as the preferred form of state school for training teachers.  The first was organized in Concord, Vermont, in 1823, and the second in 1839 in Lexington, Massachusetts. [13]  Despite their utility, states were slow to organize them.  In Ohio, Robert Overman said opposition came from private schools and from politicians who did not want the state involved in education. [14]  By 1900, only thirty-five of the forty-four states had public institutions. [15]

One commercial group who began sponsoring institutes was textbook publishers.  Luther Whiting Mason began a National Summer School of Music in 1884 in Lexington, Massachusetts. [16]  He had developed his pedagogical approach when he was in Germany in 1870.  His books used German melodies [17] with appropriate poems.  Most of the lyrics dealt with nature or religion. [18]

Mason’s school expanded to Chicago in 1903, and was taken over by his publisher, Ginn.  Silver, Burdette began its own American Institute of Normal Methods at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, in 1889. [19]  The original locations were rail hubs.  The move to a resort followed the development of Methodist educational retreats like Ocean Grove in New Jersey (1869) [20] and Chautauqua in New York (1875).

In 1920, a young man or woman still could cobble together enough of an education from institutes and normal-school short courses to become certified without earning a college degree.  The posts for 25 October 2020 and 24 January 2021 describe the efforts of Claire Lovejoy and Harry Kroll to become teachers in the South.

In the North, Augustus Zanzig was teaching music in New York’s Ethical Culture School in 1915 [21].  When he was born in 1891, [22] his father was a cigar dealer living in Manhattan; by 1910 he was working for the city water department. [23]  Zanzig never wrote a biographical sketch.  Thus, I have no information on where he learned to play piano and learned the rudiments of music.  In 1910, when he was nineteen, he was one of sixteen “non-matriculated students” taking classes in Columbia College’s School of Music. [24]

The Ethical Culture School had begun in 1878 as a free kindergarten for poor children.  By 1900, it had evolved into a private school for the well-to-do. [25]  While he was teaching there, Zanzig spent the summers of 1914 and 1915 taking classes at the University of Wisconsin. [26]  Apart from the reputation of Peter Dykema, [27] he may have gone to Madison through some family connection.  His paternal grandparents had migrated from Mecklenburg-Schwerin in 1854 and settled in New York. [28]  However, 76% of the Zanzigs who emigrated landed in Wisconsin. [29]

Louis Lynn noted that institutes ingratiated themselves in Louisiana by holding evening “musical and literary entertainment” programs for their communities. [30]  Zanzig took a class in staging such community pageants when he was at Wisconsin, and played the role of Chief Winnebago in one. [31]  He, apparently, was taking classes at Teachers College, Columbia, in the winter of 1917 when he worked on a pageant dramatizing “American Ideals.”  This time, he improvised the piano music for the “Spirit of Humor.” [32]

The outbreak of World War I created new opportunities.  The Army had learned from sending troops to the Mexican border in 1916 that prostitutes and venereal disease soon followed. [33]  To avoid that problem with its war bases, it encouraged private groups to create entertainment venues near its camps.  The YMCA was the most active, but the Playground and Recreation Association of America also became involved. [34]  It had been organized by Luther Halsey Gulick in 1906, [35] and run its own institutes to train recreation leaders. [36]

Zanzig went to Camp Sherman in 1918. [37]  While he was in Chillicothe, Ohio, he married Bertha Elizabeth Hard. [38]  He was then twenty-seven years old.  He returned to the Ethical Culture School [39], and took more classes at Columbia in 1920 and 1921. [40]

Soon after, he spent a year teaching in a Rochester, New York, high school [41] before enrolling at Harvard as a “Sp” student in 1921. [42]  I think this means he was in a summer program.  While there, he must have come to the attention of Archibald Davison, who conducted the college’s glee club. [43]  He already had shown an ability to perform and play piano in earlier classes.  The next summer he joined Davison at the Concord Summer School of Music in Massachusetts.

Thomas Whitney Surette had begun the Concord institute in 1915 to propagate his ideas for teaching music in schools.  Soon his students were “requesting books to use in their own elementary music classes.” [44]  In 1922, Zanzig wrote the teacher’s guide [45] and collaborated with Surette and Davison on the collection for grades four to six. [46]  He later helped produce the collection for grades seven to nine. [47]

Surette’s music collections are similar to the ones produced by Mason.  The one for grade school features poems set to folk tunes, while the junior high collection includes longer pieces by European composers.  Katharine Davis wrote many of the lyrics, [48] while Zanzig arranged twelve of the melodies.

Despite the demonization of immigrants in World War I, most of the tunes in the two books are European.  The largest numbers come from the United Kingdom (30%) [49] and Germany (29%).  Only 14 of the 391 I counted [50] are from the United States, and four of these are “Negro Spirituals.”

At this point, the young man who may or may not have had a college degree was set.  Like Varner Chance years later, [51] he earned a living by patching together income from a number of sources.  He was director of music for Brookline Public School [52] while teaching a half-credit course in methods at Harvard [53] and spending his summers in Concord.  In addition, at least in 1922, was working with Boston’s South End Music School settlement house. [54]

Graphics
Augustus D. Zanzig at Northland Recreation Laboratory.  In Bob Nolte.  Northland Recreation Lab: A History.  1984.  Copy provided by Heidi Ryan, 21 June 2016.

End Notes
More information on Zanzig appears in the posts for 21 January 2018, 19 September 2021, 26 September 2021, and 3 October 2021.

1.  John Blocher, Jr.  Email, 28 April 2016.  “Tommy introduced us to Kumbaya.  She and I assembled the Camp Song Book, Indianola Sings.”

2.  John Blocher, Jr.  Email, 30 June 2016, with comments from Good’s family.
3.  John Fark.  Email, 1 November 2020.
4.  Wikipedia.  “Land Ordinance of 1785.”

5.  Alston Ellis. “Ungraded Schools.”  80–105 in A History of Education in the State of Ohio.  Edited by Emerson E. White and Thomas W. Harvey.  Columbus, Ohio: Gazette Printing House, 1976.  86.

6.  Ellis.  96.

7.  Temple Rice Hollcroft.  A Brief History of Aurora, NY.  Revised by The Aurora Committee For The American Bicentennial.  Ovid, New York: W. E. Morrison and Company, 1976.

8.  Thomas W Harvey.  “Teachers’ Institutes.”  313–329 in White.  316–317.

9.  James W. Fraser.  Preparing America’s Teachers: A History.  New York: Teachers College Press, 2007.  61–62.

10.  J. Cayce Morrison.  “Professional Leadership through the Teachers’ Conferences.”  New York State Education, September 1927.  Reprinted by The Virginia Teacher, October 1927.

11.  Harvey.  316.
12.  Harvey.  317.  Lynn Rohrbough lived in Delaware, Ohio.
13.  Wikipedia.  “Normal School.”

14.  James Robert Overman.  The History of Bowling Green State University.  Bowling Green: Bowling Green State University Press, 1967.  8.

15.  Christine A. Ogren.  The American State Normal School.  New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.  2.

16.  Edward Bailey Birge.  History of Public School Music in the United States.  Washington, DC: Music Educators National Conference, 1939 edition.  134.

17.  Of the 148 songs in the Second Music Reader, 14% are German and 29% are anonymous. [55]  The third reader introduces harmony and its 55 songs are longer; 23% are German and 72% are anonymous. [56]

18.  Of the 148 songs in the Second Music Reader, 25% deal with nature and 10% are religious. [55]  Of the 55 songs in the third reader, 44% deal with nature and 36% are religious. [56]

19.  Birge.  134.
20.  Ocean Grove is discussed in the post for 17 January 2021.
21.  University of Wisconsin.  Bulletin 725, summer session 1915.  14.

22.  Barbara Zanzig.  “Augustus Delafield Zanzig.”  Zanzig, Zanzich and Related Names website, last updated 21 February 2021.

23.  Barbara Zanzig.  “Augustus Zanzig.”  Zanzig, Zanzich and Related Names website, last updated 21 February 2021.

24.  Columbia University.  Catalogue of the Officers and Students of Columbia College.  1910–1911.

25.  Wikipedia.  “Ethical Culture Fieldston School.”

26.  The Wisconsin Archeologist July 1914.  91.  Dykema’s class was in community festival work.

University of Wisconsin, 1915.

27.  Dykema is discussed in the post for 28 April 2018.

28.  Barbara Zanzig.  “August Zanzig.”  Zanzig, Zanzich and Related Names website, last updated 21 February 2021.

29.  “Where Is the Zanzig Family From?”  Ancestry website.
30.  Lynn.  5.

31. Wisconsin Archaeologist.  “Mr. Augustus D. Zanzig carried the role of Winnebago chief with great credit to himself.”

32.  Allan Abbot.  “A Pageant of National Ideals.”  Teachers College Record 18:261–286:1917.

33.  Richard F. Knapp and Charles E. Hartsoe.  Play for America: The National Recreation Association 1906–1965.  Arlington, Virginia: National Recreation and Park Association, 1979.  66.  It began as the Playground Association of America, but changed its name in 1911.  Today it is the National Recreation Association.

34.  Knapp.  67.

35.  Knapp.  30.  Luther Halsey Gulick was the child of Presbyterian missionaries to Hawaii.  He became an advocate of “muscular Christianity” after physical activities at the Sargeant School of Physical Training helped him handle his heart problems.  He worked for the YMCA from 1886 to 1900, when he left to work for public schools in New York City.  The Russel Sage Foundation hired him in 1908.  It was while he worked for them that he helped establish the Playground Association of America, and helped organize the Boy Scouts in 1910.  He and his wife, Charlotte Vetter Gulick, established the Camp Fire Girls as the female equivalent. [57]

36.  Knapp.  52.
37.  Item.  Music Educators Journal, January 1918.  3.
38.  Barbara Zanzig, Augustus Delafield Zanzig.
39.  Music Educators National Conference.  Yearbook 1920.  22.
40.  “Directory of Students.”  Columbia University.  Catalogue.  1920–1921.
41.  The Detroit Educational Bulletin.  1921 program.  19.
42.  Item.  Harvard Alumni Bulletin, 19 March 1925.  740.

43.  Archibald Thompson Davison earned a degree in music from Harvard in 1909, and in 1912 became the coach of the glee club, then an appendage of the Banjo and Mandolin Clubs. [58]  By 1915, when he helped edit Fifty Rote Songs, for Grades I, II and III, he was working with Surette at Concord. [59]  In 1920, the glee club became an independent organization.  In that position, he contributed “to the revival of choral singing, setting an example to the many college Glee Clubs that discarded their mandolins and took up Palestrina, Bach and Vaughn Williams.” [60]

44.  M. Potter.  “Finding Aid for Thomas Whitney Surette and Concord Summer School of Music Collection, 1846-1981.”  Concord Library Special Collections website, 2 December 2014.

45.  Augustus D. Zanzig.  The Concord Teachers’ Guide; A Manual for All Grades.  Boston: E. C. Schirmer Music Company, 1922.

46.  Archibald T. Davison, Thomas Whitney Surette, and Augustus D Zanzig.  A Book of Songs for Unison and Part Singing for Grades IV, V, and VI.  Boston: Schirmer Music Company, 1922.

47.  Archibald T. Davison, Thomas Whitney Surette, and Augustus D. Zanzig.  Concord Junior Song and Chorus Book.  Boston: E. C. Schirmer Music Company, 1927.

48.  Katherine Kennicott Davis wrote the words to 49 of 234 songs in the grade school book.  She graduated from Wellesley in 1914, and stayed to teach while studying at the New England Conservatory. [61]  She taught high school in Philadelphia, and spent her summers at the Concord Academy between 1921 and 1923. [62] That was when she must have contributed lyrics to the 1924 Concord book for grades 4–6.  Later, she studied in Paris, and became a serious composer.  Today, she is known for writing “The Little Drummer Boy” in 1941. [63]

49.  England 60%, Scotland 25%, Ireland 8%, Wales 7%.
50.  I did not include the rounds.

51.  As mentioned in the post for 21 March 2021, Varner Chance worked a number of jobs simultaneously, even though he had a master’s degree.

52.  Item.  Harvard Alumni Bulletin, 19 March 1925.  740.

53.  “SM14.  The Teaching of Music in Schools.”  Harvard University Official Register 19(8):48:1922.  “This course is accepted as a half-course for the degree of A.A. as well as for graduate degree.”

54.  Augustus D. Zanzig.  “Music Settlement Schools.”  Music Teachers National Association, Proceedings 62–66:1922.  63.

55.  Luther Whiting Mason.  Second Music Reader.  Boston: Ginn, Heath, and Company, 1870; 1882 edition.

56.  Luther Whiting Mason.  Third Music Reader.  Boston: Ginn, Heath, and Company, 1871; 1882 edition.

57.  “Luther Gulick.” Play and Playground Encyclopedia website.

58.  William A. Weber.  “Archibald T. Davison: Faith in Good Music.”  The Crimson, Harvard University, 17 February 1961.

59.  Thomas Whitney Surette and Archibald T Davison.  Fifty Rote Songs, for Grades I, II and III.  Boston: Boston Music Company, 1915.  [WorldCat entry.]

60.  Weber.
61.  Wikipedia.  “Katherine Kennicott Davis.”

62.  C. Michael Hawn.  “History of Hymns: ‘Let All Things Now Living’.”  The United Methodist Church Discipleship Ministries website, 20 November 2014.

63.  Wikipedia, Davis.

Kumbaya - Pandemic Music Education

Topic: Pandemic Versions
When schools closed their buildings, parents were expected to take over the functions of teaching reading, arithmetic, and subject matter like history and science.  Fortunately, websites already existed where teachers could sell curriculum support materials.  Amazon had experimented with a marketplace in 2016, then reintroduced one in November 2019, [1] a month before the COVID-19 strain of Coronavirus appeared in China.

Music has been peripheral since schools began cutting programs for budgetary reasons in the 1960s.  Only 728 items come up on the Amazon site for the keyword “music.”  In comparison, there are over 6,000 results for “reading,” 4,000 for “math,” and 2,000 for “history.” [2]

Some have turned to YouTube as a better alternative for offering free music lessons.  Kristin Young began posting weekly lessons on 1 June 2020 on her church’s website.  She teaches a religious song each week, and introduces a few simple concepts.  For “Kumbaya,” she discussed breathing from the diaphragm and showed the scale as a series of numbers, before singing four verses.

Technology has been the challenge for everyone doing remote learning, from figuring out how to use Zoom and other software, to determining what works in this medium.  Young is director of worship at Saint Mark’s Lutheran Church, and so had a portable, headset microphone available.

Katherine Hicks had more problems with her instrumental lessons.  She apparently had one microphone available, which picked up the louder, higher-pitched sounds of the flute and recorder.  Her voice was soft, and almost impossible to hear.

She also used “Kum Bay Yah!” to teach how to read music.  She showed the notes on both the staff and as a list of numbers.  Like the clarinet method books, she commented on the extra key used for the upper register. [3]  Her main concern was the duration of notes and so focused on the dotted-quarter, eighth, whole note combination at the ends of phrases.

Performers
Young: vocal soloist accompanied by grand piano.
Hicks: recorder soloist

Credits
Young said it came from the Gullah culture of the southeastern US slaves, and that “kumbaya” was Gullah for “come by here.”

Hicks described it as a “beautiful spiritual campfire song.”

Notes on Lyrics
Young
Language: English
Verses: kumbaya, crying, praying, singing
Pronoun: someone
Term for Deity: Lord
Basic Form: four-verse song
Influences: Tommy Leonetti verse order

Hicks
Language: English
Verses: kumbaya
Term for Deity: Lord

Notes on Music
Young
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Basic Structure: strophic repetition
Singing Style: one note to one syllable, including the final “Lord”

Vocal-Accompaniment Dynamics: right hand played the melody, left a note (not a chord) at the beginning of measures

Hicks
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Time Signature: 4/4
Tempo: moderate
Key Signature: one sharp
Basic Structure: strophic repetition
Ending: slowed the last line the last time

Notes on Performance
Both took on the personae of teachers.  The married Kristin Young introduced herself as Miss Kristin.  Katherine Hicks called herself Mrs. Hicks.

Young
Location: in the church in front of the altar platform; chairs had been moved to the perimeter
Microphones: headset

Clothing: dark top and mid-calf black-and-white print skirt; in other videos she wore a white choir robe or dress; her dark, shoulder-length hair was loose

Hicks
Location: in a room, probably in her home
Microphones: not visible

Clothing: a red tee-shirt with “Music Teacher” in white script; the back had her name in block letters.  Her blond air was pulled back and she wore glasses; she wore a simple ring on one finger.

Notes on Movement
Both moved as they talked, and both used props in addition to their musical instruments.  Young used a portable white board with staff lines inscribed on it.  Hicks displayed the sheet music and also used a plain white board.

Audience Perceptions
Eight people had viewed Young’s video the first time I saw it.  I do not know the size of her church’s congregation, but the day care center has less than sixty students. [4]

Eighty-nine people had seen Hicks’ video.

Notes on Performers
Saint Mark’s in Aurora, Illinois, is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. [5]  Young graduated from the Roman Catholic DePaul University with a “with a degree in piano performance and a minor in voice and conducting.”  She has been the music director at Saint Mark’s since 1996. [6]

Hicks has teacher certification in California, where she is a member of the University of California Riverside Orchestra. [7]

Availability
Video: Kristin Young.  “Kumbaya.”  Uploaded to YouTube by St. Mark’s Lutheran - Aurora, IL on 6 October 2020.

Video: Mrs. Hicks.  “Kum Ba Yah !”  Uploaded to YouTube by Mrs. Hicks on 16 May 2020.

End Notes
1.  Jeffrey R. Young.  “Amazon Starts Marketplace for Teachers to Sell Online Educational Resources.”  Ed Surge website, 13 November 2019.  He says the first resource was Teachers Pay Teachers in 2006.

2.  Amazon search in Digital Educational Resources section on 30 April 2021.
3.  The use of “Kumbaya” with clarinets is discussed in the post for 11 July 2018.
4.  “St. Mark’s Child Development Center.”  Private School Review website.
5.  “About Us.”  Saint Mark’s Lutheran Church website on Alignable.
6.  “Kristin Young.”  Saint Mark’s website, “Our Staff” tab.
7.  “Katherine Hicks.”  Lessons Face website.

Pandemic Piano Lessons

Topic: Pandemic Versions
A new Coronavirus appeared in China in December 2019, and the World Health Organization declared on emergency on 30 January 2020.  The respiratory disease it spawned took a little time to spread, but by 11 March 2020 WHO recognized its dispersal had reached pandemic status. [1]

The disease, COVID-19, did not begin to affect most Americans until state governors began declaring emergencies that closed schools and businesses.  California was the first to issue a stay-at-home order on 19 March 2020. [2]  Even where governments did not act, large companies began finding ways for their employees to work from home.

The enforced leisure time called the bluff of all those people who fantasize about what they will do when they retire or get so rich they do not have to work.  They now had the time to pursue their dreams of learning or relearning to play piano.

The videos uploaded to YouTube in the year from March 2020 to March 2021 feature both adults and children.  Most pianists are white, but a number look Asian.

The instruments vary in size: many are spinets, but a few are grand pianos.  If the individuals are using music, it is set in the groove for the music rack.  Jose Luistello rests a hand-held computer on his keyboard. [3]  Luis Zurita has an electric instrument with a laptop perched on top. [4]  He also uses an electric metronome.

Most versions are short, about the thirty seconds it takes to play the eight measures through once.  They usually begin with two notes that introduce phrases, followed by chords, two notes struck by the left hand, two by the right.  Every note is equally loud, in a style needed by individuals who accompany amateur vocal groups that need the beat reinforced.  This may be people’s most common piano experience.

Some of the versions learned by children have small variations.  CellPK’s daughter crosses her right hand over to play a single bass note in the pause between phrases. [5]  Joanna Cadence Egbert repeats the entire song one octave higher. [6]

Fewer individuals have arrangements that allow the right hand to play the melody, while the left hand plays chords.  Like band method books, [7] there is a great deal of similarity between publisher’s arrangements.  Once one editor decides what a song should teach, the others follow.

Learning to play an instrument is a lonely act: one simply plays something over and over until it sounds right.  Unless one has a particularly tolerant family, the feedback is as likely to be negative as positive.  Sounds right often means no criticism.

In normal times, a student can receive praise when he or she plays an assigned piece for a teacher.  Many instructors hold annual recitals that give novices the experience of performing.  These are the things that are lost when one cannot leave home, although one man says he offers Skype lessons. [8]

The absence of a teacher’s praise may be one reason people post videos of themselves playing something they have perfected.  They all have been seen a few times. [9]  Sean’s video is identified as his “piano learning diary.” [10]

Making music is one of the activities a utilitarian culture sniffs at unless it can be monetized. Diana Dilee Maher says she had just returned to the instrument, before hawking copies of her CD. [11]

This problem seems to have been especially acute for men who no longer are spending their days at offices.  The most complex arrangements are by men, who identify themselves as some kind of company, albeit an LLC or virtual persona.

Mark Looney’s 1:29-minute arrangement features a right-hand melody and left-hand arpeggios.  He repeats the song, by crossing his right arm over his left to play the melody on lower notes. [12]  Rick Robertson also uses the melody-arpeggio format, but his left hand plays a counter melody when he repeats the main passage.  His version lasts 2:29 minutes. [13]

Sam has the most elaborate arrangement; he is no apprentice.  He begins playing the melody on his electric instrument, and a counter melody with his left.  Then he turns on a rhythm maker, and begins playing jazz variations. [14]

End Notes
1.  Wikipedia.  “COVID-19 Pandemic.”

2.  Wikipedia.  “COVID-19 pandemic in California.”  Minh Nguyen uploaded a map showing the dates different governments imposed stay-at-home orders to Wikimedia Commons.  It can be seen at Wikipedia.  “COVID-19 Lockdowns.”

3.  “Kum-Ba-Yah!”  Uploaded to YouTube by Luis Zurita on 7 January 2021.
4.  “KUM-BA-YAH.”  Uploaded to YouTube by JOSELUISTELLO on 7 May 2020.

5.  “Kum Ba Yah.”  Uploaded to YouTube by CellPK on 12 March 2021.  For children’s versions, I am assuming the name of the person who did the upload was a parent using his or her own logon ID.

6.  Joanna Cadence Egbert.  “KUM-BA-YAH !”  Uploaded to YouTube by Joanna Cadence Egbert Official on 20 January 2021.

7.  For more on band method books, see the keyword “Pedagogy.”

8.  Sam’s Instrumental Series.  “Kum Ba Yah.”  Uploaded to YouTube by Soundofjoy on 7 February 2021.

9.  One uploaded to YouTube by Daniel Saldivia on 11 December 2020 was seen 1,650 times.  The next most popular were by Sam (432) and by Diana Dilee Maher (135).  More common statistics were around 30 views, with a few less than 10.

10.  Sean.  “Kum Ba Ya.”  Uploaded to YouTube by Dawn & Sean’s Channel on 18 February 2021.

11.  “Kum-ba-yah.”  Uploaded to YouTube by Diana Dilee Maher on 6 September 2020.
12.  “Kum Ba Yah.”  Uploaded to YouTube by Mark Looney Piano Music on 2 April 2020.

13.   “Kum Ba Yah,” arranged by Rick Robertson.  Uploaded to YouTube by Rick Robertson Music on 13 January 2021.

14.  Sam.

Newton North High School - Come By Here

Topic: Pedagogy - Goals
One wonders if the limited participation in public school music programs by African Americans and others wasn’t ultimately the result of university academics re-erecting the barriers breached by Satis Colemen and Joseph Maddy in the 1920s. She remembered how frustrated she had been as a child when her piano teacher forced her to read music and punished her for playing by ear. [1] He remembered when he first took music lessons three-fourths of the students dropped out because they had to master scales before they could play tunes. [2] Each assumed students would acquire technical proficiency when it mattered to them. [3]

It’s hard to imagine a nine-year-old would have enjoyed singing "Kumbaya" in a class where the teacher followed all the recommendations of Eunice Boardman’s [4] or Charles Leonhard’s teams. [5] I doubt college entrance exams asked high-school seniors to name the chord on the fifth note of a scale, or that many later would attend concerts so they could comprehend the structure of a piece as John Zdechlik would have preferred. [6]

In 1929, the president of the Music Educators National Conference asked teachers what was the primary goal of their classes:

"Is it to teach facts about music and develop skill in reading music, or is it to awaken and stimulate joy and interest? You must introduce music to these children as a thing of beauty to be enjoyed and not as something to be struggled with." [7]

The debate over sight-reading or playing by ear entered African-American communities. Black college glee clubs in the early twentieth century embraced the traditions of Ivy League schools, while jazz musicians played by ear. It was simply an extension of the arguments over assimilation in the post-Reconstruction South where religious leaders like Daniel Payne condemned freemen who perpetuated ring shouts. [8]

African-American students may learn sight-reading in public-school music classes and oral traditions at home and church. The Dreher High School Chorus in Columbia, South Carolina, used an arrangement of "Come By Here" by Uzee Brown for a concert in 2014, while the Jubilee Singers of Newton North High School near Boston used one in the prelude-denouement form for a 2015 performance.

Brown, who was music director at Martin Luther King’s Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, and former chairman of the music department at Clark University, [9] used the traditional melody for "Kumbaya," while Sheldon Reid, who directed the Kuumba Singers of Harvard, used the Hightower Brother’s tune. Kuumba had been formed in 1970 as a way for African-American students to express their spirituality in an environment that still was hostile to integration. [10]

Both Walter Graham, director of Dreher, and Reid, conductor at Newton North, used female soloists supported by choral groups singing harmony. Brown had not used a soloist when his own group recorded his version. He scored four-part chordal harmony, so that every time a syllable was sung on more than one note, the chorus moved as a unit.

Columbia’s Liz [11] had a clear soprano voice with little tremolo that delivered the text simply so the audience could understand the emotion embedded in words that used the pronoun "someone." The Jubilee Singers sang one verse in harmony, then the chorus repeated "come by here" while Swabira Mayanja moved from singing a verse to phrases. She used her voice to convey the emotions with the pronoun "I." [12]

Dreher sang a capella, although Brown had used a piano and had suggested the "organ or piano may improvise on the chordal harmonies if desired." A piano sounded four notes to signal the voices before they began. Drums, keyboard, and an electric bass played before the Jubilee Singers began, and continued throughout the piece with instrumental breaks between stanzas.

The students who represented 53% of the southern school’s population of 1,300 [13] stood with still with their arms at their sides and their eyes on the conductor. Graham stood erect in front to use small gestures with both arms.

At Newton North, where Blacks were 5% of the 2,000 member student body, [14] the singers began with their arms at their sides looking at the conductor. When Mayanja began, they started stepping side to side. Part way through, after a brief instrumental interlude, they started clapping as they stepped. Reid used large arm movements and bent his knees to keep time.

The audience in the Red Bank United Methodist Church where the Dreher chorus performed listened attentively and applauded at the end. In Newton, some members of the audience stood and began marking time with their hands to the singing before the choir itself began clapping. [15] They were the only audience on a public school video of "Kumbaya" to shatter the proscenium arch and become part of the music.

Performers
Uzee Brown
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: SATB choir
Instrumental Accompaniment: piano or organ
Rhythm Accompaniment: none

Dreher
Vocal Soloist: soprano
Vocal Group: 28 girls, 14 boys
Vocal Director: Walter Graham
Rhythm Accompaniment: none

Newton North
Vocal Soloist: soprano
Vocal Group: 29 girls, 17 boys
Vocal Director: Sheldon Reid
Instrumental Accompaniment: keyboard, electric bass
Rhythm Accompaniment: drum set, hand claps

Credits
Uzee Brown
Spiritual, arr. Uzee Brown, Jr.
Arrangement Copyright (C) by GIA Publications, Inc

For the Cascade United Methodist Chancel Choir of Atlanta, Georgia

Notes on Lyrics
Uzee Brown
Language: English
Verses: come by here, needs you, praying, crying

Vocabulary
Pronoun: someone
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: none

Basic Form: four-verse song
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Ending: none
Unique Features: none

Newton North
Language: English
Verses: come by here, I’ve been waiting; references to needs you, praying

Vocabulary
Pronoun: I
Term for Deity: Jesus, Lord
Special Terms: none

Basic Form: ritual prelude-denouement structure

Notes on Music
Uzee Brown
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Time Signature: 2/4
Tempo: slow and prayerful
Key Signature: three flats
Basic Structure: strophic repetition

Dreher
Tempo: slow, but faster than that used by the Uzee Brown Society of Choraliers

Newton North
Opening Phrase: 1-5
Tempo: moderate

Basic Structure: instrumental accompaniment used strophic repetition with changes in key

Notes on Performance
Dreher
Occasion: "Light The Way concert series benefiting homeless charity organizations in the Columbia, SC area," 10 April 2014

Location: Red Bank United Methodist Church, Lexington, South Carolina

Microphones: none

Clothing: girls wore black dresses of different styles; boys wore black shirts and slacks of various styles; the director wore a black suit

Newton North
Occasion: concert, 7 February 2015
Location: stage

Microphones: at least five floor mikes; Mayanja detached one to use as a hand mike

Clothing: girls wore long, empire-style dresses with short, puffed sleeves of a black, glossy fabric; boys wore black slacks and long-sleeved shirts with silver-gray ties; [16] the director wore a black suit.

Notes on Movement
The Dreher choir stood behind the altar rail in four rows on three steps. The conductor had an elaborate music stand that probably was a church fixture.

The Newton North chorus stood in three rows in two tiers of risers. They filed off at the end. Only the musicians had music.

Notes on Performers
Graham was raised in the Pee Dee region of northeastern South Carolina that had grown cotton before the Civil War. [17] After receiving his music education degree from the University of South Carolina, he taught at Crayton Middle School in Columbia. Dreher hired him while he was working on his masters. [18] Graham also was active with the choir at Trenholm United Methodist Church. [19]

Reid enrolled at Harvard College as a chemistry major and was hired by Newton North as a science teacher. While earning his masters in music education, [20] he worked with Rich Travers, the school’s choral conductor, to create a class "that studies African Diaspora music and social issues to gain a better understanding of other cultures." [21] Eventually, Reid became Jubilee’s full-time director and transferred to the music faculty. In 2017, it gave a joint concert with Kuumba. [22]

Availability
Uzee Brown, Junior
Sheet Music: "Come by Here." Chicago: GIA Publications, 1997.

Album: Uzee Brown Society of Choraliers. My Lord’s Gettin’ Us Ready. Z-Mark/Alewa CD. Uploaded to YouTube by The Orchard Enterprises on 28 January 2016.

Dreher High School Chorus
YouTube: "Come By Here." Uploaded by Kevin Oliver on 21 April 2014.

Jubilee Singers of Newton North High School
YouTube: "Come By Here." Uploaded by Alex Klavens on 12 February 2015.

End Notes
1. Satis N. Coleman. "I wanted to play the piano, not study queer marks in a book. My fingers ached to make a tune that sounded ‘pretty,’ or to play some of the little songs I already knew how to sing; but she would neither show me how nor let me try. The disappointment was bitter." (Creative Music for Children. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, April 1922. 14.) For more on Coleman’s contributions to music education, see the post for 30 August 2018.

2. "Maddy has recorded his experiences in a beginning instrumental class: ‘I recall the beginners’ band in which I learned to play the piccolo at the age of seven [which would have been about 1898]. Sixty ambitious youngsters purchased instruments and entered the class, only to be treated at each rehearsal to a series of lectures on musical theory, tone-production and behavior until all but fourteen of us had drooped [sic] out. . . . I do not recall ever playing a tune on the piccolo, though I studied this instrument for nearly two years and played it for most of that time in the band" (Joseph E. Maddy. "The Beginning Wind Instrument Class." School Music 39:9:January-February 1928. Quotation from Merry Elizabeth Texter. "A Historical and Analytical Investigation of the Beginning Band Method Book." PhD dissertation. The Ohio State University, 1975. 53.) For more Maddy, see the post on 27 June 2018.

3. Frank E. Churchley, mentioned in the post for 25 July 2018, played piano as a child, but said he did not truly learn to read music until he was in college and was forced to learn to play by ear. He remembered: "I enjoyed playing by ear. Improvising helped my reading because I had to develop my memory and imagination. Just working with your four or five pieces for an examination doesn’t help you become a good reader. You need to practise reading to become a good reader." (Interviewed by Betty Hanley. "Frank E. Churchley: Gentleman, Scholar, Teacher." March 2005. 16."

4. For more on Eunice Boardmand and Beth Landis, see the post for 24 June 2018.
5. For more on Charles Leonhard, see the post for 19 August 2018.

6. Mark Montemayor discussed Zdechlik in the post for 9 September 2018. He continued the composer’s comments on structure cited in that post by quoting him: "Structure, then, isn’t a static element of composition. It becomes dynamic, which I think is an important experience for both the performers and the audience." ("John Zdechlik." In A Composer’s Insight. Edited by Timothy Salzman. Galesville, Maryland: Meredith Music Publications, volume 3, 2006. 300. Emphasis added.)

7. Mabelle Glenn. "What It Means to Be a Music Supervisor." Music Supervisors Journal 14(1):51:1927. Quoted by Patrick K. Freer and Diana R. Dansereau. "Extending the Vision: Three Women Who Saw the Future of Music Education." 2007. Georgia State University website. Maybelle Glenn, along with Lorrain Watters, was a co-editor of Lilla Belle Pitts Our Singing World series mentioned in the post for 30 August 2018.

8. Daniel Payne headed the African Methodist Episcopal Church after the Civil War. In his autobiography he remembered attending a meeting where a ring shout followed the sermon. "I then went, and taking their leader by the arm requested him to desist and to sit down and sing in a rational manner. I told him also that it was a heathenish way to worship and disgraceful to themselves, the race, and the Christian name." (Recollections of Seventy Years. Compiled and arranged by Sarah C. Bierce Scarborough; edited by C. S. Smith. Nashville: Publishing House of the A. M. E. Sunday School Union, 1888. 253-254.) Payne was discussed in the post for 9 August 2017.

9. Wikipedia. "Uzee Brown Jr."

10. Wikipedia. "The Kuumba Singers of Harvard College." Kuumba was a Swahili word for "creativity [or to create], though the literal meaning is subtler: it is the creativity of leaving a space better than you found it; it is the spirit of positively impacting through modes of creativity."

11. Graham introduced Liz, but the camera’s microphone was remote and I couldn’t understand her last name.

12. Jessica Tharaud said "Mayanja’s voice had incredible range and depth." ("Review: Jubilee Singers Energizes Audience with Incredible Talent." The Newtonite [Massachusetts] website. 3 February 2014.)

13. "Dreher High School." Great Schools website.
14. "Newton North High School." Great Schools website.

15. Tharaud reviewed a Jubilee concert the year before the one on the videro. She wrote: "For the final song, sophomore Swabira Mayanja floored the audience with her solo in ‘Watch God Move,’ written by the Colorado Mass Choir. Not even half way through the number, the audience stood up and began dancing along’."

16. A year earlier Tharaud observed the "girls wore black dresses and boys wore black pants and dress shirts with silver ties."

17. Deborah Swearingen. "All-City Junior Chorus Performs at South Florence High School." The [Florence, South Carolina] Morning News website. 7 April 2016.

18. Item posted 2 May 2012 to USC-Columbia Music Education Alumni Facebook page.

19. Paul Osmundson. "Twenty under Forty: 20 Young Professionals Helping To Build the Midlands." The State [Columbia, South Carolina] website. 21 March 2016; last updated 22 March 2016.

20. Office for the Arts at Harvard. Program for In the Spirit of Duke, 22 April 2006.
21. "Rick Travers, Music Director." Newton Community Chorus website.

22. Nour Chahboun. "Jubilee Joined with the Kuumba Singers of Harvard College To Perform Passionate Pieces." The Newtonite [Massachusetts] written. 6 February 2017.

Pebblebrook High School - Kumbaya

Topic: Pedagogy - Goals
One thing that struck me as I watched videos of "Kumbaya" from public school music programs was the overwhelming whiteness of the participants. As the table at the bottom shows, the schools usually had larger percentages of African-American students than existed in their tax-paying communities. And, within those schools, the numbers of Blacks appearing in the videos were much lower than their presence in the student bodies.

There are many problems with such a sweeping generalization, beginning with the fact my sample was defined by music teachers who chose to perform "Kumbaya" in a concert. Their preference for a song associated with children’s summer residential camps in the 1970s may have reflected a general taste for music that attracted certain students and discouraged others.

But it was striking that even in schools like Fayette Middle School in Georgia [1] where the percussion program included non-western instruments, the children taking advantage of the program were overwhelmingly white while the student body was 78% African-American.

Funding and access to technology were more subtle factors. While many audience members owned smartphones that could record performances, not all knew how or desired to upload videos to YouTube. Money for music programs was eliminated in many school districts since the 1970s. The program at Llewellyn Elementary in Portland, Oregon, was funded by a private parents’ foundation. [2] Poor communities don’t have the resources to organize such legal entities.

Schools that were given adequate support often offered a number of choral and instrument organizations, but in others, like the one I attended in Michigan in the late 1950s, there was only one band class, one string class, and two vocal classes. In schools that offered multiple music classes, African Americans may have selected groups that did not perform "Kumbaya."

Some districts responded to financial problems with magnet schools like Las Vegas Academy, mentioned in the post for 6 September 2018. Pebblebrook High School in Mableton, Georgia, was both Cobb County’s magnet school for the performing arts and a neighborhood high school. The total student body was close to 2,300 students. One wonders if any of the students in that school or others in the county who were not accepted by the arts program had any opportunities to sing or play an instrument. Soulful Praise was "the only one of the school’s vocal groups composed of both PA and traditional students." [3]

School size probably was important. When a high school like California’s Mission Viejo had more than 2,400 students, it’s hard to imagine how an average student would have had the opportunity to participate. But, then, the Seventh-day Adventist’s Hilltop Christian, also in California, only had 73 students, and no obvious African Americans participated in a wind ensemble led by a Black wind player. The school’s enrollment was 77% Black, but the four "brown" faces looked more Asian from a distance. The fact the instrumental teacher was only available after normal school hours may have been limited the ability of some to participate. [4]

One suspects part of the problem wasn’t the selection of songs like "Kumbaya," but the lingering influence of the Saint Olaf choir mentioned in the post for 12 August 2018. Walter Turnbull, who founded the Boys Choir Harlem, said he heard them when they appeared at his Alabama college. He remembered:

"I had never heard a sound like that before and had mixed feelings. It was a white sound, very straight with little vibrato. It was totally opposite of the one that I had grown to love.

"I tried to get my boys to have that classic European sound for years. It never sounded right. I wanted the natural sound I heard in Leontyne Price. I heard it on radio stations playing rhythm and blues, and I heard it over the telephone. There is something unique and warm about the black voice that has nothing to do with diction and it clearly distinguishable." [5]

One can hear the difference in two performances of the Soweto Gospel Choir’s version of "Kumbaya," one by an all-white group from Hermiston High School and one by Pebblebrook High School that included some African-American singers.

Joshua Rist remained faithful to Kurt Runestad’s transcription in Oregon. [6] He began with the sopranos singing in clear voices. When the group joined them, they blended into one sound with no depth from overtones. The low voices sang the Zulu section, but were in the back where the video camera’s microphone did not pick them up.

Evelyn White transposed the Soweto arrangement into an African-American song in Georgia. She began with one soprano soloist backed by the group. Soulful Praise sang the middle part together with a fuller sound. Instead of a Zulu chant, White had one girl sing phrases of "Kumbaya" in a falsetto voice that was rough rather than smooth in its intonation. The group sang harmony behind her.

The two choirs had differing accompaniments that reflected the background of their conductors. Rist, who had spent time in Nigeria, had a young woman play a floor drum play throughout the piece. White was a jazz pianist who used a strong piano accompaniment. A drum was used in the last part, as was done by Soweto, but the drummer sat on the floor in the wings.

Performers
Pebblebrook High School
Vocal Soloist: two girls
Vocal Group: girls and boys
Vocal Director: Evelyn White
Instrumental Accompaniment: piano
Rhythm Accompaniment: hand-played drum, hand claps

Hermiston High School
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: girls and boys
Vocal Director: Joshua Rist
Instrumental Accompaniment: none
Rhythm Accompaniment: hand-played drum, hand claps

Credits
Hermiston High School
Khumbaya (Soweto Gospel Choir), arr. Kurt Runestad

Notes on Lyrics
See post for 28 August 2017 for details on Soweto Gospel Choir version.

Notes on Music
See post for 29 August 2017 for details on Soweto Gospel Choir version.

Notes on Performance
Pebblebrook High School
Occasion: Christmas Concert
Location: First Christian Church of Mableton, Georgia
Microphones: two floor mikes; one was used by the soloists.

Clothing: the girls wore black dresses with scarves of maroon, yellow, or white; the boys wore black shirts and slacks

Hermiston High School
Occasion: Choirs of the Valley 2015, LeGrande, Oregon
Location: stage
Microphones: none

Clothing: the choir wore robes; the drummer wore a long, dark dress; the director wore a light colored suit

Notes on Movement
Pebblebrook High School
Soulful Praise stood in two rows on the stage floor. After the first soloist returned to her place, the group began stepping side to side. When the second soloist went to the microphone, they began clapping while they stepped. They clasped hands and raised their arms at the end. No one had a music stand or sheet music.

Hermiston High School
The chamber choir stood in a semicircle in four rows on three tiers of risers. The drummer was in front at stage right; the director stood in the center. They began clapping half-way through. Most continued to stand in place looking at the director while they dropped their arms between claps in front of their chests. Rist used both arms symmetrically except when pointing to a group to begin; he clapped with the choir. No one had a music stand or sheet music.

Notes on Audience
Audiences applauded at the ends of both performances.

Notes on Performers
White played piano in the Mount Olive Baptist Church in Clarksville, Tennessee, when she was a child. After graduating with a degree in piano performance from Austin Peay State University, she played professionally. Tony Bennett and Nancy Wilson helped her become a singer. She then performed with jazz groups until she joined the high school faculty as coordinator of the piano laboratory. [7]

Rist was home schooled in Shedd, Oregon, where he took piano lessons and played in "worship and garage bands at his church." He joined his first choir when he attended Linn Benton Community College. [8] After his trip to Nigeria with "a church humanitarian group," he earned his music education degree from Oregon State University. [9] During the three years, he was at Hermiston, [10] the vocal music program grew "from 70 students in four choirs to more than 220 in five choirs [11] drawn from 1,400 students. [12]

Availability
Soulful Praise Gospel Choir of Pebblebrook High School
YouTube: "Kumbaya." Uploaded by Personnia Rawls on 15 December 2015.

Hermiston High School Chamber Choir
YouTube: "Khumbaya." Uploaded by Rick Scheibner on 16 October 2015.

Table

State	Town	School	Type	% Black	% Black	% Black	Posted
		Public		Town	School	Group
SC	Columbia	Dreher	H	42.2	53	Most	9/16/18
Ga	Mableton	Pebblebrook	H	39	62	Most	Today
Ga	Fayetteville	Fayette	M	33.9	78	Total 3	8/28/18
Ill	Freeport	Freeport	H	13.8	23.7	Couple	8/5/18
Nev	Las Vegas	Las Vegas Acad	H	11.1	7	None obvious	9/6/18
Wisc	Madison	Jefferson	M	7.3	21.3	19%	8/9/18
Ore	Portland	Llewellyn	E	6.3	9.7	None obvious	8/9/18
Calif	La Verne	Bonita	H	3.4	0.5	0	8/23/18
Mass	Newton	Newton North	H	2.5	5	Some	8/16/18
Calif	Mission Viejo	Mission Viejo	H	1.3	3	Total 1	8/23/18
NY	Bemus Point	Bemus Point	E	1.1	1	0	8/9/18
Ore	Hermiston	Hermiston	H	0.8	1	0	Today
Ohio	West Milton	Milton-Union	M	0.5	2	0	7/18/18
Iowa	Packwood	Pekin	H	0	0	0	8/5/18
Ga	Decatur	Columbia	H	N/A	N/A	Total 1	8/12/18
		Religious
Ill	Lansing	Illiana Calvinist	H	31.59	18	None obvious	8/23/18
Calif	Antioch	Hilltop SDA	E	17.3	77	None obvious	7/1/18
Calif	Sebastopol	Pleasant Hill	E	5.1	0	None obvious	7/18/18
Wisc	Greendale	Martin Luther	H	2.8	4	None obvious	8/23/18

2010 Census data for city populations was taken from Wikipedia. Data on school demographics came from Great Schools and School Digger websites. Neither may have represented the time period of the video. Comments on the racial composition of performing groups are vague because shadows, poor lighting, fuzzy camera work, and long-distance shots all made it difficult to judge face color, especially in schools known to have large numbers of Asian or self-identified Hispanic students.

End Notes
1. For more information on Fayette Middle School, see the post for 28 August 2018.
2. "What is the Llewellyn Elementary Foundation?" Its website.

3. Jay Young. "Pebblebrook Gospel Choir Performs at The Black Box." South Cobb [County, Georgia] Patch website. 7 May 2011. PA referred to the performing arts program.

4. For more on the Pleasant Hill program, see the post for 18 July 2018.

5. Walter Turnbull. Lift Every Voice. With Howard Manly. New York: Hyperion, 1995. 207. For more on Turnbull and the Boys Choir Harlem, see the post for 1 October 2017.

6. For more on Runestad’s transcription, see the post for 28 August 2017.
7. "Evelyn White, Collaborative Pianist & Piano Laboratory Coordinator." School website.
8. "Singing His Story." Terra website. 19 July 19 2013.
9. Claire Sykes. "The Music Men." Oregon State University website.
10. "About Josh Rist." Facebook.

11. Derek Wiley. "McNary Taps its New Choir Director." Keizer [Oregon] Times website. 22 July 2016.

12. "Hermiston High School." Great Schools website.