Bliss Wiant - Kum Ba Yah

Topic: Kumbaya 1955-1961
Lynn Rohrbough said that, within a year of the first publication of “Kum Ba Yah” in Cooperative Recreation’s Service’s Song Sampler, it had appeared “in a dozen agency books.”  The one he specifically mentioned in a 1959 letter was Hymns of Universal Praise. [1]  It was compiled in February and March of 1956. [2]

Bliss Wiant and Carlton Young intended the hymnal to include “representative hymns of the church universal.” [3]  It included three from India, three from China, one from Japan, and one from Nigeria.  The last had been recorded at the Student Volunteer Movement meeting in December of 1955. [4]

Wiant surely would have attended the SVM meeting discussed in the post for 31 July 2022.  He had been a missionary in China from 1923 [5] until 1952 when  Mao Zedong dismantled the Yenching University [6] where he was working.  The university had been established as a joint enterprise by western Protestant churches. [7]

In the 1930s, he was music editor for Hymns of Universal Praise, [8] an ecumenical collection of songs that combined Chinese musical motifs with Christian theology. [9]  Andrew Leung said the anthology “established the foundation of Chinese hymnody and is now set as a model of Chinese hymnology.” [10]

The CRS Hymns of Universal Praise was unashamedly a hymnal: [11] three were by Charles Wesley, [12] three by Isaac Watt [13] and one was by Martin Luther. [14]  In addition, one melody was by Wesley’s son Samuel. [15]  It was organized by topic, so the spirituals and international texts were scattered through the songster.  Thirty-one of the sixty-seven selections attached “amen” endings. [16]

Fifty-two selections relied upon four-part chords that mirrored the melody, with no tempo or dynamics markings.  Wiant converted “Kumbaya” to this form.  The tune is doubled a third below on the treble clef, and two notes appear in the bass clef.  There are two exceptions to the parallelism.  Only one note is heard in the upper part of the opening phrase, which emphasizes the expansion to the triad on the second note.  The two notes used on the final “Lord” are sung only by the upper part.  The other parts sustained the first note, to again emphasize the melodic variation.

Wiant made one other change to “Kumbaya”: he dropped the “someone’s crying” verse, and reduced it to a three-verse song.  The post for 24 February 2019 reports that liturgists, who include the song in their services, often do not specify all the verses.  The “crying” verse was the least popular stanza among Methodists.

In 1963, Wiant moved to Hong Kong where he worked on the revision of Hymns of Universal Praise for the exiled Chinese living there, [17] and created an English translation for use in this country. [18]  Two years later he retired to Delaware, Ohio. [19]  CRS published a revised edition of its Hymns of Universal Praise in 1965. [20]  This one contained forty-five of the original songs.  It dropped some by Wesley and Watt, as well as those from India and Nigeria.  “Kum Ba Yah” had appeared on the same page as one of the omitted Wesley verses, and also disappeared.  The Chinese songs were grouped together.

Title
Kum Ba Yah

Performers
Vocal Group: four parts
Instrumental Accompaniment: piano

Credits
Harm. by Bliss Wiant
© 1956 Coop. Recreation Service, Inc., Delaware, O. [21]

Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: no comment
Verses: kumbaya, singing, praying
Pronoun: someone
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: none
Basic Form: 3-verse song

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Time Signature: 3/4
Key Signature: no sharps or flats
Basic Structure: strophic repetition
Singing Style: one note to one syllable except for final “Lord”

Harmonic Structure: parallel thirds in trebel clef, parallel fifths in base, diverging harmony at beginnings of phrases

Vocal-Accompaniment Dynamics: four part chords

Notes on Performance
Cover: pattée cross superimposed on a globe with the phrase “All within the four seas are brothers”

Color Scheme: dark brown on tan cover; inside blue-gray ink on off-white paper
Plate: made by Jane Keen

Notes on Audience
Young recalled the songbook “was prepared for general use in events of the North East Conference of the Methodist Church, and may have been used at its Annual Conference, June 1956.” [22]

Notes on Performers
Wiant was raised in central Ohio, and graduated from Ohio Wesleyan in 1920.  After completing work at Boston University’s seminary, he went to China as a missionary. [23]  He spent World War II in the United States, where he taught at Scarritt College. [24]  During this time, Wiant produced the first edition of The Pagoda for CRS.  The twenty-five Chinese songs were translated and arranged with four-part chords by Wiant. [25]

When he left China in 1952, Wiant returned to Delaware, Ohio, where he was pastor of the Methodist church near Ohio Wesleyan.  Two years later he transferred to Youngstown. [26]  As mentioned in the post for 9 February 2020, he moved to Nashville in 1957 as the director of the denomination’s new Ministry of Music.  He died in Delaware in 1975. [27]

Young’s life and career are discussed in the posts for 14 February 2019, 9 August 2020, and 27 December 2020.  One of his most significant tasks was overseeing the 1988 edition of the church’s hymnal.  While Wiant’s later CRS Hymns of Universal Praise retreated from a strong bias toward traditional and international hymns, Young returned to its inclusive vision.  Sam Hodges notes he replaced some of the less popular hymns with “spirituals, contemporary gospel, sacred jazz (by Duke Ellington), and Hispanic hymns.” [28]  Young elevated “Kumbaya” to the canon with his arrangement of the melody he called “Desmond.” [29]

Availability
Book: “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.

End Notes
1.  Lynn Rohrbough.  Letter to Shawnee Press, 8 June 1959.  “Our first use of Kum Ba Ya was in the Jan. 1956 Sampler; during the year it came out in a dozen agency books.  One of the earliest was Hymns of Universal Praise, where it seems to fit.”

2.  Carlton Young.  Email, 7 December 2016.
3.  Bliss Wiant and Carleton Young.  Note on inside cover.

4.  “Glory to the Trinity.”  6 in Hymns.  From a recording of Emanuel Fashade and transcribed by Bliss Wiant.

5.  Stacey Bieler.  “Bliss Mitchell Wiant.”  Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity website.

6.  “Yenching University.”  Wikipedia website.
7.  Bieler.

8.  Liu Tingfang and Bliss Wiant.  Hymns of Universal Praise (P’u Ti’en Sung Tsan).  Shanghai, China: Christian Literate Society, 1936.

9.  Calida Chu.  “The Evolution of Hymns of Universal Praise: A Reflection on the Contextualisation of Chinese Hymnology in the Last Century.”  University of Glasgow, Conference on Understanding and Misunderstanding between the Far East and the West, 2017.

10.  Andrew Napp-Kei Leung.  The Emergence of a National Hymnody: The Making of Hymns of Universal Praise (1936).  Hong Kong: Chinese Christian Literature Council, 2015.  127.  Quoted by Chu.  10.

11.  Wiant disdained Victorian gospel hymns, which, he claimed, were sentimental and good for nothing.  Its message is that everything is blessed and peaceful.  That’s not the message of Christ.  The message of Christ is ‘Are you able to endure all things as I endure them - even crucifixion?’”  Time reported his preference was for “such Reformation hymns as A Mighty Fortress is Our God and O God, Our Help in Ages Past.” [30]

12.  “A Charge To Keep I Have” (p31), “O for a Thousand Tongues To Sing” (p22), and “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” (p40).

13.  “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” (p44) “O God, Our Help in Ages Past,” (p64) and “Jesus Shall Reign where’er the Sun” (p59).

14  “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” (pp12–13).
15.  “The Church’s One Foundation” (p41).

16.  The post for 27 November 2017 traces the history of the use and disuse of “amen” endings.  Modernists typically discourage them.

17.  Chu.

18.  Bliss Wiant.  Selected Chinese Indigenous Hymns from Hymns of Universal Praise.  4 July 1965.  United States Copyright Office.  Catalog of Copyright Entries.  Third Series.  July-December 1965.  2291.

19.  Bieler.

20.  Bliss Wiant.  Hymns of Universal Praise.  Delaware, Ohio: Informal Music Service, World Around Songs.  The copyrighted songs are dated 1965.  It has a light blue cover.

21.  This is the only known copyright by CRS for “Kum Ba Yah.”  If this copyright language had appeared in every other songbook, CRS would have a valid right to the song.  However, as shown in the version in Guiana Sings for 7 August 2022, Rohrbough did not do that.  Under the copyright law then in governing music publications, the song entered the public domain as soon as it was published without that notice, and this copyright was reduced to this specific arrangement.  I suspect this copyright probably was not renewed and the arrangement also lost copyright protection.

22.  Young, email.
23.  Bieler.
24.  Scarritt College is mentioned in the post for 16 May 2021.

25.  I have a copy of fifth edition from 1967, which probably means fifth printing.  The Pagoda, arranged by Bliss Wiant.  Cooperative Recreation Service Inc, © 1946, 1967.

26.  Bieler.
27.  Bieler.

28.  Sam Hodges.  “Mr. Music of United Methodism.”  The United Methodist Church Michigan Conference website, 22 September 2020.

29.  For more on the revised Methodist hymnal, see the post for 14 February 2019.
30.  Bliss Wiant.  Interview.  Time, 31 August 1959.  Quoted by Bieler.

agápe - Kum Ba Yah~

Topic: Religious Folk Music Revival
The Methodist Church South sired Pentecostal denominations when it renounced the Holiness movement in 1894. [1]  The United Methodist Church was more circumspect with the Charismatic Movement, if for no other reason than its membership had begun to drop in 1964. [2]  Of those who remained, 18% “identified” with the movement in 1972. [3]

That year, 1972, the General Conference appointed a commission to investigate speaking in tongues.  Its 1976 report distinguished between Methodist and Pentecostal theology, and said charismatic manifestations were acceptable, so long as they fell within the Wesleyan framework.  Specifically, the authors condemned substituting “experience for doctrine.” [4]

The commission noted that at the time Pentecostalism arose in the Azusa Street revival, some northern Methodist churches were promoting the Social Gospel. [5]  The erosion of membership in the 1960s coincided with the Civil Rights movement and the withdrawal of people into churches that operated segregated, private, Christian schools.

The two impulses, the one toward social activism and the other toward a religion of personal experience, led to two different responses by the Methodist-Presbyterian Hope Publishing company [6] in 1973.

Carlton Young’s Genesis Songbook contained a number of secular songs suitable for youth meetings and coffeehouses, while John Wilson only used songs with religious themes. [7]  Wilson’s Folk Encounter was subtitled “the Now hymnal,” while Young described his as “songs for getting it all together.” [8]

Both used material from Presbyterian and Roman Catholic liturgical reform composers like Richard Avery, David Marsh, [9] and Ray Repp, [10] and both reprinted the versions of “Kum Ba Yah” they had used in earlier publications. [11]

The counterculture that appeared in San Francisco in 1967 was not interested in Civil Rights or the war in Vietnam.  Individuals were protesting the emptiness of middle-class expectations for good grades and good jobs that demanded delayed gratification.  The Now Generation got its name from wanting some pleasures immediately.

The Genesis Songbook included Malvina Reynolds’ “Little Boxes” [12] and six songs recorded by Simon and Garfunkle. [13]  In addition, Young included two songs by Bob Dylan, [14] two by the Beatles, [15] and two religious songs popularized by commercial folk-music revival singers: Judy Collins’ “Amazing Grace” [16] and Cat Stevens’ “Morning Has Broken.” [17]

Wilson used two songs from the Jesus Movement, Larry Norman’s “I Wish We’d All Been Ready” [18] and Marsha Stevens’ “For Those Tears I Died. [19]   He used nine songs from Word composers Ralph Carmichael, Kurt Kaiser, and Sonny Salsbury, mentioned in the post for 13 December 2020.  In addition he published “Put Your Hand in the Hand” [20] and “Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.” [21]

This was as far as Hope would go. [22]  Genesis was the last songbook Young published for youth under the agápe imprint he had established to reach that group. [23]  His Exodus Songbook of 1976 was for adults with easy listening tastes. [24]

When Jesus music began using electric instruments and techniques borrowed from acid rock, agápe turned to the British hymnody revival that began in Dunblane, Scotland, in 1962.  It was a reaction against contemporary hymns that used tunes influenced by popular music, but with texts and imagery that did not reflect changes introduced by Dunblane’s 1961 translation of the New Testament. [25]

The group’s secretary had served as a “minister of Congregational and reformed churches in England and Scotland.” [26]  Erik Routley believed songs should advance theological goals.  He criticized Charles Wesley for focusing “hymn writing too narrowly on the ‘evangelical’ themes of personal salvation.” [27]

The emphasis on theology over experience anticipated UMC’s pronouncements on speaking in tongues.  In 1974, agápe published a work by Routley [28] and a setting of two Charles Wesley communion anthems by Young. [29]

Routley moved to Princeton, New Jersey in 1975. [30]  Two years later agápe introduced many of the British songs to the United States in the Ecumenical Songbook. [31]  Fourteen hymns used the word “Christ” in their titles, but only two used “Jesus.”  Another three used “Jesus Christ.”

Young became less active with agápe.  Two of his last releases were choir songs accompanied by handbells. [32]  Eventually, the label only published handbell arrangements [33] like the version of “Kumbaya” by Wilson that is discussed in the post for 16 December 2018.

Young’s next project was editing the next release of the Methodist hymnal.  As mentioned in the post for 14 February 2019, it included “Kumbaya.”  He also included five works by Routley and one by Sydney Carter, who influenced the Dunblane group. [34]

The hymnal included Collins’ “Amazing Grace,” but “Simple Gifts” appeared as the tune for Carter’s “Lord of the Dance.” [35]  Young only included one song by Avery and Marsh, “We Are the Church,” [36] and one song from the religious repertoire that immediately preceded Jesus music, Kurt Kaiser’s “Pass It On.” [27]

Presbyterians retreated from the worship innovations of Avery and March.  The 1990 hymnal, which included “Kum ba Yah,” used their “Gloria Patria” and rhythmic “Doxology,” but did not list them in its index of composers.  The collection also used “Amazing Grace,” “Morning Has Broken,” and two works with Routley’s name. [38]

The 2012 revision replaced both their works with others, and added five more songs composed, arranged, or translated by Routley.  It retained “Kum ba Yah,” “Amazing Grace,” and “Morning Has Broken.”

Performers
Same as post for 9 August 2020

Credits
Same as post for 9 August 2020

Notes on Lyrics
Same as post for 9 August 2020

Notes on Music
Same as post for 9 August 2020

Notes on Performance
Hope produced albums to accompany the songbooks that exploited stereophonic technology: one track contained the vocal part, the other the instrumental.  The liner notes gave instructions on manipulating phonographs to hear just one track.  It also indicated the length of the instrumental introductions and the verses recorded. [39]

Neither included “Kumbaya,” but the instrumental styles for other songs suggest the aesthetics of the collections.  Genesis [40] used simple unison vocal arrangements, while Encounter [41] illustrated settings suitable for young choirs.  They included male and female parts, variations in dynamics, and changes in key.

Both albums relied primarily on piano accompaniments, supplemented with guitars, drums, and electric guitars and bases.  Wilson’s arrangements on Encounter were more influenced by Easy Listening music than either the commercial folk-music revival or Jesus music.  Wilson’s concern was with the reactions of adults in an audience.

Young hired Fred Bock to produce the Genesis record.  He was then on the music staff at Bel Air Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles, [42] where the pastor had been one of the first to allow charismatic manifestations among his congregation. [43]  Many of the piano accompaniments used techniques borrowed from Southern Gospel music. [44]  Both the vocal and instrumental parts were syncopated, while only Wilson’s accompaniments were rhythmic.  Bock wished to engage the interests of participants.

Notes on Performers
Wilson was featured in the posts for 16 December 2018 and 19 December 2018.  Young is mentioned in the post for 14 February 2019.

Bock’s early career with Word Records is mentioned in the post for 12 July 2020.  He left Word in 1971 to work as a freelance arranger and editor.  In 1973, he had works published by the Nazarenes, Baptists, and Singspiration. [45]  He also was working closely with Benson Publishing and Bill Gaither, who is discussed in the post for 17 December 2017.

He later moved to Hollywood Presbyterian, under the pastor who replaced the one who supported the coffee houses. [46]  Lloyd Ogilvie was more restrained about speaking in tongues.  Bock died in 1993.  His widow established a music institute in his name at Fuller Seminary. [47]

Availability
Book: “Kum Ba Yah.”  The Genesis Songbook.  Edited by Carlton R. Young.  Carol Stream, Illinois: agápe, 1973.  46.

Book: “Kum Ba Yah.”  Folk Encounter.  Carol Stream, Illinois: Hope Publishing Company, 1973.  34.

End Notes
1.  For more on the reaction of Methodist hierarchies to Phoebe Palmer’s theory of Holiness, see the post for 9 February 2020.

 2.  “The Methodist Church: Recent Membership Trends.”  True Discipleship website.  It absorbed the Evangelical Brethren Church in 1968, which broadened its theological heritage.  The church also may have realized that, because of all those missionary drives, the church had members in Africa and the Philippines who had very different interpretations of the Holy Spirit.

3.  Gallop poll cited by Charles Yrigoyen, Jr.  T & T Clark Companion to Methodism.  London: T and T Clark, 2010.  286.

4.  “The Charismatic Movement: Its Historical Base and Wesleyan Framework.”  The UMC revised its guidelines in 2004.  Seeking 4 Truth website claimed it was posting the 1976 version in its post “Guidelines: The United Methodist Church and the Charismatic Movement.”

5.  Seeking 4 Truth.
6.  Hope Publishing is discussed in the post for 9 August 2020.

7.  Wilson didn’t mention the Jesus movement.  On the inside front cover, he wrote “The emergence of a new song, as well as an increase appreciation of our musical heritage, has resulted in ‘New Music’ for Christians.”

8.  The National Conference of Christians and Jews had used the Youngbloods’ version of “Get Together” [48] in 1969 “in a radio public service announcement as a call for brotherhood.” [49]

9.  Avery and March are discussed in the post for 9 August 2020.
10.  Repp is discussed in the post for 16 August 2020.
11.  See the post for 9 August 2020.

12.  Malvina Reynolds.  “Little Boxes.”  Copyrighted by Schroeder Music Company in 1962.  Pete Seeger popularized it on We Shall Overcome.  Columbia CS 8901.  Recorded 8 June 1963; released 1965.  [Discogs entry.]

13.  They only printed lyrics for three.
14.  “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are A-Changin’!”
15.  “Imagine” and “Let It Be.”
16.  Details are provided in the post for 13 December 2020.

17.  Cat Stevens.  “Morning Has Broken.”  Teaser and The Firecat.  A&M Records 8T-4313.  1971.  Camp Songs, Folk Songs traced the history of the tune used for Eleanor Farjeon’s words in 1931.

18.  Larry Norman is discussed in the post for 4 October 2020.
19.  Marsha Stevens is discussed in the post for 4 October 2020.
20.  Details are provided in the post for 13 December 2020.
21.  Details are provided in the post for 2 August 2020.

22.  Generalizations on agápe are based on a WorldCat search conducted 7 June 2020 with the keywords “Agape” and “Young.”

23.  For more on the origins of Hope’s agápe imprint, see the post for 9 August 2020.

24.  Carlton R Young.  Exodus Songbook.  Carol Stream, Illinois: agápe, 1976.  For example, it included “Alfie,” “Mack the Knife,” and “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head.”

25.  Robin A. Leaver.  “British Hymnody Since 1950.”  555–599 in The Hymnal 1982 Companion.  Edited by Raymond F. Glover.  New York: The Church Hymnal Corporation, 1990.  1:567–568.  The translation was done by the Joint Committee on the New Translation of the Bible.  The New English Bible.  Cambridge, England: Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press, 1961.

26. “Routley, Erik.”  An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church.  Edited by Don S. Armentrout and Robert Boak Slocum.  New York: Church Publishing, 2000.  Republished on the Episcopal Church website.

27.  Erik Routley.  “The Case Against Charles Wesley.”  Bulletin of the Hymn Society.  88:252–259:1960.  257.   Quoted by Margaret Anne Leask.  “The Development of English-Language Hymnody and Its Use in Worship: 1960-1995.”  PhD dissertation.  University of Durham, 2000.  10.

28.  Carlton R Young and Erik Routley.  “New Songs of Celebration: Concertato for Two Part Mixed Choir, Congregation, Brass and Organ.”  Carol Stream, Illinois: agápe, 1974.  [WorldCat entry.]

29.  Carlton R Young and Charles Wesley.  “Two Communion Anthems.”  Carol Stream, Illinois: agápe, 1974.  [WorldCat entry.]

30.  Wikipedia.  “Erik Routley.”

31.  Carlton R. Young.  Ecumenical Praise.  Carol Stream, Illinois: agápe, 1977.  [WorldCat entry.]

32.  Carlton R Young and Christian H Bateman.  “Ring and Sing Alleluia: Two Part Mixed Voices and Handbells.”  Carol Stream, Illinois: agápe, 1977.  [WorldCat entry.]

Samuel Sebastian Wesley and Carlton R Young.  “Lead me Lord: For SA(T)B Voices with Handbells and Optional Accompaniment.”  Carol Stream, Illinois: agápe, 1978.  [WorldCat entry.]

33.  “Hope Publishing Company History.”  Its website.
34.  Carter talked at the Dunblane meeting in 1964. [50]

35.  Sydney Carter.  “Lord of the Dance.”  Copyrighted by Galliard in 1963.  The tune was identified as a “19th cent. Shaker tune; adapt. By Sydney Carter, 1963.  The post for 13 December 2020 has more details.

36.  Richard K. Avery and Donald S. Marsh.  “We Are the Church.”  Copyrighted by Hope Publishing in 1972.  This became their most popular song. [51]

37.  “Pass It On” is discussed in the posts for 4 October 2020 and 13 December 2020.
38.  The Presbyterian hymnals are discussed in the post for 17 December 2019.
39.  As mentioned in the post for 13 August 2020, Word used this technique in 1972.

40.  The Genesis Singalong.  agápe Records ARS-1013.  1973.  Produced by Fred Bock.

41.  Folk Encounter Singalong.  Hope Recordings HCP-2030.  1973.  Produced by John F. Wilson.

42.  Notice about Easter service.  Van Nuys Valley News And Green Sheet [Los Angeles, California].  9 April 1971.  91 “Music will be by the combined children’s and Chancel choirs under the direction of Dr. Keith Clark with Fred Bock at the organ.”

“Indianapolis Nov. Gospel Site.”  Billboard 87:56:6 September 1975.  “Fred Bock, minister of music at Bel Air Presbyterian Church.”

43.  Louis Evans, Jr, is discussed in the post for 27 September 2020.

44.  The album liner notes did not list musicians, but Bock was an accomplished piano and organ player.  I suspect he was the pianist, if, for no other reasons, than to save money.  The album was recorded by Toby Foster at Whitney Studios.  That studio was established to support Loren Whiney and the Haven of Rest Quartet. [52]

Wilson used the Sound Studios in Chicago.  The engineer, Stu Black, previously had worked with Chess Records and knew local blues musicians. [53]

45.  This is based on a search of works by Fred Bock in WorldCat conducted 18 June 2020.  He also had arrangements distributed by Theodore Presser.

46.  Lloyd John Ogilvie replaced Raymond Lindquist in 1972.  I suspect Bock moved when Ogilvie began a weekly television program in 1978. [54]

47.  Post about Fred Bock Institute of Music on Fuller Theological Seminary Facebook page.  2 January 2017.

48.  The Youngbloods.  “Get Together.”  The Youngbloods.  RCA Victor LSP-3724.  1967.  It was reissued as a single on RCA Victor 47-9752 in June 1969.  [Discogs entries.]

49.  Wikipedia.  “Get Together (Youngbloods Song).”
50.  Leask.  106.

51.  “Presbyterian Pastor, Songwriter Richard Avery Dies.”  Presbyterian Church of USA, Presbytery Mission Agency website.  23 March 2020.

52.  “Whitney Recording Studios.”  Discogs website.  The Haven of Rest Quartet is mentioned in the posts for 27 November 2017 and 21 October 2018.

53.  Bruce Iglauer and Patrick A. Roberts.  Bitten by the Blues.  Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2018.  45.

54.  “Our History.”  First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood website.

Hope - Kum Ba Yah (Come by Here)

Topic: Religious Folk Music Revival
Methodists were the first to laud "a new generation," and the last to recognize the Now Generation. Like with the Baptists, [1] Lutherans, [2] and Nazarenes, [3] it wasn’t the denomination that acted, but an independent publisher with informal ties to the church hierarchy. [4]

Hope Publishing was founded in 1892 by Henry Date. [5] He had attended the 1889 meeting that organized the Epworth League, [6] and needed material for his Methodist youth group meetings. He began with a 64 page pamphlet of songs that attracted the interest of Holiness song writers like Elisha Hoffman, who had written "Are You Washed in the Blood?" [7] and "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms." [8]

Sales of Date’s preliminary songbook financed the publication of Pentecostal Hymns in 1894. [9] By coincidence, that was the year the Southern Methodist church formally denied the legitimacy of the Holiness doctrine. [10] The music editors included a Presbyterian [11] and a Congregationalist. [12]

Hope continued to produce hymnals and Sunday school materials for evangelistic churches for generations. It changed its focus in 1964 when Dent’s partner’s son, Herbert Shorney, took over, and brought in his sons. [13] They made John Wilson the company’s first full-time music editor in 1966. [14] A year later Wilson produced a songbook with a guitar on the cover.

A Time To Sing was in the tradition of the Cooperative Recreation Service booklets created for youth groups and camps. It even used the same stapled 3.5" x 8.75" format. Lynn Rohrbough had sold his company in 1967, [15] and this may have been an attempt to fill the vacuum created by that transfer.

A quarter of the songs were identified as spirituals, and 18% were used in camps. One of the graces, "Hark to the Chimes," [16] was from a 1929 Girl Scout Song Book. The rest were religious songs, including a few hymns and psalms. Most were recently composed.

Date may have been a Methodist, but the Shorneys were Presbyterians. [17] That denomination began to hear about the "Now Generation" in January 1969 when the John Knox Press released a book by Dennis Benson that analyzed the lyrics of the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Simon and Garfunkle within the theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. [18] He suggested ways congregations could find common ground between generations.

Hope responded in two ways. In 1970, it introduced a new division named agápe. [19] The word had been reintroduced in 1960 by C. S. Lewis [20] and become a way to comprehend the Hippies’ 1967 Summer of Love in San Francisco. [21] The term especially was popular in the coffee houses sponsored by churches near college campuses.

Carlton Young edited a Songbook for Saints and Sinners in 1971 for what he called the "young Christian" who "as he has always done, is singing a New Song." It was in the CRS format, but with a glossier cover.

Later that year, [22] Wilson issued A New Now under the Hope imprint. It promised to present "only the best of the standard favorites plus many carefully screened new offerings."

Wilson realized summer camps were passé. The CRS songster had been designed for hikers to put in their knapsacks. Backpacks had become the norm, and people sang around camp fires. They needed books that laid flat while they were playing their guitars. A New Now used the spiral binding introduced by Singspiration. [23]

The only camp songs were rounds with peace as a theme: "Dona Nobis Pacem" and "Shalom Chaverim." It also included "Jesus, Jesus," which was being sung in camps with the verse "Peace, Peace." It was based on a song introduced to Girl Scouts by Janet Tobitt in 1939. [24]

Both 1971 Hope songbooks were intended to accompany worship services. Saints had sections devoted to "Songs for the Liturgy" and "Quick Christian Year." Now was subtitled: "A Youth Folk Hymnal." Each contained "Kumbaya."

Saints still was influenced by the folk masses of the Roman Catholic church. It included six songs by Ray Repp. It also included eleven by Richard Avery and Donald March. They were leading workshops on alternative forms of worship for Presbyterians, and were publishing their songs through Hope.

Now had fewer songs from either source. Its definition of folk was like that of Bob MacKenzie. The number of spirituals increased by 15%. They included songs from both Black and white traditions. In addition, the hymnal included old songs rediscovered by folk revival artists like "I Know Where I’m Going" [25] and "Wayfaring Stranger." [26]

Both were more ecumenical than the collections published by companies located in the South. In addition to Catholic and Presbyterian songs, Saints included ones from Baptist [27] and American Lutheran Church sources. [28]

Now reflected the changes in contemporary Christian music. Instead of Baptist songs, it included some published by Word Record’s Sacred Songs, [29] and by the Premillennialist Singspiration. [30]

William G. Shorney had worked as a banker before joining his father and brother in Hope in 1964. [31] The company became more conscious of the importance of copyrights as a source of income. [32] Now had 23% more songs copyrighted by Hope than did Saints, 12% less from the Presbyterians, 11% less from Roman Catholic sources, and 18% less from other contemporary music publishers.

Performers
A Time To Sing, Saints
Vocal Soloist: single melodic line
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Accompaniment: guitar chords
Rhythm Accompaniment: none

A New Now
Vocal Soloist: single melodic line
vVocal Group: none
Instrumental Accompaniment: piano, guitar chords
Rhythm Accompaniment: none

Credits
African (Angola)

Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: no comment
Verses: kumbaya, crying, singing, praying

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

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

Notes on Music
A Time To Sing, Saints
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Time Signature: 3/4

A New Now
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Time Signature: 4/4

All three
Tempo: not provided
Key Signature: no sharps or flats
Guitar Chords: C F G

Basic Structure: strophic repetition
Singing Style: one syllable to one note, except for final "Lord"

A New Now
Vocal-Accompaniment Dynamics: Piano chords struck at beginnings of measures and "kumbaya" phrases. Guitar chords on first and last notes of "kumbaya."

All Three
Ending: guitar chords on every note of final line

Notes on Performance
A Time To Sing
"The key to the effectiveness of what is often called ‘sacred folk music’ is its simplicity. It can be sung informally, understood clearly and accompanied easily, perhaps with guitar, banjo, ukelele or autoharp."

A New Now
"We encourage you to improvise from these basic settings. Choirs or small combos with various rhythm styles may be used—folk, folk rock, jazz, straight or whatever."

Notes on Audience
Hope said A Time to Sing "sold over one million copies." [33]

Notes on Performers
Wilson was featured in the posts for 16 December 2018 and 19 December 2018. Young was mentioned in the post for 14 February 2019.

Availability
Book: "Kum Ba Yah." A Time to Sing. Carol Stream, Illinois: Hope Publishing Company, 1967. 37.

Book: "Kum Ba Yah (Come by Here)." Songbook for Saints and Sinners. Edited by Carlton R. Young. Carol Stream, Illinois: agápe, 1971. 19.

Book: "Kum Ba Yah (Com by Here)." A New Now. Carol Stream, Illinois: Hope Publishing Company, 1971. 38.

End Notes
1. Baptists were discussed in the posts for 5 July 2020 and 12 July 2020.
2. Lutherans were discussed in the posts for 21 June 2020 and 28 June 2020.
3. Nazarenes were discussed in the posts for 19 July 2020 and 26 July 2020

4. George Shorney said: "Methodists, I think, in their most recent hymnbook must have said, ‘We’re tired of having Hope sell books to our people’." [34]

5. "Hope Publishing Company History." Company website.

6. "Founders of the Epworth League." 8–9 in The Epworth League Year-Book. Cincinnati: Jennings and Pye, 1903 edition. 8.

7. E. A. Hoffman. "Are You Washed in the Blood?" In Spiritual Songs for Gospel Meetings and the Sunday School. Edited by Elisha A. Hoffman and J. H. Tenney. Cleveland, Ohio: Barker and Smellie, 1878. [35]

8. Anthony J. Showalter and Elisha Hoffman. "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms." In The Glad Evangel. Edited by A. J. Showalter, L. M. Evilsizer, and S. J. Perry. Dalton, Georgia: A. J. Showalter Company, 1887. [37]

9. The earliest citation by WorldCat is: Henry Date, Elisha A. Hoffman and J. H. Tenney. Pentecostal Hymns: For Evangelistic Services, Young People’s Societies and Sunday Schools. Chicago: Hope Publishing Company.

10. For more on the reaction of Methodist hierarchies to Phoebe Palmer’s theory of Holiness, see the post for 9 February 2020.

11. Elisha Albright Hoffman was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1873. In addition to serving congregations, he worked for the Evangelical Association in Cleveland. [38]

12. John Harrison Tenney was a deacon in a Congregation church in Limebrook, Massachusetts. Before working with Date, he co-edited collections with Hoffman. [39]

13. Date worked with George Henry Shorney and Francis G. Kingsbury. Shorney, who was a childhood friend and distant relative, took over when Date died in 1915. Kingsbury was Date’s cousin. He became president with Shorney died in 1919. Kingsbury retired in 1926, and George’s son, Gordon D. Shorney rose. George Herbert Shorney was Gordon’s brother. [40]

14. "Hope Publishing Company History." The existing music editor was part-time. Donald P. Hustad had been with the company since 1950, and was getting more involved with the Billy Graham organization.

15. H. Smith. "Pocket Song Book Publishing Moved, Revitalized." [Yellow Springs, Ohio] Community Service Newsletter. January–February 1977. 1–2.

16. George Newell. Girl Scout Song Book. New York: Girl Scouts, 1929.

17. Bob Goldsborough. "George H. Shorney, 1931-2012." Chicago Tribune. 11 April 2012. His father, Gordon Shorney, had been a Baptist, [41] who sent his sons to Denison College, then associated with the Northern Baptist Convention. [42]

18. Dennis C. Benson. The Now Generation. Richmond: John Knox Press, 1969. He also looked at lyrics by Arlo Guthrie and Janis Ian.

19. "Hope Publishing Company History."

20. C. S. Lewis. The Four Loves. London: Geoffrey Bles, 1960. It was published the same year in Orlando, Florida by Harcourt.

21. Wikipedia. "Summer of Love."

22. Both songbooks carried the date 1971. Now contained David Wo’s "Sing, My People" that was introduced by Saints.

23. Singspiration’s spiral-bound Folk Hymnal was discussed in the post for 2 August 2020.

24. Janet Tobitt. "Rose, Rose." Yours for a Song. New York: 1939. Tobitt included Song in her anthology, The Ditty Bay, which she self-published in 1946. "Rose, Rose" was a case study in Camp Songs, 447–454.

25. "I Know Where I’m Going" was recorded in 1944 by Burl Ives, [46] and again by The Weavers in 1957. [47] The post for 2 August 2020 also mentioned this song.

26. Burl Ives recorded "Wayfaring Stranger" in 1944. [48] David Warren Steel and Richard Hulan [49] found a version in Joseph Bever’s The Christian Songster, which was published by the United Brethren in Christ of Dayton in 1858. Robert Waltz and David Engle [50] located an earlier, 1816, version in Kentucky Harmony that was published by Ananias Davisson in Lexington, Kentucky.

27. Five were published by the Southern Baptist Convention’s Broadman Press.

28. Ewald J. Bash. "Jonah." In Songs for Today. Edited by Bash and John Ylvisaker. Minneapolis, Minnesota: The American Lutheran Church, Youth Department, 1964. Hope identified the melody as a "sea chantey," rather than admitting the tune was "What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor." [51]

29. The four songs from Sacred Songs, included ones by Ralph Carmichael and Kurt Kaiser. They were discussed in the posts for 15 December 2017 and 5 July 2020. The most popular was Sonny Salsbury’s "Psalm 19."

30. The three songs from Singspiration included Jack and Don Wyrtzen’s "Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow." Grand Rapids, Michigan: Singspiration, 1966. Pat Zondervan was a strong Premillennialist, and determined the publishing company would also support that view. [52]

31. Music and "Hope Publishing Company History."

32. Nancy Luebke. "Hymn Publisher’s 110-year History Started with Hope." Arlington Heights [Illinois] Daily Herald. 16 March 2002. 169. George Shorney told her: "As a publisher, there’s value in owning copyrights, and the owners of the company recognized that acquiring copyrights would be a good way to position the company. Today the strategy of publishers in the music industry is to own copyrights to generate income."

33. "Hope Publishing Company History."

34. David W. Music. "An Interview with George Shorney." The Hymn 44:6-10:January 1992. 7.

35. Diana Leagh Matthews. "Behind the Hymn: Are you washed in the Blood." Her website. 9 April 2017. She said it was republished by Ira Sankey in an 1881 edition of Sacred Songs and Solos. This went through many editions (and, no doubt, revisions); the Library of Congress lists one from 1877. [36]

36. "Sacred Songs and Solos." Library of Congress website. Ira D. Sankey. London: Morgan and Scott, 1877.

37. Tiffany Shomsky. "Leaning on the everlasting arms." Hymnary website.
38. Wikipedia. "Elisha Hoffman."

39. J. H. Hall. "J. H. Tenney." 219–222 in Biography of Gospel Song and Hymn Writers. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1914.

40. "Hope Publishing Company History."
41. Gordon D. Shorney. Obituary. Chicago Tribune. 22 October 1964. 69.

432. Denison was founded by the Ohio Baptist Education Society in 1831. [44] At the time the Shorneys began attending, it was associated with the Ohio Baptist Convention, which, in turn, was affiliated with the Northern Baptist Convention. [45] Denison became a "non-sectarian institution independent of any denominational affiliation" in the 1960s. [46]

43. "Denison University." Ohio History Central website.

44. Richard Hunter Clossman. "A History of the Organization and Development of the Baptist Churches in Ohio from 1789 to 1907, With Particular Reference to the Ohio Baptist Convention." PhD dissertation. The Ohio State University, 1971.

45. "Our History." Denison University website

46. Burl Ives. "I Know Where I’m Going." The Wayfaring Stranger. Columbia C-103. 1944. [Discogs entry]

47. The Weavers. The Weavers At Carnegie Hall. Vanguard VRS-9010. 1957. [Discogs entry]
48. Burl Ives. The Wayfaring Stranger. Stinson Records A 345. 1944. [Discogs entry]

49. David Warren Steel and Richard H. Hulan. The Makers of the Sacred Harp. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2010. 234. Cited by Wikipedia. "The Wayfaring Stranger (Song)."

50. "Wayfaring Stranger." The Traditional Ballad Index. California State University-Fresno website. Version 4.5.

51. Bsondahl. "Jonah song/Drunken Sailor tune." Mudcat Café website. 9 March 2002.
52. James E. Ruark. The House of Zondervan. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006. 27.

James Leisy - Methodist song books

Topic: Religious Folk Music Revival
The Civil War of the early 1860s disrupted religious practices. Church services continued where men were available to serve as pastors, but revivals and camp meetings required resources that were reallocated to the war effort. [1]

The Holiness movement led by Phoebe Palmer revived large gatherings marked by religious fervor in 1867. [2] During the depression that followed the Panic of 1893, Holiness preachers began emphasizing premillennial connections, and urging people to save themselves by leaving their established churches for new ones that promised ways to survive the coming holocaust. The Methodist Episcopal Church South closed its facilities to them in 1894, and the Northern church disdained them. [3]

Both Methodist churches retreated into a literal interpretation of John Wesley’s method that the way to Salvation was avoiding a list of tabooed activities that included dancing. [4] In the North, church members also followed Palmer’s suggestion that one should do positive things like support missions to immigrants [5] and pagans. Since freed slaves were the target of Northern missionaries after the war, the Southern church did not endorse a proactive program.

At some time before 1894, "75% of the young men in the nation were unchurched." [6] The non-denominational YMCA had become active during the Civil War, and continued to attract young men to their programs. [7] Methodists responded with Epworth Leagues in 1889. [8]

The Leagues were hampered by the prohibition against dancing, which was extended to popular music after the introduction of ragtime that was associated with the foxtrot. E. O. Harbin published a collection of games and stunts for the southern group in 1923. [9] He followed it with the group’s first song collection in 1927. As its title implied, Paradology featured humorous songs set to nineteenth-century popular songs. [10]

Lynn Rohrbough began developing a similar program with friends at Boston University in the 1920s. His parents were such strict Methodists, he didn’t sing until he was in high school and never played a musical instrument. [11] His early publications featured games and circle dances.

He discovered international folk songs at a 1931 Recreation Institute in Michigan where they were taught by Martha Cruickshank Ramsey. [12] Ramsey then was the director of the Cleveland Settlement Music School, [13] and translator of the Czech "Came a Riding." [14] Thereafter, Rohrbough focused on such songs, and began collecting them from foreign-born students at local colleges. Ernest Amy suggested he saw it as missionary effort to combat the lure of Communism. [15]

The two Methodist churches merged in 1939, and the separate Epworth Leagues became the Methodist Youth Fellowship. The emphasis on college campuses was recruiting missionaries. [16] It also sponsored caravans of students who traveled from church to church in the summer to help with Vacation Church schools [17] and perform plays. [18] High school students were encouraged to visit retirement homes and hold car washes to raise money for foreign missions. [19]

Recreation leaders still stressed alternatives to dances and popular music. Right after World War II, Harbin hired Larry Eisenberg as the recreation specialist for the denomination’s Youth Department in Nashville. [20] His primary job was training students and adult counselors in the caravans. [21] He issued a set of folk-dance records [22] and published songbooks through CRS.

More than 40% of Sing It Again’s songs were national or international folk songs like "Came a Riding." 10% were Negro spirituals and 15% were other religious songs. The remaining third of the booklet contained graces, rounds and American songs. [23] Lift Every Voice replaced the nationals songs with more religious ones and some Christmas carols. [24]

After the Civil War, Methodists faced competition from the YMCA. During World War II a number of conservative evangelistic groups developed. Jim Rayburn used club meetings with skits and lively songs to attract high school students to Young Life. [25] His summer camps encouraged attendees to commit themselves to Christ like camp meetings had done in the past. [26]

Youth for Christ became associated with Billy Graham, who had worked for the group before he became an independent evangelist. As mentioned in the post for 15 December 2017, it used popular music to make Christianity fun.

Thomas Bergler argued Methodists could not compete. They had "rejected the idea that a conversion experience should be the foundation of the Christian life" in 1894, but found nothing to replace "a personal encounter with God." Instead, adolescents were expected to lead blameless lives of devotion to others. [27]

By 1952, it was obvious this approach wasn’t working. Eisenberg resigned, [28] and Wallace Chappell was brought from Dallas in 1953. He lasted until 1958. [29] While in Nashville, he published another edition of Sing It Again with CRS, and reissued the folk dance recordings with a new manual. [30]

His version of Sing It Again devoted 48% of its space to international and national songs. Reflecting the global membership of the church, Chappell added more songs from Africa, Asia, and Spanish or Portuguese speaking areas. The number of spirituals and religious songs remained about the same. [31]

The breach between North and South had not disappeared with unification. Bergler noted MYF programs in the 1950s "often stagnated because conservative and liberal influences neutralized each other," [32] and that the earlier emphasis on social justice was "toned down." [33]

In 1957, the Methodist Church pursued both impulses. It hired a former missionary to China who was a friend of Rohrbough’s. Ohio-born Bliss Wiant lasted four years as director of the new Ministry of Music.

Simultaneously, it turned from Rohrbough to publish songbooks edited by Dallas-born James Leisy. The first, Abingdon Song Kit, used a word associated with Rohrbough, [34] but in the Southern tradition of Harbin. It had a section of stunt songs and a number of parodies. Many of the songs were published without music. [35]

Leisy edited a second book in 1959 that was more formal: it had hard covers and tunes for every songs. It used American folk songs, and nineteenth century popular lyrics. It’s international songs were national ones like "The Campbells Are Coming." The only central European song published by Rohrbough was the Czech "Walking at Night." [36]

Neither collection contained "Kumbaya."

Notes on Performers
Harbin worked for the YMCA with the army near Memphis, Tennessee, in World War I. He returned to his home in Louisville, Kentucky, where the Southern Methodist church hired him as director of the Department of Recreation and Culture. He joined the central office of the Methodist’s Epworth youth group in 1919. [37]

Rohrbough’s family moved from West Virginia to Colorado and back. After graduating from Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio, Rohrbough went to Boston for graduate work. When he and his wife, Katharine Ferris Rohrbough, returned to Delaware in 1929, [38] they discovered the college had begun sponsoring dances. He turned his barn into an alternative recreation center, while he continued to publish games and songs. [39] The Boston Social-Recreation Union eventually became Cooperative Recreation Service. [40]

Eisenberg was raised in the Northern Methodist Episcopal Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. [41] He met Rohrbough in 1936 when he was 22 years old. That inspired him to "make my ‘ministry’ social recreation." [42] He later wrote books on song leading for the YMCA, [43] and spent time in Southern Rhodesia as a missionary. [44]

Chappell trained as a chemical engineer, but his grandfather had been a Southern Methodist minister. [45] He was called to the ministry by reading Lloyd C. Douglas’ novel The Robe. [46] He was sent to Nashville after working in churches in Dallas and Wichita Falls. [47] After he returned to Dallas he directed the Methodist Student Movement in Texas. [48]

Wiant is discussed in the post for 2 October 2022. Leisy is discussed in the posts for 15 December 2019 and 22 December 2019.


End Notes
1. Vinson Synan. The Holiness-Pentecostal Tradition. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997 edition. 23.

2. Palmer’s Holiness Movement was discussed in the post for 7 December 2017. For more on Holiness camp meetings, see Melvin E. Dieter. The Holiness Revival of the Nineteenth Century. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1996 edition.

3. Synan. 39–40.
4. John Wesley’s prohibition against dancing was discussed in post for 30 October 2018.

5. Palmer’s Five Points Mission was mentioned in the posts for 25 November 2017 and 14 July 2019.

6. Jacob Embury Price. Epworth League Workers. New York: Hunt and Eaton, 1894. 18. Cited by J. Warren Smith. "Youth Ministry in American Methodism’s Mission." Methodist History 19:224-230:July 1981. 224.

7. The Intercollegiate YMCA was organized in 1877. "By the 1890’s this dominated religious life on most American campuses, a position unchallenged until the 1914-18 War." [49]

8. Smith. 225.

9. E. O. Harbin. Phunology: A Collection of Tried and Proved Plans for Play, Fellowship, and Profit. Nashville: Cokesbury Press, 1923.

10. E. O. Harbin. Paradology, Songs of Fun and Fellowship. Nashville: Cokesbury Press, 1927.

11. Lynn Rohrbough. Letter to Larry Nial Holcomb, 17 February 1972. Cited by Holcomb. "A History of the Cooperative Recreation Service." PhD dissertation. University of Michigan, 1972. 14.

12. Holcomb. 40–41. The fifth Social Recreation Institute was held at Waldenwoods Camp from May 25 to May 31. The grounds were owned by the Michigan Council of Religious Education.

13. Sondra Wieland Howe. Women Music Educators in the United States. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2014. 192. Ramsey later worked at the Henry Street Settlement in New York.

14. Holcomb. 41. Ramsey probably heard the song in Cleveland where the Settlement Music School collected neighborhood folk songs. [50]

15. Ernest F. Amy. "Cooperative Recreation Service: A Unique Project." Midwest Folklore 12:202–260:1957. 205–206.

16. Smith. 228.
17. Smith. 229.

18. Thomas E Bergler. The Juvenilization of American Christianity. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2012. 75.

19. Smith. 229.
20. Larry Eisenberg. "It’s Me, O Lord." Tulsa: Fun Books, 1992. 54.
21. Eisenberg. 56.

22. Abe Books was offering a 1947 edition of the manual that accompanied The World of Fun Series of Records for Folk Games on 29 November 2019. Discogs website listed 78-rpm records issued as M-101 through M-112 that were produced by Eisenberg for the Methodist Church. Most had two songs on a side played by Michael Herman’s Folk Orchestra. Ron Houston said Paul and Gretel Dunsing supervised the recordings. He noted they were "were responsible for introducing most of the German dances that folk dancers in the United States do today." [51] Svend Tollefsen’s name appeared on several of the records listed by Discogs.

23. Methodist Board of Education. Sing It Again!. Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service. The second edition said the first edition was published in 1944. However, in the copy I purchased online, the latest copyright date for an included song was 1947. [52] Eisenberg identified himself as the editor. [53] The cover was light green with four heads: an African-American boy, a Native-American girl, a Spanish girl, and a blond white boy.

24. Larry Eisenberg. Lift Every Voice. Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service. One song in the collection was copyrighted in 1948. [54]

25. "Young Life History and Vision for the Future." Young Life website. Young Life was mentioned briefly in the post for 17 December 2017. Jeff McSwain, a Young Life leader who was expelled for heresy, said its method became "preach like Wesley and believe like Calvin." That is, they used the meetings and camps to create a friendly atmosphere, then preached original sin and the damnation of individuals. [55] Rayburn was a Presbyterian, [56] and this was simply a modernization of the methods introduced by Finney, mentioned in the posts for 12 August 2017 and 3 September 2017.

26. "Is Young Life a Cult?" Christian Agnostic website. 4 May 2012.
27. Bergler. 73–74.
28. Eisenberg. 62.

29. Notice of services at Plymouth Park Baptist Church. Irving [Texas] Daily News, 20 November 1970. 5.

30. Irving Daily News. Only the manual was listed in library catalogs. [57] The lead author, R. Harold Hipps, was active in the National Recreation and Park Association and moved to Nashville in 1963 to work as Director of Leisure/Recreation Ministries. He retired from the church’s Board of Education in 1985. [58]

WorldCat listed a 1970 package of World of Fun with seven cassette-tape recordings issued by The United Methodist Church.

Amazon offered World of Fun as a manual and three compact discs issued by Melody House on 29 November 2019.

Discogs listed two versions of record M-108, one produced by Larry Eisenberg and one produced by Wally Chappell. Their content was the same.

31. The Methodist Church. Sing it Again. Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, 1958 revised edition. The front cover was teal green with a music staff set vertically to resemble the neck of a guitar. The four heads were on the back cover.

32. Bergler. 79.
33. Bergler. 76.

34. Rohrbough’s first publications were loose-leaf binders, Handy I and Handy II. Each was composed of kits. "Kit Y" of Handy II contained folk songs. [59] Rohrbough reused the Sing it Again title sometime after 1962. It had slightly fewer religious songs than Chappell’s edition; it did have "Kum Ba Yah." [60]

35. James F. Leisy. Abingdon Song Kit. New York: Abingdon Press, 1957.

36. James F. Leisy. Let’s All Sing. New York: Abingdon Press, 1959. "Walking at Night" was collected from Stella Marek Cushing, the daughter of Czech immigrants. She sang, played violin, and gave dance demonstrations in New Jersey. [61] Augustus D. Zanzig first published it in Singing America. Boston: C. C. Birchard, 1940.

37. Camp Songs, Folk Songs. 60.

38. Holcomb. On childhood, 13–14; on Ohio Wesleyan, 16–17; on Boston University, 19; on move to Delaware, 61.

39. Nancy Oldfield. "Rohrbough 22 Provides Novel Recreation Center." The Ohio Wesleyan Transcript. 14 March 1939. 1, 4.

40. Holcomb. Chapter 3, The Social-Recreation Union.
41. Eisenberg. 44, 48.
42. Eisenberg. 51–52.

43. He and his wife, Helen Eisenberg, wrote four books for the YMCA between 1953 and 1956. How To Lead Group Singing was issued by the Association Press in 1955.

44. Eisenberg. 64–71.

45. Wallace Chappell. The Call of God: Selected Sermons. Bloomington, Indiana: Author House, 2011. vi.

46. Lloyd C. Douglas. The Robe. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1942.

47. "Wallace Chappell, Longtime Dallas Methodist Minister, Dies at 96." The Dallas Morning News. 11 October 2016.

48. Irving Daily News.

49. David C. Belden. "The Origins and Development of the Oxford Group (Moral Re-Armament)." D. Phil Thesis. St. Edmund Hall, Oxford University, January 1976. 38.

50. Martha Ramsey and Duane Ramsey. "The Settlement Music School." Music Supervisors’ Journal 19:21-23, 34:May 1933. 34. Cited by Anna Hamilton. "Survey of Outreach Offerings and Practices in Piano Areas of Community Music Schools Affiliated with Colleges and Universities Accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music." PhD dissertation. University of South Carolina, 2012. 22.

51. Ron Houston. "Paul and Gretel Dunsing." Society of Folk Dance Historians website. 2018.

52. "Round-Up Lullaby." Words by Badger Clark. Music by Clifton W. Barnes. Copyrighted 1947 by Ralph Lyman. The poem originally appeared in Sun and Saddle Leather. Boston: Gorham Press, 1915. Page 13 in first edition of Sing It Again!

53. Eisenberg. 62.

54. "Ancient Castle." Japanese folk song arranged by Bliss Wiant; words by Ocutt Sanders. Copyright by Cooperative Recreation Service, 1948. Page 93 in Lift.

55. Jeff McSwain. "Young Life and the Gospel of All-Along Belonging." The Other Journal website. 6 January 2010.

56. Wikipedia. "Young Life."

57. R. Harold Hipps and Wallace Chappell. A World of Fun: Manual of Instructions for World of Fun Records. Nashville: The Methodist Publishing House, 1959.

58. "R. Harold Hipps." The [Nashville] Tennessean. 12 February 2014.
59. Holcomb. 34.

60. Sing it Again. Delaware Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service. The most recent copyright was for "Silvery Star," an Italian song translated by by Max Exner and arranged by Augustus D. Zanzig in 1962, on page 48. The cover was medium green, with the title in a blue box. Three heads were used on the inside front cover.

61. Camp Songs, Folk Songs. 57. The primary source was Dick Oakes. "Stella Marek Cushing." Phantom Ranch website.

United Methodist Church - Kum Ba Yah (Come By Here)

Topic: Religious Uses - Hymnals
Carlton Young included "Kumbaya" in the official Methodist hymnal in 1989. In doing so, he changed it from a song to hymn.

The format for publishing a hymn is unique. It first assumes the text and tune are separate pieces of music that can be recombined by a song leader. Thus, a hymnal always provides the meter with the text. [1] Young identified "Kumbaya" as "Irr." for irregular because the text lines did not all contain the same number of syllables. Unlike older songbooks, he did not include the 8-8-8-5 line-syllable count.

Second, a hymn tune must have name. Young called the melody "Desmond" for "Tutu,　social activist and anglican Archbishop of Capetown, South Africa." [2]

Third, a hymn must have some basis in scripture. This usually requires the editor provide chapter and verse from the Bible. In this case, Young implied its meaning when he included it in the "Prayer, Trust, Hope" section. He further located it within the Wesleyan tradition by including the prayer section in the Sanctifying and Perfecting Grace subsection of the larger group of songs devoted to The Power of the Holy Spirit.

Fourth, a hymn must be in four-part harmony and suitable for an organ or piano to play as an accompaniment. In the treble clef, Young used the parallel thirds published by Cooperative Recreation Service, with a variation in the second to last measure. Instead of a "kum ba" being thirds, he made "kum" a D and C, or a second apart, and "ba" a third.

Young added the bass clef part. It followed the contours of the melody usually with a third, a fifth, and a series of octaves. This pattern was altered in the last line, when "oh" used E below middle C and a very low F.

Much of this, of course, followed from applying the rules of western harmony to the melody. Young’s desire to give the last line the feeling of an amen climax led him to modify the guitar chords from a simple F-C-G⁷-C to D^m-C-G^sus-G⁷-C.

The church copyrighted his version. To make the request legally unassailable, Young add his own final verse. It changed the basic someone+verbal+ing format to "let us" and "praise the Lord."

Performers
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: four parts
Instrumental Accompaniment: guitar; any keyboard instrument
Rhythm Accompaniment: none

Credits
Words: Afro-American spiritual
Music: Afro-American spiritual; harm by Carlton R. Young, 1988
Harm © 1989 The United Methodist Publishing House

Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: no comments
Verses: kumbaya, praying, crying, needs you, singing, praise the Lord

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

Basic Form: six-verse song
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Ending: none

Unique Features: own verse in different line format

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5 labeled "Desmond"
Time Signature: 3/4
Tempo: not indicated
Key Signature: no sharps or flats
Guitar/Autoharp Chords: C F D^m G^sus G⁷

Basic Structure: strophic repetition; new chords on every note of last line suggest amen form

Singing Style: one note to one syllable except for final "Lord"

Harmonic Style: sung chords

Notes on Performers
The Methodist Church merged with the Evangelical United Brethren in 1968. This was the first hymnal since the reorganization. When the two churches combined, the resulting UMC made both their hymnals official. [3] The 1966 Methodist one had been edited by Young, and replaced the cooperative effort of the Southern, Northern, and Methodist Protestant churches in 1935. [4]

The Hymnal Revision Committee believed this was the first "substantial revision of content and format since the 1870s." This meant it had "more singable qualities" and contained "a broader base of musical styles." That diversification included adding 70 hymns from "the Afro-American, Hispanic, Asian-American, and Native American heritages." [5] "Kumbaya" was followed by "Sweet Hour of Prayer" from the gospel music tradition [6] and "Send Me, Lord" from South Africa. [7]

Young was the son of a southern-Ohio Methodist minister, but raised by his mother’s parents after she died. As a child he took piano lessons, and added brass and string bass when he was older. He graduated from the Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati in 1950 before earning a degree from the Methodist seminary at Boston University in 1953. [8] His 1969 doctorate came from Ohio Northern University, [9] after he edited the 1966 hymnal.

When the church retreated from many of its traditional activities after the 1968 merger, Young was hired as an editor by Hope Publishing in 1971. [10] The shadow Methodist publisher was mentioned in the post for 16 December 2018.

Availability
Book: The United Methodist Hymnal. Edited by Carlton R. Young. Nashville: The United Methodist Publishing House, 1989. 494.

End Notes
1. In traditional hymnals this appeared to the right of the title; Young placed it at the right below the text.

2. Carlton Young. Email to the author, 5 January 2017.

3. Alan K. Waltz. A Dictionary for United Methodists. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1991. Section on "Hymnal, The United Methodist" reproduced by United Methodist Church website.

4. Guide to the Carlton R. Young Collection of 1935 Methodist Hymnal Commission Records. Southern Methodist University, Bridwell Library website.

5. "Preface." v.

6. "Sweet Hour of Prayer." Words by WilliamWalford, 1845. Music by William B. Bradbury, 1861. 496.

7. "Send Me Lord." Words and Music were described as "Trad. South African." 497.
8. "Young, Carlton Raymond (‘Sam’)." The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology website.
9. "Carlton Raymond Young." Hymntime website.
10. "Carlton Raymond Young." Hope Publishing website.