Topic: Pedagogy - Instrumental Tone
Learning how to produce proper vocal tones is a matter of maturation and what Oren Gould called "learning how it feels to sing." [1] The same is true for brass and wind instrument players.
Most band books devoted their opening pages to exercises that forced students to play sustained tones. [2] John Kinyon’s team told beginners "when you can play the G with a full tone and in a relaxed manner, you are ready to proceed with lesson one," [3] which introduced two new tones, whole notes on the music staff, and marks indicating when to breathe. [4]
Similarly, Howard Rusch told young trumpeters "when you have acquired a ‘feel’ for your instrument and can readily play and recognize the preparatory tones, you are ready for the first group tones." [5] He then associated those tones with the scale, and introduced exercises that held tones for different lengths of time. [6]
Neither method book returned to tone production. One editor included later reminders that were the sort that were easy to ignore: "don’t puff the chin - point it" [7] and "listen and ask yourself - ‘does it sound good?’" [8] Another reminded students to "keep a steady air pressure" on page 19. [9]
For the most part, editors recognized that discussing sound production required language and concepts that were alien to youngsters. Satis Coleman had observed, in a 1922 book widely known in music-education circles, that playing any "breath-blown instrument well, requires breath control which means conscious or unconscious control of the diaphragm, intercostal muscles, and other muscles of the trunk and chest cavity." [10] All the band books I’ve seen mentioned taking in air at the corners of the mouth, rather than storing it in the cheeks, but only one mentioned deep breathing. [11]
Jeffrey Reynolds was more specific in Trumpet for Dummies aimed at adult beginners. Although he knew it was difficult to relax when trying to solve a problem, he told his readers:
"Tension causes tight muscles, so they breathe with less freedom, actually restricting the amount that they can inhale. And they tend to push the air out, instead of letting it go naturally. So, the air passing between the lips is under pressure and inconsistent. The lips respond to the air going through them, and with low-quality air, they vibrate weakly." [12]
The one problem editors did address was the relationship between volume and tone. Arthur Jenson told young musicians to "be careful not to blow too hard or ‘blast" your tones’," [13] while Reynolds told his reachers "don’t play too loudly — think of wind flow not force." [14] He added, "if you play too loudly, your tone will sound forced and you’ll probably play sharp. [15]
Most editors addressed this problem more subtly by delaying their discussions of dynamics, usually until at least the half-way point in their books. A third did not mention them at all, especially in the early years. [16] A couple introduced the musical concept in the 1960s, but such treatments did not become common until the 1970s. [17]
About half who included dynamics mentioned the common sound levels - soft (pianissimo), medium (mezzo forte), and loud (forte) - often in a single comment. A few included the fourth level, medium soft (mezzo piano).
The others began with the common concepts of loud and soft, before mentioning the intermediate levels, usually as part of discussion of changing levels with crescendos and decrescendos. Only two began with the normal mp and mf decibel levels, although that in fact was what most band directors used. [18]
Two of the method books that contained "Kumbaya" were marked medium soft, [19] and one was marked soft. [20] The other two began medium loud, and ended softer. [21] Accent on Achievement used the song as an exercise in decrescendo.
Chris Obst uploaded a video of a young boy just learning to play "Kumbaya." I don’t know if Robby was using the version that began on middle C or the one that started on F, but suspect it was the latter. He had no problems with the first three notes, but had difficulties with the other tones. The facial muscles used in creating a tone, the embouchure, like all muscles, take time to train, and he looked to be younger than the usual beginning trumpet player.
His biggest problem wasn’t knowing how to form the tones, but how much air to expel to produce them. One’s instinct was to blow harder to reach the higher tones like the D above middle C. That causes overtones to dominate, and makes trumpets sound brassy. When those higher tones were introduced one band book advised "higher notes are easier when you use a full air stream," [22] while another told trumpeters to "tighten the sides of your embouchure as you go higher." [23]
For the rest, the best advice came from an Odessa, Texas, secondary school band director. John McEntyre advised aspiring musicians that producing a "characteristic sound" required
"much repetition. Every person learns to play an instrument by the ‘trial and error’ method. One of the essential aspects of success is to ‘try’ enough times to give the method a chance for learning to occur." [24]
Performers
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Soloist: Robby
Instrumental Accompaniment: none
Rhythm Accompaniment: none
Credits
None given
Notes on Lyrics
There were none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Tempo: moderate
Basic Structure: played melody through once
Notes on Performance
Location: at home
Microphones: none
Clothing: short-sleeved khaki shirt and maroon slacks
Notes on Movement
He stood, but looked down. No music was visible, but it may have been on a low table in front on him.
Audience Perceptions
Chris Obst recognized the boy was just beginning when he wrote: "Robby is getting better."
Other parents were more forthright on Amazon. One warned: "fourth grade band is not for the faint of heart." [25] Another admitted his or her son’s trumpet playing is currently at the level of a dying cow." [26]
Notes on Performers
The man who uploaded the video lived in New Berlin, Wisconsin, where he had three children. [27] Christopher Obst’s grandparents were German Catholics in Milwaukee. His father ran an insurance agency in Brookfield, Wisconsin, which Christopher continued when the older man retired. [28]
Both Christopher and his father were active in Boy Scouts and water sports on Wisconsin lakes. Robby presumably was Christopher’s son, and may have been exposed to trumpet through the older men’s activities.
Availability
YouTube: uploaded by Chris Obst in 14 February 2013.
End Notes
1. Oren Gould. Developing Specialized Programs for Singing in the Elementary School. Macomb: Western Illinois University, 1968. Cited by Marilyn Pflederer Zimmerman. Musical Characteristics of Children. Washington: Music Educators National Conference, 1971. 25.
2. Merry Elizabeth Texter noted, before 1973, "tone production is discussed in only a few books, and it is usually referred to in the context of embouchure and breathing. Position is discussed in several books, and many books have photographs of correct playing position. Few books have full discussion of breathing and tonguing; however, these fundamentals are sometimes briefly referred to on music pages. They are also sometimes discussed on rudiment pages." ("A Historical and Analytical Investigation of the Beginning Band Method Book." PhD dissertation. The Ohio State University, 1975. 130.)
3. John Kinyon, Richard Berg, and George Frederick McKay. The Band-Booster. Book 1. Bb Cornet (Trumpet). New York: Remick Music Corporation, 1960. 5.
4. Kinyon, Booster. 6.
5. Howard W. Rusch. Hal Leonard Elementary Band Method. Bb Cornet or Trumpet. Winona, Minnesota: Hal Leonard Music, 1961. 3.
6. Rusch. 4.
7. Charles S. Peters. Master Method for Band. Bb Cornet-Trumpet. Park Ridge, Illinois: Neil A. Kjos Music Company, 1958. 8.
8. Peters. 19.
9. John Kinyon. Basic Training Course. Book 1. Cornet. New York: Alfred Music Company, 1970. 19.
10. Satis N. Coleman. Creative Music for Children. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, April 1922. 164-165. When one of the children in her experimental school wanted to play trumpet, the group experimented with breathing and turned the ability to sustain a tone into an informal endurance contest. 54.
11. Peters. 3. "Don’t pinch your tones - take a deep breath and blow."
12. Jeffrey Reynolds. Trumpet for Dummies. Mississauga, Canada: John Wiley and Sons Canada, Ltd, 2011. 31.
13. Arthur C. Jenson. Learning Unlimited. Level One. Trumpet/Cornet. Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation, 1973. 7.
14. Reynolds. 94.
15. Reynolds. 95.
16. Nine of 26 method books did not mention dynamics. For more information on my sources, see the "Note on Samples" in the post for 27 June 2018.
17. The two books from the 1960s that mentioned dynamics were Kinyon, Booster, and Vernon Leidig and Lennie Niehaus. Visual Band Method. Book 1. Bb Trumpet (Cornet). Norwalk, California: Highland Etling Publishing, 1964.
18. Reynolds suggested mezzo forte was "a good place to start when developing a good sound. 95.
19. Band Folio and Yamaha Advantage. Publishing details for band books containing "Kumbaya" were provided in the post for 27 June 2017.
20. Standard of Excellence.
21. Accent on Achievement and the two editions of Essential Elements.
22. Essential Elements, first edition. 20.
23. Kinyon, Basic. 20.
24. J. R. McEntyre and Harry Haines. Rhythm Master. Book 1. Eb Alto/Baritone Saxophone. San Antonio: Southern Music Corporation, 1992. 4. I have the book for alto saxophone, but the advice would have been the same for all instruments. The second author, Haines, was chairman of the music department at West Texas State University in Canyon.
25. Sad Songs and Waltzes Aren’t Selling this Year. Comment posted to Amazon website for Essential Elements 2000, Book 1, B Flat Trumpet Book on 14 February 2017.
26. LL. Comment posted to Amazon website for Standard of Excellence, Book 1, Trumpet on 16 January 2014.
27. "Christopher Obst Agent." American Family Insurance website.
28. Obituary for Robert J. Obst who died 28 May 2017. Bradley Funeral Home, Antigo, Wisconsin, website.
Sunday, July 22, 2018
Wednesday, July 18, 2018
Jay Althouse - Christmas Kum Ba Ya
The influence of reflexive habits and developmental age on the singing voice were obvious in two student performances of Jay Althouse’s arrangement of "Kumbaya." It began with a verse he wrote about Christ in the manger marked soft. He changed keys and marked the score medium-soft when he began quoting "someone’s sleeping" from "Kumbaya."
The next passage was in Swahili and marked medium-loud. [1] The concluding section was louder still, before it softened at the end. The total range for the upper part was from middle C-sharp to high E-flat, beyond a child’s usual abilities. The lower part spanned the octave from B-flat below middle C to B-flat.
When the children in the upper grades of Pleasant Hill Christian Elementary School performed his arrangement for a December concert they sang his "baby in the manger" part. However, when they got to the familiar, louder "Kumbaya" section, they reverted to the associated shouting style.
They continued their harsher voices into the next section, which used non-English words and higher notes that were beyond their comfort zone. The music grew louder when the lower voices sang "Kumbaya" and the upper ones repeated "see the baby." They continued using their more strident voices. However, when the version softened at the end they returned to their musical tones.
The seventh-graders in Milton-Union Middle School had better control of their voices, simply because they were at least a year older. They were able to handle the two parts of the "Kumbaya" section that had the higher voices singing the melody and the others singing a lower "hal-le-lu"rhythm part.
However, they all began shouting, rather than singing, the Swahili section as if it were a playground chant. They also had problems reaching the upper notes in that section. They returned to their musical voices for the two-part kumbaya/see the baby section and the soft ending.
Althouse didn’t create his arrangement for children. Music teachers probably selected it because it was appropriate for a December concert and was fun to sing. That both were able to teach youngsters to sing simultaneous parts with different words was a tribute to both them and their students.
Their problems arose from not giving precedence to Gehrkens and Myers over the dynamic markings made by Althouse. JoVonne Bolt could have told the children in the private Sebastopol, California, school they were singing a lullaby and shouldn’t wake the baby by singing "Kumbaya" too loudly. More than likely, she probably taught the two parts orally, one section at a time.
Ignoring the score would have been more difficult at the West Milton, Ohio, school where students may have been given copies of the sheet music.
The ones who would have had the hardest times deviating from the score were the pianists. The accompanists would have spent years being criticized for not playing exactly what was written. Their cues would have influenced children who had been taught to sing with the instrument, and taken precedence over the teachers’ instructions.
Performers
Jay Althouse
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: two parts
Instrumental Accompaniment: piano
Rhythm Accompaniment: none
Pleasant Hill Christian Elementary School
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: girls and boys from several grades
Vocal Director: JoVonne Bolt
Instrumental Accompaniment: piano
Rhythm Accompaniment: none
Milton-Union Middle School
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: girls and boys from seventh grade (most age 12)
Vocal Director: not seen
Instrumental Accompaniment: piano
Rhythm Accompaniment: none
Credits
Jay Althouse
Traditional Spiritual with new words and music by Jay Althouse
Copyright © MMIV by Alfred Music
Notes on Lyrics
Jay Althouse
Language: English and Swahili
Pronunciation: provided for Swahili
Verses: sleeping
Vocabulary
Pronoun: someone
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: someone was defined as the infant Jesus
Basic Form: three-part song with recapitulation
Verse Repetition Pattern: conclusion repeated parts of earlier three sections
Unique Features: assimilated "Kumbaya" into a larger narrative
Notes on Music
Jay Althouse
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5 and own
Time Signature: 4/4
Tempo: quarter note = 76-82 beats per minute
Rhythm: strong pulse
Key Signature: two sharps and three flats
Basic Structure: two parts together and separate
Singing Style: one syllable to one note
Vocal-Accompaniment Dynamics: in the first and second sections, the right hand of the piano played three-note chords and the left hand played octaves while people were singing. In the Swahili section, the right and left hands played octaves in the pauses between singing. The final section returned to the initial pattern, but the left hand part was lower - reaching down as far as low-A and the octave below. This made that part sound like a drum.
Notes on Performance
Pleasant Hill Christian Elementary School
Occasion: Christmas program
Location: stage with three Christmas trees at stage right and evergreen garlands across the front
Microphones: none
Clothing: girls in pastel-colored dresses; boys in slacks and shirts
Milton-Union Middle School
Occasion: December concert
Location: stage
Microphones: none
Clothing: pink, yellow, or peacock blue tee-shirts and gray slacks
Notes on Movement
Pleasant Hill Christian Elementary School
They were arranged in three rows on risers. Most stood with their arms at their sides, but none were trained to stand still. The director stood on the floor before the stage and directed with her hands.
Milton-Union Middle School
The choir entered during the introduction to stand on three risers. People in the first row then sat while they sang. During the Swahili section they stood and sang the first line facing front. On the second line two groups turned to face opposite directions, and returned front on the final line. The front row sat at the end of that section.
Notes on Audience
The parents applauded at the end of the song in both school concerts.
Notes on Performers
Althouse was born in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, to parents whose German ancestors had been in Lancaster County since at least the 1840s. [2] He earned music degrees from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, then worked for Fred Waring’s Shawnee Press for eight years. He spent twenty years composing for Alfred Music, [3] who published his version of "Kumbaya." He then became an independent composer. [4]
Pleasant Hill was owned by the Occidental Community Church, a small, evangelical church [5] in the midst of what local promoters called a "charming, bohemian community." [6] The school was established in 1982. [7] Since the seven grade averaged 40 students a year, [8] it was likely all the children old enough to participate did so. The music director, JoVonne Bolt, studied piano and sang in college choirs. [9]
West Milton’s schools served both the small community and surrounding Union Township in Miami County, Ohio. [10] The four grades together averaged 500 students a year. [11]
Availability
Jay Althouse
Sheet Music: "Christmas Kum Ba Ya." Van Nuys, California: Alfred Music, 2004. Available in SATB, SAB, TBB, and two parts. CD also available.
Pleasant Hill Christian Elementary School
YouTube: "Christmas Kum Ba Yah." Video made by Channel 13, [12] and uploaded by Pleasant Hill Christian School on 27 December 2016.
Milton-Union Middle School Seventh Grade Choir
YouTube: "Kum Ba Yah." Uploaded by Metroislife101 on 13 December 2009.
End Notes
1. Althouse used Italian terms to define his dynamics: piano for soft, mezzo-piano for half-soft, forte for loud, and mezzo-forte for half-loud. (Wikipedia. "Dynamics (Music).)"
2. Find a Grave entries for Althouses’ grandparents go back no farther than for individuals who were born in the 1820s. This suggested they were nineteen-century immigrants.
3. Waring’s widow sold Shawnee Press in 1989 to Music Sales Group. At that time, Alfred Publishing hired a number of their employees. Hal Leonard purchased Music Sales. As implied in the comments on band method books in the post for 27 June 2018, the one company expanded by acquiring copyrights, while the other hired the talent that created the catalog. (Wikipedia. "Shawnee Press.")
4. Tim de Brie. "Althouse, Jay Loren." Composers Classical Music website.
5. Occidental Community Church website.
6. "A Fun Getaway to Occidental." Sonoma County website.
7. Dennis Bolt. "Historic Timeline." Pleasant Hill school website.
8. "Pleasant Hill Christian School," Niche website, and "Pleasant Hill Christian," Great Schools website.
9. "Going Beyond Reading, Writing and Arithmetic." Pleasant Hill school website.
10. Wikipedia. "Union Township, Miami County, Ohio."
11. "Milton-Union Middle School," Niche website, and "Milton-Union Middle School," School Digger website.
12. The nearest and most likely channel 13 was KOVR-TV in Sacramento, California.
The next passage was in Swahili and marked medium-loud. [1] The concluding section was louder still, before it softened at the end. The total range for the upper part was from middle C-sharp to high E-flat, beyond a child’s usual abilities. The lower part spanned the octave from B-flat below middle C to B-flat.
When the children in the upper grades of Pleasant Hill Christian Elementary School performed his arrangement for a December concert they sang his "baby in the manger" part. However, when they got to the familiar, louder "Kumbaya" section, they reverted to the associated shouting style.
They continued their harsher voices into the next section, which used non-English words and higher notes that were beyond their comfort zone. The music grew louder when the lower voices sang "Kumbaya" and the upper ones repeated "see the baby." They continued using their more strident voices. However, when the version softened at the end they returned to their musical tones.
The seventh-graders in Milton-Union Middle School had better control of their voices, simply because they were at least a year older. They were able to handle the two parts of the "Kumbaya" section that had the higher voices singing the melody and the others singing a lower "hal-le-lu"rhythm part.
However, they all began shouting, rather than singing, the Swahili section as if it were a playground chant. They also had problems reaching the upper notes in that section. They returned to their musical voices for the two-part kumbaya/see the baby section and the soft ending.
Althouse didn’t create his arrangement for children. Music teachers probably selected it because it was appropriate for a December concert and was fun to sing. That both were able to teach youngsters to sing simultaneous parts with different words was a tribute to both them and their students.
Their problems arose from not giving precedence to Gehrkens and Myers over the dynamic markings made by Althouse. JoVonne Bolt could have told the children in the private Sebastopol, California, school they were singing a lullaby and shouldn’t wake the baby by singing "Kumbaya" too loudly. More than likely, she probably taught the two parts orally, one section at a time.
Ignoring the score would have been more difficult at the West Milton, Ohio, school where students may have been given copies of the sheet music.
The ones who would have had the hardest times deviating from the score were the pianists. The accompanists would have spent years being criticized for not playing exactly what was written. Their cues would have influenced children who had been taught to sing with the instrument, and taken precedence over the teachers’ instructions.
Performers
Jay Althouse
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: two parts
Instrumental Accompaniment: piano
Rhythm Accompaniment: none
Pleasant Hill Christian Elementary School
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: girls and boys from several grades
Vocal Director: JoVonne Bolt
Instrumental Accompaniment: piano
Rhythm Accompaniment: none
Milton-Union Middle School
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: girls and boys from seventh grade (most age 12)
Vocal Director: not seen
Instrumental Accompaniment: piano
Rhythm Accompaniment: none
Jay Althouse
Traditional Spiritual with new words and music by Jay Althouse
Copyright © MMIV by Alfred Music
Notes on Lyrics
Jay Althouse
Language: English and Swahili
Pronunciation: provided for Swahili
Verses: sleeping
Vocabulary
Pronoun: someone
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: someone was defined as the infant Jesus
Basic Form: three-part song with recapitulation
Verse Repetition Pattern: conclusion repeated parts of earlier three sections
Unique Features: assimilated "Kumbaya" into a larger narrative
Notes on Music
Jay Althouse
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5 and own
Time Signature: 4/4
Tempo: quarter note = 76-82 beats per minute
Rhythm: strong pulse
Key Signature: two sharps and three flats
Basic Structure: two parts together and separate
Singing Style: one syllable to one note
Vocal-Accompaniment Dynamics: in the first and second sections, the right hand of the piano played three-note chords and the left hand played octaves while people were singing. In the Swahili section, the right and left hands played octaves in the pauses between singing. The final section returned to the initial pattern, but the left hand part was lower - reaching down as far as low-A and the octave below. This made that part sound like a drum.
Notes on Performance
Pleasant Hill Christian Elementary School
Occasion: Christmas program
Location: stage with three Christmas trees at stage right and evergreen garlands across the front
Microphones: none
Clothing: girls in pastel-colored dresses; boys in slacks and shirts
Milton-Union Middle School
Occasion: December concert
Location: stage
Microphones: none
Clothing: pink, yellow, or peacock blue tee-shirts and gray slacks
Notes on Movement
Pleasant Hill Christian Elementary School
They were arranged in three rows on risers. Most stood with their arms at their sides, but none were trained to stand still. The director stood on the floor before the stage and directed with her hands.
Milton-Union Middle School
The choir entered during the introduction to stand on three risers. People in the first row then sat while they sang. During the Swahili section they stood and sang the first line facing front. On the second line two groups turned to face opposite directions, and returned front on the final line. The front row sat at the end of that section.
Notes on Audience
The parents applauded at the end of the song in both school concerts.
Notes on Performers
Althouse was born in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, to parents whose German ancestors had been in Lancaster County since at least the 1840s. [2] He earned music degrees from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, then worked for Fred Waring’s Shawnee Press for eight years. He spent twenty years composing for Alfred Music, [3] who published his version of "Kumbaya." He then became an independent composer. [4]
Pleasant Hill was owned by the Occidental Community Church, a small, evangelical church [5] in the midst of what local promoters called a "charming, bohemian community." [6] The school was established in 1982. [7] Since the seven grade averaged 40 students a year, [8] it was likely all the children old enough to participate did so. The music director, JoVonne Bolt, studied piano and sang in college choirs. [9]
West Milton’s schools served both the small community and surrounding Union Township in Miami County, Ohio. [10] The four grades together averaged 500 students a year. [11]
Availability
Jay Althouse
Sheet Music: "Christmas Kum Ba Ya." Van Nuys, California: Alfred Music, 2004. Available in SATB, SAB, TBB, and two parts. CD also available.
Pleasant Hill Christian Elementary School
YouTube: "Christmas Kum Ba Yah." Video made by Channel 13, [12] and uploaded by Pleasant Hill Christian School on 27 December 2016.
Milton-Union Middle School Seventh Grade Choir
YouTube: "Kum Ba Yah." Uploaded by Metroislife101 on 13 December 2009.
End Notes
1. Althouse used Italian terms to define his dynamics: piano for soft, mezzo-piano for half-soft, forte for loud, and mezzo-forte for half-loud. (Wikipedia. "Dynamics (Music).)"
2. Find a Grave entries for Althouses’ grandparents go back no farther than for individuals who were born in the 1820s. This suggested they were nineteen-century immigrants.
3. Waring’s widow sold Shawnee Press in 1989 to Music Sales Group. At that time, Alfred Publishing hired a number of their employees. Hal Leonard purchased Music Sales. As implied in the comments on band method books in the post for 27 June 2018, the one company expanded by acquiring copyrights, while the other hired the talent that created the catalog. (Wikipedia. "Shawnee Press.")
4. Tim de Brie. "Althouse, Jay Loren." Composers Classical Music website.
5. Occidental Community Church website.
6. "A Fun Getaway to Occidental." Sonoma County website.
7. Dennis Bolt. "Historic Timeline." Pleasant Hill school website.
8. "Pleasant Hill Christian School," Niche website, and "Pleasant Hill Christian," Great Schools website.
9. "Going Beyond Reading, Writing and Arithmetic." Pleasant Hill school website.
10. Wikipedia. "Union Township, Miami County, Ohio."
11. "Milton-Union Middle School," Niche website, and "Milton-Union Middle School," School Digger website.
12. The nearest and most likely channel 13 was KOVR-TV in Sacramento, California.
Sunday, July 15, 2018
Harry Wilson - Kum Ba Ya
Topic: Pedagogy - Vocal Tone
The primary goal set for elementary school music teachers was inculcating our culture’s view of proper singing. Children could vocalize words to a melody in many ways. Louise Kifer Myers suggested they had three voices: a speaking one that was soft, clear, and high-pitched, a singing one that "should be the same," and a play voice that was "strident, harsh and forced." [1]
Karl Gehrkens ascribed the different timbres to different registers. He argued "the typical child’s voice has two divisions, commonly called ‘registers’." The "tone quality of the chest
register" generally was "poor" and the intonation "likely to be faulty." He reminded elementary-school teachers, "we discourage the use of this part of the voice." The higher or head register was preferred. [2]
Language for describing children’s voices was, at best, vague, and, at worst, judgmental. Joanne Rutkowski tried to be more precise when she said the range of a boy’s or girl’s speaking voice was from A below middle C to middle C. When they sang unguardedly, their range was between middle C and upper C. She recommended teachers select songs whose first note was above E to trick children into using their singing voices. [3]
"Kumbaya" was not necessarily the best choice for song books prepared for use in elementary schools because it began on middle C, the border between their speaking and singing voices. Harry Wilson’s arrangement was one of two from the 1960s and 1970s that transposed it into a different key. [4] His version began on E and rose to C above middle C.
Gehrkens thought the problem was dynamics. He believed the transition between the chest and head registers depended on the force used to make a sound. The louder children sang, the more likely they were to use the play or speaking voice. [5] Myers also encouraged softer singing. She wrote should a child "become excited while singing, his singing voice will take on the undesirable qualities of his play voice." [6]
The difference between loud and soft was one of the first musical concepts children understood. Marilyn Pflederer Zimmerman reported four-year-olds could "make accurate judgments concerning relative loudness, and that for first-grade children, this kind of discrimination" was easy. [7]
The problem wasn’t comprehension, but muscle control. Seven-year-olds simply had voices that generally were loud, sometimes reaching a penetrating, piercing pitch [8] while the voices of nine-year-olds were softer. [9]
Wilson’s sixth-grade text was designed to consolidate students’ understanding of the basic aspects of music: melody, harmony, and rhythm. "Kumbaya" had two parts, the primary melody and a descant of "Oh, my Lord," kumba yah" that began with the word "Lord" in the first three lines. It ended with the two groups singing the final line in parallel harmony.
"Kumbaya" was included in the opening section devoted to "Mood in Music." The headnote drew student’s attention to the dynamic markings:
"The mark (pp) tells you to sing very softly. Why has this mark been placed by the upper voice part?"
The main part was labeled "p" for pianissimo, and the entire text was to be sung "prayerfully." The presentation reinforced an unstated assumption that religious music, by definition, should be song reverently.
No more comments followed in the text on dynamics, and most of the songs were either marked mezzo piano or carried no instructions.
The treatment of "Kumbaya" in the 1970 text was unchanged. Some drawings that included only white children were replaced with abstractions, and some songs with such drawings were dropped. The 1966 edition already had pages devoted to music theory; the omitted pieces tended to be replaced by more notes on history.
An article was added on "African Music." It focused on chant, with no cross-reference back to "Kumbaya." Instead, Wilson referred to a recording by "a group of boys and girls of the Nyika tribe of Kenya, and is accompanied by castanets called kayamba." The bottom half of the page was devoted to Carl Orff’s "Carmina Burana" as "a much more sophisticated example of chant." [10]
Wilson also included a two-page spread on "Blues" that mentioned W. C. Handy. Then, it devoted half a page to a blues by Virgil Thompson in The Plow That Broke the Plains. [11] In general, music by composers of the baroque, classical, and romantic periods was replaced by more modern works like this.
I could not locate a copy of the 1963 edition. I don’t know if the fact my notes didn’t include it meant it wasn’t in the book, the edition wasn’t in the collection I was using, or if my notes were incomplete.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: two parts
Instrumental Accompaniment: none in student edition
Rhythm Accompaniment: none in student edition
Credits
African chant
Adapted by Marion A. Roberts
© 1957 by Shawnee Press,
by arrangement with Cooperative Recreation Service
"Kum Ba Yah" means "Come by Here"
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: no comments
Verses: kumbaya, crying
Vocabulary
Pronoun: someone
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: none
Basic Form: two-verse song
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Unique Features: none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Time Signature: 3/4
Tempo: Prayerfully
Key Signature: three flats
Dynamics: main part marked "p," descant marked "pp"
Basic Structure: strophic repetition with descant on last half of each line; two parts ended in parallel harmony
Singing Style: one syllable to one note, except for final "Lord" by main part.
Notes on Performers
Wilson was raised in Kansas were he attended Manhattan State College and taught music in the Eureka public schools. After earning a masters from Teacher’s College, Columbia, he taught in Hastings-on-Hudson schools, while earning his PhD. He spent the rest of his professional career teaching at Columbia. [12]
During World War II, he helped edit a community songster for Hall and McCreary [13] and co-authored a book for them on conducting music in public schools. [14] After the war, he published similar books for Robbins Music, but as the lead author. [15]
Availability
Book: "Kum Ba Yah." 12 in Growing with Music, Book 6. Edited by Harry R. Wilson and four others. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1966. A "boxed set of 12-inch L.P. records" was available with versions of all the songs.
Book: "Kum Ba Yah." 12 in Growing with Music, Book 6. Edited by Harry R. Wilson and same other four. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1970.
End Notes
1. Louise Kifer Myers. Teaching Children Music in the Elementary School. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1956 edition. 30-31.
2. Karl Wilson Gehrkens. Music in the Grade Schools. Boston: C. C. Birchard, 1934. 91.
3. Joanne Rutkowski. "The Nature of Children’s Singing Voices." Texas Music Educators Conference, annual meeting, 2003.
4. The other version that did not begin on C appeared in Harold C. Youngberg and Otto Luening. Making Music Your Own, 6. Morristown, New Jersey: Silver Burdette Company, 1968.
5. Gehrkens. 91.
6. Myers. 31. "He" was used here in the generic sense to refer to all children, not just boys.
7. Marilyn Pflederer Zimmerman. Musical Characteristics of Children. Washington: Music Educators National Conference, 1971. She was using Donald A. Riley and John P. McKee, "Pitch and Loudness Transposition in Children and Adults," Child Development 34:471-482:1963, and H.M. Williams, C.H. Sievers, and M.s. Hattwick, "The Measurement of Musical Development," University of Iowa Studies in Child Welfare, 1932.
8. Arnold Gesell and Frances L. Ilg. The Child from Five to Ten. New York: Harper and Row, 1946. 153.
9. Gesell. 196.
10. Wilson, 1970. 111.
11. Wilson, 1970. 156-157.
12. "Harry Robert Wilson." World Biographical Encyclopedia Prabook website.
13. Fowler Smith, Harry Robert Wilson, and Glenn H Woods. Songs We Sing. Chicago: Hall and McCreary, 1940. This company’s community songsters were mentioned in the post for 24 June 2018.
14. Paul Van Bodegraven and Harry Robert Wilson. The School Music Conductor. Chicago: Hall and McCreary Company, 1942.
15. Harry Robert Wilson and Hugo Frey. Sing along with Harry Wilson. New York: J. J. Robbins and Sons, 1948.
Harry Robert Wilson. Choral Arranging for Schools. New York: Robbins Music Corporation, 1949.
The primary goal set for elementary school music teachers was inculcating our culture’s view of proper singing. Children could vocalize words to a melody in many ways. Louise Kifer Myers suggested they had three voices: a speaking one that was soft, clear, and high-pitched, a singing one that "should be the same," and a play voice that was "strident, harsh and forced." [1]
Karl Gehrkens ascribed the different timbres to different registers. He argued "the typical child’s voice has two divisions, commonly called ‘registers’." The "tone quality of the chest
register" generally was "poor" and the intonation "likely to be faulty." He reminded elementary-school teachers, "we discourage the use of this part of the voice." The higher or head register was preferred. [2]
Language for describing children’s voices was, at best, vague, and, at worst, judgmental. Joanne Rutkowski tried to be more precise when she said the range of a boy’s or girl’s speaking voice was from A below middle C to middle C. When they sang unguardedly, their range was between middle C and upper C. She recommended teachers select songs whose first note was above E to trick children into using their singing voices. [3]
"Kumbaya" was not necessarily the best choice for song books prepared for use in elementary schools because it began on middle C, the border between their speaking and singing voices. Harry Wilson’s arrangement was one of two from the 1960s and 1970s that transposed it into a different key. [4] His version began on E and rose to C above middle C.
Gehrkens thought the problem was dynamics. He believed the transition between the chest and head registers depended on the force used to make a sound. The louder children sang, the more likely they were to use the play or speaking voice. [5] Myers also encouraged softer singing. She wrote should a child "become excited while singing, his singing voice will take on the undesirable qualities of his play voice." [6]
The difference between loud and soft was one of the first musical concepts children understood. Marilyn Pflederer Zimmerman reported four-year-olds could "make accurate judgments concerning relative loudness, and that for first-grade children, this kind of discrimination" was easy. [7]
The problem wasn’t comprehension, but muscle control. Seven-year-olds simply had voices that generally were loud, sometimes reaching a penetrating, piercing pitch [8] while the voices of nine-year-olds were softer. [9]
Wilson’s sixth-grade text was designed to consolidate students’ understanding of the basic aspects of music: melody, harmony, and rhythm. "Kumbaya" had two parts, the primary melody and a descant of "Oh, my Lord," kumba yah" that began with the word "Lord" in the first three lines. It ended with the two groups singing the final line in parallel harmony.
"Kumbaya" was included in the opening section devoted to "Mood in Music." The headnote drew student’s attention to the dynamic markings:
"The mark (pp) tells you to sing very softly. Why has this mark been placed by the upper voice part?"
The main part was labeled "p" for pianissimo, and the entire text was to be sung "prayerfully." The presentation reinforced an unstated assumption that religious music, by definition, should be song reverently.
No more comments followed in the text on dynamics, and most of the songs were either marked mezzo piano or carried no instructions.
The treatment of "Kumbaya" in the 1970 text was unchanged. Some drawings that included only white children were replaced with abstractions, and some songs with such drawings were dropped. The 1966 edition already had pages devoted to music theory; the omitted pieces tended to be replaced by more notes on history.
An article was added on "African Music." It focused on chant, with no cross-reference back to "Kumbaya." Instead, Wilson referred to a recording by "a group of boys and girls of the Nyika tribe of Kenya, and is accompanied by castanets called kayamba." The bottom half of the page was devoted to Carl Orff’s "Carmina Burana" as "a much more sophisticated example of chant." [10]
Wilson also included a two-page spread on "Blues" that mentioned W. C. Handy. Then, it devoted half a page to a blues by Virgil Thompson in The Plow That Broke the Plains. [11] In general, music by composers of the baroque, classical, and romantic periods was replaced by more modern works like this.
I could not locate a copy of the 1963 edition. I don’t know if the fact my notes didn’t include it meant it wasn’t in the book, the edition wasn’t in the collection I was using, or if my notes were incomplete.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: two parts
Instrumental Accompaniment: none in student edition
Rhythm Accompaniment: none in student edition
Credits
African chant
Adapted by Marion A. Roberts
© 1957 by Shawnee Press,
by arrangement with Cooperative Recreation Service
"Kum Ba Yah" means "Come by Here"
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: no comments
Verses: kumbaya, crying
Vocabulary
Pronoun: someone
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: none
Basic Form: two-verse song
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Unique Features: none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Time Signature: 3/4
Tempo: Prayerfully
Key Signature: three flats
Dynamics: main part marked "p," descant marked "pp"
Basic Structure: strophic repetition with descant on last half of each line; two parts ended in parallel harmony
Singing Style: one syllable to one note, except for final "Lord" by main part.
Notes on Performers
Wilson was raised in Kansas were he attended Manhattan State College and taught music in the Eureka public schools. After earning a masters from Teacher’s College, Columbia, he taught in Hastings-on-Hudson schools, while earning his PhD. He spent the rest of his professional career teaching at Columbia. [12]
During World War II, he helped edit a community songster for Hall and McCreary [13] and co-authored a book for them on conducting music in public schools. [14] After the war, he published similar books for Robbins Music, but as the lead author. [15]
Availability
Book: "Kum Ba Yah." 12 in Growing with Music, Book 6. Edited by Harry R. Wilson and four others. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1966. A "boxed set of 12-inch L.P. records" was available with versions of all the songs.
Book: "Kum Ba Yah." 12 in Growing with Music, Book 6. Edited by Harry R. Wilson and same other four. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1970.
End Notes
1. Louise Kifer Myers. Teaching Children Music in the Elementary School. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1956 edition. 30-31.
2. Karl Wilson Gehrkens. Music in the Grade Schools. Boston: C. C. Birchard, 1934. 91.
3. Joanne Rutkowski. "The Nature of Children’s Singing Voices." Texas Music Educators Conference, annual meeting, 2003.
4. The other version that did not begin on C appeared in Harold C. Youngberg and Otto Luening. Making Music Your Own, 6. Morristown, New Jersey: Silver Burdette Company, 1968.
5. Gehrkens. 91.
6. Myers. 31. "He" was used here in the generic sense to refer to all children, not just boys.
7. Marilyn Pflederer Zimmerman. Musical Characteristics of Children. Washington: Music Educators National Conference, 1971. She was using Donald A. Riley and John P. McKee, "Pitch and Loudness Transposition in Children and Adults," Child Development 34:471-482:1963, and H.M. Williams, C.H. Sievers, and M.s. Hattwick, "The Measurement of Musical Development," University of Iowa Studies in Child Welfare, 1932.
8. Arnold Gesell and Frances L. Ilg. The Child from Five to Ten. New York: Harper and Row, 1946. 153.
9. Gesell. 196.
10. Wilson, 1970. 111.
11. Wilson, 1970. 156-157.
12. "Harry Robert Wilson." World Biographical Encyclopedia Prabook website.
13. Fowler Smith, Harry Robert Wilson, and Glenn H Woods. Songs We Sing. Chicago: Hall and McCreary, 1940. This company’s community songsters were mentioned in the post for 24 June 2018.
14. Paul Van Bodegraven and Harry Robert Wilson. The School Music Conductor. Chicago: Hall and McCreary Company, 1942.
15. Harry Robert Wilson and Hugo Frey. Sing along with Harry Wilson. New York: J. J. Robbins and Sons, 1948.
Harry Robert Wilson. Choral Arranging for Schools. New York: Robbins Music Corporation, 1949.
Wednesday, July 11, 2018
Kylie Sanders - Kumbaya
Topic: Pedagogy - Instrumental Range
Children may begin singing when they are toddlers, but they need to be taught to play musical instruments. It’s true the very young can imitate drums by beating on anything that resonates and can pick out tunes on a piano by trial and error. [1] However, there’s nothing intuitive about playing a trumpet or clarinet. Even the talented need direction: E. T. Mensah remembered a Scotsman taught him the correct way to play saxophone, [2] while Victor Uwaifo had to be shown the standard tuning for a guitar. [3]
Beginning band books devoted their first pages to instructions specific to each instrument on topics like assembling an instrument and posture. Most left it to the music teacher to help students make their initial sounds. Vernon Leidig and Lennie Niehaus were the first [4] to suggest novices begin by working with the mouthpiece alone. After telling trumpet players to
"Place lips together naturally one against the other -- formed the syllable ‘Dim’."
Then, while keeping the "corners of the lips firm and cheeks firmly against the teeth and gums," they were told to "produce a clear steady buzz with lips alone." Next, they were allowed to "set mouthpiece only, on the lips as close to the center as possible" and blow. [5]
Given the difficulty of putting the process into words, others copied their use of the word "buzz" and recommendation to begin with the mouthpiece. [6] Harry Haines and John McEntyre added the suggestion that after buzzing and before using the mouthpiece alone, one "practice pulsing." [7]
The next step was blowing into an instrument. John Kinyon’s team said students will produce one of three notes on a trumpet when no valve was pressed: middle C, G, or upper C. After the band director told them which was natural for them, the book gave instructions on how to adjust to play G. [8]
The selection of G wasn’t made for the comfort of trumpet players. Band instruction manuals began with three notes, either E-F-G, F-G-A, or C-D-E. Since the group had to play in unison, the choice probably was one that fit the largest number of players. Thus, while clarinets and cornets began with simple key signatures, trombones began with D-E flat-F. [9]
Band books came in several volumes, but band directors like the one I had in the 1950s changed to sheet music as quickly as possible. Music publishers, who sold arrangements to public schools, established a rough classification system that indicated which items were appropriate for which students. Works intended for beginning students mainly used quarter and half notes, within a limited range of pitches. [10]
"Kumbaya" was ideal for some of the same reasons it had been useful for vocal-music textbook editors. It was in the public domain, so cost nothing to reprint. As originally published, the melody used only six notes of the scale with no sharps or flats. While it had some eighth notes, most were quarter and half notes. Further, if one played it slowly, the eighth note became a quarter note. The only problem was the opening C-F-G pattern was not as easy for a beginner as a melody that moved one tone at a time.
One young girl who posted a video of herself playing clarinet wrote she was "using c,e,g,a,f,d." She was able to do so without looking at music.
Trumpets differed from clarinets because they only had three keys. As suggested above, the same fingering pattern was used for different notes, and the pitch was achieved by varying the size of the lip opening. For "Kumbaya," the C and G were both open (no keys pressed), and the E and G both used the first and second valves.
Clarinets repeated the fingering by register, so the same fingers were used for both middle C and upper C. Which sound was heard was determined by pressing a small key near the top. The change began with B, and moving from the orchestra A to B was called crossing the break.
Until young students developed the proper facial muscles, they had problems hitting notes on the trumpet, or, if hitting them, sustaining them. Clarinet reeds were less forgiving than brass mouthpieces: when a note wasn’t played properly, the reed squeaked. Lori Baruth said the noise usually was caused by clamping down on the mouthpiece, but also might come from leaving a key partly pressed or a reed in poor condition. [11] The first two were more likely to occur in the upper register.
Sandy Feldstein and Larry Clark began Yamaha’s clarinet version of "Kumbaya" on F so it rose to high D. They had introduced the break earlier, and were using "Kumbaya" as a way to drill clarinet players. The simple opening chord of every phrase, F-A-upper C crossed the break. To emphasize the range, clarinets ended by playing the final kumbaya on the G and F below middle C.
John O’Reilly worked with Feldstein on an earlier Yamaha method book. For Accent of Achievement, he worked with a man who had played clarinet as a child. Their clarinet book started "Kumbaya" on low F while the trumpet book began on F. Half-way through the clarinet part changed and played in unison with the trumpet. The song was included on the page devoted to "crossing the break" because playing lines one and three, which were the same, in two octaves demonstrated the use of the register key. [12]
The two Essential Elements editions used the same F-A-upper C opening chord as Yamaha. Standard of Excellence and Jim Evans used the original middle C-E-G pattern and stayed below the break. [13]
Kylie Sanders posted a video of her version of "Kumbaya" on clarinet. She noted: "So many high notes!! I made it though!!" If the girl were using a book like Yamaha Advantage or Essential Elements, she had a hard time with the upper C, and squeaked the first time she descended from D to C at the end of the first line. She had no problems with the one interval descent from C to B flat to D to G in the second line. When she repeated the first line, she was more relaxed and did not squeak.
Performers
Yamaha Advantage for B-flat clarinet
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Group: B-flat clarinet
Rhythm Accompaniment: none
Kylie Sanders and unidentified clarinet player
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Soloist: B-flat clarinet
Instrumental Accompaniment: none
Rhythm Accompaniment: none
Credits
Yamaha Advantage for B-flat clarinet
African Folk Song
Kylie Sanders and unidentified clarinet player
None given
Notes on Lyrics
There were none
Notes on Music
Yamaha Advantage for B-flat clarinet
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Time Signature: 4/4
Tempo: largo
Key Signature: one flat
Kylie Sanders and unidentified clarinet player
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Tempo: slow
Basic Structure: played the melody through one time
Notes on Performance
Unidentified clarinet player
Location: played in her living room
Microphones: none
Clothing: navy blue school sweater
Kylie Sanders
Location: played in her living room
Microphones: none
Clothing: pink sleeveless top
Notes on Movement
Unidentified clarinet player
The young girl stood with her head bent down. One person observed she hadn’t yet mastered how to hold the instrument. [14]
Kylie Sanders
Sanders sat in a flat-bottomed chair, looked straight ahead at the music stand, and kept time with her right foot. She was still young enough that she needed to read the music and take a breath with each note.
Notes on Performers
Feldstein began playing drums when he was in elementary school and, by high school, was studying percussion in New York City. His music degrees were from the State University of New York at Potsdam, where he later taught, and Columbia University. After graduating, he worked as education director for Alfred Publishing. [15] He and John O’Reilly edited the first Yamaha band method book for them in 1988. [16] Feldstein then got involved with digital projects for Warner Brothers, and organized his own company, PlayinTime Productions. [17] In 1999, he was hired as president of Carl Fischer, the publisher of the current Yamaha method book. [18] PlayinTime’s website contained the digital files for Yamaha Advantage.
His co-editor, Larry Clark, was the son of a Florida band directory. He began playing trombone. After earning a music degree from Florida State University, Clark taught band in a Tampa middle school before going to James Madison University. Syracuse University hired him to direct its marching band. Warner Brothers then recruited him, and Feldstein took him to Carl Fischer where he became vice president. Clark continued to arrange music, including currently popular songs for high school band half time programs. In 2015 he did one for Bartow, Florida, High School that "transforms the football field into a pinball machine, and Clark’s musical arrangements include The Who’s ‘Pinball Wizard’ as well as themes from such video games as ‘Mortal Kombat’ and ‘The Legend of Zelda’." [19]
When "Kumbaya" was recorded, Sanders was in sixth grade. The next year she was in the East Jackson Middle School band in Commerce, Georgia, and part of the district honor band. [20]
I could find nothing on the person who uploaded the other video.
Availability
Yamaha Advantage for B-flat clarinet
Book: "Kum Ba Yah." 32 in The Yamaha Advantage. Book 1. Clarinet. Edited by Sandy Feldstein and Larry Clark. New York: Carl Fischer, 2001. Books also were available for flute, oboe, other clarinets, various saxophones, bassoon, trumpet, French horn, baritone horn, trombone, tuba, electric bass, and combined percussion.
Unidentified clarinet player
YouTube: "Kum ba yah clarinet." Uploaded by fa8le1 on 5 February 2013.
Kylie Sanders
YouTube: "Kum bah yah on clarinet!!" Uploaded by Kylie Sanders on 14 May 2017.
End Notes
1. Arnold Gesell and Frances L. Ilg. The Child from Five to Ten. New York: Harper and Row, 1946. 83.
2. For more on E. T. Mensah, see the post for 29 April 2018.
3. For more on Victor Uwaifo, see the post for 6 May 2018.
4. See Notes on Sample in post for 27 June 2018 for details on how I determined the "first" band book to do something.
5. Vernon Leidig and Lennie Niehaus. Visual Band Method. Book 1. Bb Trumpet (Cornet). Norwalk, California: Highland Etling Publishing, 1964. 3. Band books were careful to present the same material on the same page for every instrument.
6. For instance, Art C. Jenson used the same words in Learning Unlimited. Level One. Trumpet/Cornet. Winona, Minnesota: Hal Leonard Corporation, 1973. 5.
7. Harry H. Haines and J. R. McEntyre. Division of Beat. Book 1, Cornet/Trumpet, Baritone TC. San Antonio: Southern Music Company, 1980. 4.
8. John Kinyon, Richard Berg, and George Frederick McKay. The Band-Booster. Book 1. Bb Cornet (Trumpet). New York: Remick Music Corporation, 1960. 5.
9. Ed Sueta. Band Method. Book 1. Trombone. Rockaway, New Jersey: Macie Publishing Company, 1974.
10. The Safe Music website said level 1 was characterized by "very basic rhythms with restricted ranges" ("Band Difficulty Gradings"). The Music44 site said, in level 1 "mainly quarter note values and longer are used, with eighth notes occasionally. Limited number of pitches used" ("What is the Grade Level on a Piece of Music?")
11. Lori Baruth said the squeak was "usually an unintended high partial." "No More Squeaks! How To Successfully Diagnose and Treat Issues on the Clarinet." Kentucky Music Educator’s Association Conference. 2013. She listed other reasons all related to embouchure, breathing, or fingering.
12. "Kum Ba Yah." 30 in Accent on Achievement. Book 1. Bb Clarinet. Edited by John O’Reilly and Mark Williams. Van Nuys, California: Alfred Music, 1997. It came with a CD. Details on this version and Mark Williams appeared in the post for 26 August 2018.
13. Publishing details for band books containing "Kumbaya" were provided in the post for 27 June 2017.
14. Hadley Nichols wrote "that’s not even how to hold it." Comment posted to YouTube, 2017. People generally refrained from making critical comments on YouTube videos by children and young adolescents. The other comment by Emily Kristine was more typical: "Cute!" (Posted to You Tube, 2014)
15. Lauren Vogel Weiss. "Sandy Feldstein." Percussive Arts Society website.
16. Sandy Feldstein and John O’Reilly. Yamaha Band Student. Book 1. Bb Trumpet/Cornet. Van Nuys, California: Alfred Publishing Company, 1988.
17. Weiss.
18. "Sandy Feldstein." PlayinTime Advantage website.
19. Gary White. "Lakeland Resident Is Prolific Composer, Arranger of Music for School Bands." The [Lakeland, Florida] Ledger website, 6 September 2015.
20. "Congratulations to Our 11 EJMs Students Who Made District Honor Band!!!" East Jackson Middle School Eagle Band website.
Children may begin singing when they are toddlers, but they need to be taught to play musical instruments. It’s true the very young can imitate drums by beating on anything that resonates and can pick out tunes on a piano by trial and error. [1] However, there’s nothing intuitive about playing a trumpet or clarinet. Even the talented need direction: E. T. Mensah remembered a Scotsman taught him the correct way to play saxophone, [2] while Victor Uwaifo had to be shown the standard tuning for a guitar. [3]
Beginning band books devoted their first pages to instructions specific to each instrument on topics like assembling an instrument and posture. Most left it to the music teacher to help students make their initial sounds. Vernon Leidig and Lennie Niehaus were the first [4] to suggest novices begin by working with the mouthpiece alone. After telling trumpet players to
"Place lips together naturally one against the other -- formed the syllable ‘Dim’."
Then, while keeping the "corners of the lips firm and cheeks firmly against the teeth and gums," they were told to "produce a clear steady buzz with lips alone." Next, they were allowed to "set mouthpiece only, on the lips as close to the center as possible" and blow. [5]
Given the difficulty of putting the process into words, others copied their use of the word "buzz" and recommendation to begin with the mouthpiece. [6] Harry Haines and John McEntyre added the suggestion that after buzzing and before using the mouthpiece alone, one "practice pulsing." [7]
The next step was blowing into an instrument. John Kinyon’s team said students will produce one of three notes on a trumpet when no valve was pressed: middle C, G, or upper C. After the band director told them which was natural for them, the book gave instructions on how to adjust to play G. [8]
The selection of G wasn’t made for the comfort of trumpet players. Band instruction manuals began with three notes, either E-F-G, F-G-A, or C-D-E. Since the group had to play in unison, the choice probably was one that fit the largest number of players. Thus, while clarinets and cornets began with simple key signatures, trombones began with D-E flat-F. [9]
Band books came in several volumes, but band directors like the one I had in the 1950s changed to sheet music as quickly as possible. Music publishers, who sold arrangements to public schools, established a rough classification system that indicated which items were appropriate for which students. Works intended for beginning students mainly used quarter and half notes, within a limited range of pitches. [10]
"Kumbaya" was ideal for some of the same reasons it had been useful for vocal-music textbook editors. It was in the public domain, so cost nothing to reprint. As originally published, the melody used only six notes of the scale with no sharps or flats. While it had some eighth notes, most were quarter and half notes. Further, if one played it slowly, the eighth note became a quarter note. The only problem was the opening C-F-G pattern was not as easy for a beginner as a melody that moved one tone at a time.
One young girl who posted a video of herself playing clarinet wrote she was "using c,e,g,a,f,d." She was able to do so without looking at music.
Trumpets differed from clarinets because they only had three keys. As suggested above, the same fingering pattern was used for different notes, and the pitch was achieved by varying the size of the lip opening. For "Kumbaya," the C and G were both open (no keys pressed), and the E and G both used the first and second valves.
Clarinets repeated the fingering by register, so the same fingers were used for both middle C and upper C. Which sound was heard was determined by pressing a small key near the top. The change began with B, and moving from the orchestra A to B was called crossing the break.
Until young students developed the proper facial muscles, they had problems hitting notes on the trumpet, or, if hitting them, sustaining them. Clarinet reeds were less forgiving than brass mouthpieces: when a note wasn’t played properly, the reed squeaked. Lori Baruth said the noise usually was caused by clamping down on the mouthpiece, but also might come from leaving a key partly pressed or a reed in poor condition. [11] The first two were more likely to occur in the upper register.
Sandy Feldstein and Larry Clark began Yamaha’s clarinet version of "Kumbaya" on F so it rose to high D. They had introduced the break earlier, and were using "Kumbaya" as a way to drill clarinet players. The simple opening chord of every phrase, F-A-upper C crossed the break. To emphasize the range, clarinets ended by playing the final kumbaya on the G and F below middle C.
John O’Reilly worked with Feldstein on an earlier Yamaha method book. For Accent of Achievement, he worked with a man who had played clarinet as a child. Their clarinet book started "Kumbaya" on low F while the trumpet book began on F. Half-way through the clarinet part changed and played in unison with the trumpet. The song was included on the page devoted to "crossing the break" because playing lines one and three, which were the same, in two octaves demonstrated the use of the register key. [12]
The two Essential Elements editions used the same F-A-upper C opening chord as Yamaha. Standard of Excellence and Jim Evans used the original middle C-E-G pattern and stayed below the break. [13]
Kylie Sanders posted a video of her version of "Kumbaya" on clarinet. She noted: "So many high notes!! I made it though!!" If the girl were using a book like Yamaha Advantage or Essential Elements, she had a hard time with the upper C, and squeaked the first time she descended from D to C at the end of the first line. She had no problems with the one interval descent from C to B flat to D to G in the second line. When she repeated the first line, she was more relaxed and did not squeak.
Performers
Yamaha Advantage for B-flat clarinet
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Group: B-flat clarinet
Rhythm Accompaniment: none
Kylie Sanders and unidentified clarinet player
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Soloist: B-flat clarinet
Instrumental Accompaniment: none
Rhythm Accompaniment: none
Credits
Yamaha Advantage for B-flat clarinet
African Folk Song
Kylie Sanders and unidentified clarinet player
None given
Notes on Lyrics
There were none
Notes on Music
Yamaha Advantage for B-flat clarinet
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Time Signature: 4/4
Tempo: largo
Key Signature: one flat
Kylie Sanders and unidentified clarinet player
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Tempo: slow
Basic Structure: played the melody through one time
Notes on Performance
Unidentified clarinet player
Location: played in her living room
Microphones: none
Clothing: navy blue school sweater
Kylie Sanders
Location: played in her living room
Microphones: none
Clothing: pink sleeveless top
Notes on Movement
Unidentified clarinet player
The young girl stood with her head bent down. One person observed she hadn’t yet mastered how to hold the instrument. [14]
Kylie Sanders
Sanders sat in a flat-bottomed chair, looked straight ahead at the music stand, and kept time with her right foot. She was still young enough that she needed to read the music and take a breath with each note.
Notes on Performers
Feldstein began playing drums when he was in elementary school and, by high school, was studying percussion in New York City. His music degrees were from the State University of New York at Potsdam, where he later taught, and Columbia University. After graduating, he worked as education director for Alfred Publishing. [15] He and John O’Reilly edited the first Yamaha band method book for them in 1988. [16] Feldstein then got involved with digital projects for Warner Brothers, and organized his own company, PlayinTime Productions. [17] In 1999, he was hired as president of Carl Fischer, the publisher of the current Yamaha method book. [18] PlayinTime’s website contained the digital files for Yamaha Advantage.
His co-editor, Larry Clark, was the son of a Florida band directory. He began playing trombone. After earning a music degree from Florida State University, Clark taught band in a Tampa middle school before going to James Madison University. Syracuse University hired him to direct its marching band. Warner Brothers then recruited him, and Feldstein took him to Carl Fischer where he became vice president. Clark continued to arrange music, including currently popular songs for high school band half time programs. In 2015 he did one for Bartow, Florida, High School that "transforms the football field into a pinball machine, and Clark’s musical arrangements include The Who’s ‘Pinball Wizard’ as well as themes from such video games as ‘Mortal Kombat’ and ‘The Legend of Zelda’." [19]
When "Kumbaya" was recorded, Sanders was in sixth grade. The next year she was in the East Jackson Middle School band in Commerce, Georgia, and part of the district honor band. [20]
I could find nothing on the person who uploaded the other video.
Availability
Yamaha Advantage for B-flat clarinet
Book: "Kum Ba Yah." 32 in The Yamaha Advantage. Book 1. Clarinet. Edited by Sandy Feldstein and Larry Clark. New York: Carl Fischer, 2001. Books also were available for flute, oboe, other clarinets, various saxophones, bassoon, trumpet, French horn, baritone horn, trombone, tuba, electric bass, and combined percussion.
Unidentified clarinet player
YouTube: "Kum ba yah clarinet." Uploaded by fa8le1 on 5 February 2013.
Kylie Sanders
YouTube: "Kum bah yah on clarinet!!" Uploaded by Kylie Sanders on 14 May 2017.
End Notes
1. Arnold Gesell and Frances L. Ilg. The Child from Five to Ten. New York: Harper and Row, 1946. 83.
2. For more on E. T. Mensah, see the post for 29 April 2018.
3. For more on Victor Uwaifo, see the post for 6 May 2018.
4. See Notes on Sample in post for 27 June 2018 for details on how I determined the "first" band book to do something.
5. Vernon Leidig and Lennie Niehaus. Visual Band Method. Book 1. Bb Trumpet (Cornet). Norwalk, California: Highland Etling Publishing, 1964. 3. Band books were careful to present the same material on the same page for every instrument.
6. For instance, Art C. Jenson used the same words in Learning Unlimited. Level One. Trumpet/Cornet. Winona, Minnesota: Hal Leonard Corporation, 1973. 5.
7. Harry H. Haines and J. R. McEntyre. Division of Beat. Book 1, Cornet/Trumpet, Baritone TC. San Antonio: Southern Music Company, 1980. 4.
8. John Kinyon, Richard Berg, and George Frederick McKay. The Band-Booster. Book 1. Bb Cornet (Trumpet). New York: Remick Music Corporation, 1960. 5.
9. Ed Sueta. Band Method. Book 1. Trombone. Rockaway, New Jersey: Macie Publishing Company, 1974.
10. The Safe Music website said level 1 was characterized by "very basic rhythms with restricted ranges" ("Band Difficulty Gradings"). The Music44 site said, in level 1 "mainly quarter note values and longer are used, with eighth notes occasionally. Limited number of pitches used" ("What is the Grade Level on a Piece of Music?")
11. Lori Baruth said the squeak was "usually an unintended high partial." "No More Squeaks! How To Successfully Diagnose and Treat Issues on the Clarinet." Kentucky Music Educator’s Association Conference. 2013. She listed other reasons all related to embouchure, breathing, or fingering.
12. "Kum Ba Yah." 30 in Accent on Achievement. Book 1. Bb Clarinet. Edited by John O’Reilly and Mark Williams. Van Nuys, California: Alfred Music, 1997. It came with a CD. Details on this version and Mark Williams appeared in the post for 26 August 2018.
13. Publishing details for band books containing "Kumbaya" were provided in the post for 27 June 2017.
14. Hadley Nichols wrote "that’s not even how to hold it." Comment posted to YouTube, 2017. People generally refrained from making critical comments on YouTube videos by children and young adolescents. The other comment by Emily Kristine was more typical: "Cute!" (Posted to You Tube, 2014)
15. Lauren Vogel Weiss. "Sandy Feldstein." Percussive Arts Society website.
16. Sandy Feldstein and John O’Reilly. Yamaha Band Student. Book 1. Bb Trumpet/Cornet. Van Nuys, California: Alfred Publishing Company, 1988.
17. Weiss.
18. "Sandy Feldstein." PlayinTime Advantage website.
19. Gary White. "Lakeland Resident Is Prolific Composer, Arranger of Music for School Bands." The [Lakeland, Florida] Ledger website, 6 September 2015.
20. "Congratulations to Our 11 EJMs Students Who Made District Honor Band!!!" East Jackson Middle School Eagle Band website.
Sunday, July 8, 2018
Charles Leonhard - Kum Ba Yah (1966)
Topic: Pedagogy - Vocal Range
"Kumbaya" began to be included in public school music texts in the middle-1960s when students demanded more relevance from their classes. It was ideal because it was popular enough to give children a sense of participating in their culture, without being as inflammatory as "We Shall Overcome." [1]
The publisher of "Kumbaya" would have granted reprint permission with few conditions, and while the text included the word "Lord" it had no specific religious content. As mentioned in the post for 12 October 2017, that term for the deity was used by Protestants, Catholics, and Jews.
Equally important, the melody fit educators’ observations of children’s abilities. In the 1930s, Karl Gehrkens had told teachers that voices of children in third grade ranged from middle C to high F, and by sixth grade the lowest note was B-flat below middle C. [2] Later, Orpha Duell and Richard Anderson reported children had a difficult time hearing small intervals in music like half steps. [3]
Charles Leonhard’s team was the first to recognize the utility of "Kumbaya" in 1966. Their fourth-grade book’s version began on middle C and rose to the orchestra’s A through a series of seconds (A to E to G), then descended at single step intervals (A to G or G to F to E to D to middle C).
Discovering Music Together was the second incarnation of a text book series that had begun when Irving Wolfe was working with Charles Fullerton to revise the latter’s One Book Course in Elementary Music [4] that had been published by Follett in 1933. [5] Fullerton’s daughter purchased control of the copyright [6] after her father’s death in 1945. She and Wolfe produced Together We Sing in 1950. [7]
Max Krone became involved with the series in 1951, and his wife, Beatrice Krone, was one of the editors of the 1955 [8] and 1963 editions. [9] They ran the Idyllwild School of Music in California. Their version of "Kumbaya" was recorded by the Girl Scouts at the 1965 National Roundup in Idaho’s Farragut State Park. [10]
Leonhard took over the new Follett series that still included Beatrice Krone, Wolfe, and Margaret Fullerton as contributors.
Discovering Music Together was very much in the spirit of the folk music revival associated with Pete Seeger, who often appeared at Idyllwild. [11] Leonhard had studied with Lilla Belle Pitts, who as mentioned in the post for 24 June 2018, advocated the use of folk songs in school texts. It was the early 1950s and collections of American folk songs by Carl Sandburg [12] and the Lomaxes [13] were popular. While he was at Teacher’s College, Columbia, Leonhard taught students "to create accompaniments to folk and popular songs for school use." [14]
The two largest sections of the fourth grade Discovering Music were devoted to "Music from the U. S. A." and "Music around the World." It followed the outlines of Sandburg and the Lomaxes by including chanteys, cowboy songs, and other work songs. These songs followed a page that described the ways rhythms were notated. [15] A headnote introduced the idea that work songs had unique rhythmic patterns. [16]
The international section had a page devoted to the concepts of "Melody and Chords." [17] It noted "many melodies are built on the tones of a chord." This was followed up with the footnote to "Kumbaya" that asked "what chord do the first three tones outline."
Leonhard paired it with "Wo-Ye-Le," a canoe chant from Lake Tanganyika which it said "helps the men work together in even rhythm." [18] The illustration [19] with "Kumbaya" showed five men standing in a long boat with poles to propel it along a river with trees overhanging the banks They were wearing loin clothes.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: class
Instrumental Accompaniment: none in student’s book
Rhythm Accompaniment: none in student’s book
Credits
African spiritual
Cooperative Recreation Service
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: not specified
Verses: kumbaya, singing, praying
Vocabulary
Pronoun: someone
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: none
Basic Form: three-verse song
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Ending: none
Unique Features: none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Time Signature: 3/4
Tempo: slowly
Key Signature: no sharps or flats
Autoharp Chords: C F G7
Basic Structure: strophic repetition
Singing Style: unison, one syllable to one note, except for final "Lord"
Notes on Performers
Leonhard’s father had a hardware store in Anadarko, Oklahoma, which he lost in the agricultural depression that followed World War I. Leonhard spend most of his youth doing chores on their dairy farm and practicing piano. [20] After he graduated from the University of Oklahoma he taught music in Duncan, Oklahoma, [21] while spending his summers earning a master’s degree from Teacher’s College, Columbia. He graduated in 1941, taught a year in two Dallas high schools, [22] then enlisted. [23] After the war, Leonhard returned to Teacher’s College [24] to earn a PhD. He taught a few years there, [25] before going to the University of Illinois where he spent the rest of his career. [26]
Availability
Book: "Kum Ba Yah." 92 in Discovering Music Together, Book 4. Edited by Charles Leonhard, Beatrice Perham Krone, Irving Wolfe, and Margaret Fullerton. Chicago: Follett Publishing company, 1966. There was also a teacher’s edition and a set of recordings, but I couldn’t locate copies of either.
End Notes
1. The only band method book to use "We Shall Overcome" was edited by Art C. Jenson. Learning Unlimited. Level 1. Trumpet/Cornet. Winona, Minnesota: Hal Leonard Corporation, 1973. 35.
2. Karl Wilson Gehrkens. Music in the Grade Schools. Boston: C. C. Birchard, 1934. The subsequent research summarized by Marilyn Pflederer Zimmerman in 1971 focused on how high students could sing; Gehrkens was one of the few to mention the lower limit. (Musical Characteristics of Children. Washington: Music Educators National Conference, 1971.)
3. Orpha K. Duell and Richard C. Anderson. "Pitch Discrimination Among Primary School Children." Journal of Educational Psychology 58:315-318:1967.
4. "Charles A. Fullerton Papers." University of Northern Iowa, Rod Library website.
5. Irma H. Collins. Dictionary of Music Education. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2013. 108.
6. George N. Heller. Charles Leonhard. Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press, 1995. 119.
7. Collins. 282.
8. Irving Wolfe, Beatrice Perham Krone, Max T Krone, and Margaret Fullerton. Together We Sing series. Chicago: Follett Publishing Company, 1955
9. Irving Wolfe, Beatrice Perham Krone, and Margaret Fullerton. Together We Sing series. Chicago: Follett Publishing Company, 1963.
10. Girl Scouts. Senior Round Up, Farragut State Park, Idaho, 1965. "Kum-Ba-Yah." The 7" album was made by Maxwell House Coffee and distributed as a promotion. The entire recording was uploaded to YouTube by grettajetta on 3 November 2015.
11. Larry Eisenberg remembered meeting Seeger at Idyllwild in 1957. Larry Eisenberg. "It’s Me, O Lord." Tulsa: Fun Books, 1992. 63.
12. Carl Sandburg’s The American Songbag, published in 1927 by Harcourt, Brace, was reissued as Carl Sandburg’s new American Songbag in 1950 by Broadcast Music.
13. John Lomax and Alan Lomax released American Ballads and Folk Songs in 1934. Macmillan reprinted it in 1943, and nearly every year after that through 1951, according to WorldCat.
14. Heller. 61. Heller’s source was Eunice Boardman, who was then one of Leonhard’s students. She was mentioned in the post for 24 June 2018.
15. Leonhard, Discovering. 4:38.
16. Leonhard, Discovering. 4:40.
17. Leonhard, Discovering. 4:80.
18. Leonhard, Discovering. 4:93.
19. Carl Martin was listed as the illustrator for the volume. I could find nothing about him on the internet.
20. Heller. 10.
21. Heller. 24.
22. Heller. 44.
23. Heller. 46.
24. Heller. 50.
25. Heller. 60.
26. Heller. 72.
"Kumbaya" began to be included in public school music texts in the middle-1960s when students demanded more relevance from their classes. It was ideal because it was popular enough to give children a sense of participating in their culture, without being as inflammatory as "We Shall Overcome." [1]
The publisher of "Kumbaya" would have granted reprint permission with few conditions, and while the text included the word "Lord" it had no specific religious content. As mentioned in the post for 12 October 2017, that term for the deity was used by Protestants, Catholics, and Jews.
Equally important, the melody fit educators’ observations of children’s abilities. In the 1930s, Karl Gehrkens had told teachers that voices of children in third grade ranged from middle C to high F, and by sixth grade the lowest note was B-flat below middle C. [2] Later, Orpha Duell and Richard Anderson reported children had a difficult time hearing small intervals in music like half steps. [3]
Charles Leonhard’s team was the first to recognize the utility of "Kumbaya" in 1966. Their fourth-grade book’s version began on middle C and rose to the orchestra’s A through a series of seconds (A to E to G), then descended at single step intervals (A to G or G to F to E to D to middle C).
Discovering Music Together was the second incarnation of a text book series that had begun when Irving Wolfe was working with Charles Fullerton to revise the latter’s One Book Course in Elementary Music [4] that had been published by Follett in 1933. [5] Fullerton’s daughter purchased control of the copyright [6] after her father’s death in 1945. She and Wolfe produced Together We Sing in 1950. [7]
Max Krone became involved with the series in 1951, and his wife, Beatrice Krone, was one of the editors of the 1955 [8] and 1963 editions. [9] They ran the Idyllwild School of Music in California. Their version of "Kumbaya" was recorded by the Girl Scouts at the 1965 National Roundup in Idaho’s Farragut State Park. [10]
Leonhard took over the new Follett series that still included Beatrice Krone, Wolfe, and Margaret Fullerton as contributors.
Discovering Music Together was very much in the spirit of the folk music revival associated with Pete Seeger, who often appeared at Idyllwild. [11] Leonhard had studied with Lilla Belle Pitts, who as mentioned in the post for 24 June 2018, advocated the use of folk songs in school texts. It was the early 1950s and collections of American folk songs by Carl Sandburg [12] and the Lomaxes [13] were popular. While he was at Teacher’s College, Columbia, Leonhard taught students "to create accompaniments to folk and popular songs for school use." [14]
The two largest sections of the fourth grade Discovering Music were devoted to "Music from the U. S. A." and "Music around the World." It followed the outlines of Sandburg and the Lomaxes by including chanteys, cowboy songs, and other work songs. These songs followed a page that described the ways rhythms were notated. [15] A headnote introduced the idea that work songs had unique rhythmic patterns. [16]
The international section had a page devoted to the concepts of "Melody and Chords." [17] It noted "many melodies are built on the tones of a chord." This was followed up with the footnote to "Kumbaya" that asked "what chord do the first three tones outline."
Leonhard paired it with "Wo-Ye-Le," a canoe chant from Lake Tanganyika which it said "helps the men work together in even rhythm." [18] The illustration [19] with "Kumbaya" showed five men standing in a long boat with poles to propel it along a river with trees overhanging the banks They were wearing loin clothes.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: class
Instrumental Accompaniment: none in student’s book
Rhythm Accompaniment: none in student’s book
Credits
African spiritual
Cooperative Recreation Service
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: not specified
Verses: kumbaya, singing, praying
Vocabulary
Pronoun: someone
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: none
Basic Form: three-verse song
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Ending: none
Unique Features: none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Time Signature: 3/4
Tempo: slowly
Key Signature: no sharps or flats
Autoharp Chords: C F G7
Basic Structure: strophic repetition
Singing Style: unison, one syllable to one note, except for final "Lord"
Notes on Performers
Leonhard’s father had a hardware store in Anadarko, Oklahoma, which he lost in the agricultural depression that followed World War I. Leonhard spend most of his youth doing chores on their dairy farm and practicing piano. [20] After he graduated from the University of Oklahoma he taught music in Duncan, Oklahoma, [21] while spending his summers earning a master’s degree from Teacher’s College, Columbia. He graduated in 1941, taught a year in two Dallas high schools, [22] then enlisted. [23] After the war, Leonhard returned to Teacher’s College [24] to earn a PhD. He taught a few years there, [25] before going to the University of Illinois where he spent the rest of his career. [26]
Availability
Book: "Kum Ba Yah." 92 in Discovering Music Together, Book 4. Edited by Charles Leonhard, Beatrice Perham Krone, Irving Wolfe, and Margaret Fullerton. Chicago: Follett Publishing company, 1966. There was also a teacher’s edition and a set of recordings, but I couldn’t locate copies of either.
End Notes
1. The only band method book to use "We Shall Overcome" was edited by Art C. Jenson. Learning Unlimited. Level 1. Trumpet/Cornet. Winona, Minnesota: Hal Leonard Corporation, 1973. 35.
2. Karl Wilson Gehrkens. Music in the Grade Schools. Boston: C. C. Birchard, 1934. The subsequent research summarized by Marilyn Pflederer Zimmerman in 1971 focused on how high students could sing; Gehrkens was one of the few to mention the lower limit. (Musical Characteristics of Children. Washington: Music Educators National Conference, 1971.)
3. Orpha K. Duell and Richard C. Anderson. "Pitch Discrimination Among Primary School Children." Journal of Educational Psychology 58:315-318:1967.
4. "Charles A. Fullerton Papers." University of Northern Iowa, Rod Library website.
5. Irma H. Collins. Dictionary of Music Education. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2013. 108.
6. George N. Heller. Charles Leonhard. Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press, 1995. 119.
7. Collins. 282.
8. Irving Wolfe, Beatrice Perham Krone, Max T Krone, and Margaret Fullerton. Together We Sing series. Chicago: Follett Publishing Company, 1955
9. Irving Wolfe, Beatrice Perham Krone, and Margaret Fullerton. Together We Sing series. Chicago: Follett Publishing Company, 1963.
10. Girl Scouts. Senior Round Up, Farragut State Park, Idaho, 1965. "Kum-Ba-Yah." The 7" album was made by Maxwell House Coffee and distributed as a promotion. The entire recording was uploaded to YouTube by grettajetta on 3 November 2015.
11. Larry Eisenberg remembered meeting Seeger at Idyllwild in 1957. Larry Eisenberg. "It’s Me, O Lord." Tulsa: Fun Books, 1992. 63.
12. Carl Sandburg’s The American Songbag, published in 1927 by Harcourt, Brace, was reissued as Carl Sandburg’s new American Songbag in 1950 by Broadcast Music.
13. John Lomax and Alan Lomax released American Ballads and Folk Songs in 1934. Macmillan reprinted it in 1943, and nearly every year after that through 1951, according to WorldCat.
14. Heller. 61. Heller’s source was Eunice Boardman, who was then one of Leonhard’s students. She was mentioned in the post for 24 June 2018.
15. Leonhard, Discovering. 4:38.
16. Leonhard, Discovering. 4:40.
17. Leonhard, Discovering. 4:80.
18. Leonhard, Discovering. 4:93.
19. Carl Martin was listed as the illustrator for the volume. I could find nothing about him on the internet.
20. Heller. 10.
21. Heller. 24.
22. Heller. 44.
23. Heller. 46.
24. Heller. 50.
25. Heller. 60.
26. Heller. 72.
Wednesday, July 4, 2018
Hornsby Middle School - Kumbaya
Topic: Pedagogy - Duration
The use of the piano as the regulator of vocal and instrumental music could disguise problems. Louise Kifer Myers noted poor singers "can sing along a fraction of a second behind the leaders and will seemingly be doing well," but they never actually become any better at singing on key [1] and they never learn to read music.
Secondary school teachers were the ones left to address those weaknesses. Karin Pendley Koser remembered her high school choir director in Decatur, Georgia, was the one who "taught us to sight-read, how to breathe, how to enunciate." [2]
Musical notation for vocal music only became necessary when the Medieval Roman Catholic church wanted all its congregations to use the same tunes for the same purposes. Modern reproduction methods emerged after the invention of the printing press and the development of complex instrumental music. Indeed, the technology used to teach orchestra members their parts evolved with the genre, according to Deborah Saidel. [3]
As mentioned in the post for 27 June 2018, the first pages of all modern band method-books began with illustrations of the staff, appropriate clef, and names of notes. They devoted a few exercises to matching sounds from the instruments to the notes, then introduced the idea of duration with whole notes. They mentioned 4/4 time and had students count out a tune before they played it.
There was nothing intuitive about the symbols used to denote relative duration. The melody was marked by dots that rose or fall on a series of horizontal lines. Even if one couldn’t connect the symbols to specific tones, one could visualize a tune’s arc.
Tonal duration was denoted by variations to those dots. Outlined circles were held longer than ones filled in. Perpendicular lines, with or without flags, and small dots were added to further differentiate time lengths.
As soon as possible, instruction manuals had students play together in unison so they absorbed the idea they all had to have the same sense of how long to hold a note. The tendency when they were starting was to hold them for the pleasure in the sound.
Shorter durations were then introduced: some editors used the half-note, and others the quarter-note. [4] At that point instrumental groups were able to play their first song: "Hot Cross Buns" or "Cardiff by the Sea." [5]
When young musicians moved beyond the two basic durations, short and long, they had to learn to interpret temporal symbols as they played. Isiah Boone used "Kumbaya" to drill Augusta, Georgia, middle school students in sight reading a melody that included eighth notes and whole notes. He began by saying "one two one two ready play." At the beginning of each line he repeated "one two play."
Music teachers were essentially conservative. They often used methods they remembered from childhood that had worked for them. Merry Texter noted Boone’s method of counting was introduced in an 1887 band book published in Missouri. William Sewell, who taught bands while in was a college student, [6] recommended:
"It is well . . . to count a measure in the time it is desired the piece should be played. . . . Always say ‘play’ instead of the last count, thus in 4-4 time count, ‘1, 2, 3, play;’ in 2-4 time, ‘1, play;’ in 3-4 time, ‘1, 2, play,’ etc." [7]
At time the video was made most commercial band books came with CDs. However, in 2012, Brandon McDonald found many band-method book editors and publishers lacked the imagination or experience to integrate digital versions into their texts. [8]
If Amazon was any indicator, individuals returning to their instruments were more savvy, perhaps because they understood the discipline that comes from playing with others. J. Pierson recommended "learning the tunes by reading but as soon as possible, close the book and repeatedly play along with the CD from memory. This will develop feel and rhythm." [9]
Another customer, who had used Essential Elements when he was in middle school, said "This is still a solid book to progress from and the online mp3 accompaniment definitely helps you play along with a band." [10]
Of course, band directors know many of their students don’t practice, and all the digital tools in the world won’t motivate them. Like Boone, they have to work with them during class. Another member of that Decatur, Georgia, high school choir remembered that for auditions
"Mr. Short wouldn’t let me pick anything I already knew. Had to pick something I didn’t know, go in the practice room for 10 minutes, then come out and sing it. It was his way of making sure we had learned to READ MUSIC." [11]
"Kumbaya" wasn’t as simple as it seemed because each line began with two quarter notes, followed by a dotted-quarter, eighth, and half notes. The four girls shown in the video had mastered creating tones: only one person squeaked one time in the last line. Remarkably, they were able to handle the multi-note phrasing of the final "Lord." However, while they started each line together, they had a hard time staying together during the initial short-shorter-long phrase that tested their understanding of duration.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Group: four girls playing clarinets
Rhythm Accompaniment: none
Conductor: Isiah Boone
Credits
"old negroe spiritual"
Notes on Lyrics
There were none
Pronunciation: Boone introduced it as kum BY yah
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Tempo: moderate
Basic Structure: the melody was played twice through without breaks or intended variations
Notes on Performance
Occasion: section class
Location: school room with painted brick walls
Microphones: none
Clothing: school clothes
Notes on Movement
The girls were seated on flat-bottomed chairs with one music stand.
Notes on Performers
W. S. Hornsby Middle School had a little over 300 students in grades six to eight in 2017. The student body was 96% Black. [12] The Hornsby neighborhood had been developed on the flood plain of the Savannah river by a local African-American entrepreneur. [13]
Boone graduated with a degree in music from Georgia Southwestern State University in 2009 where his primary instrument was drums. While he was taking classes, he also was teaching percussion in local high schools. He began working at Hornsby in July 2016. [14]
Columbia High School in Decatur, Georgia, was discussed in a post for 12 August 2018.
Availability
YouTube: uploaded by Rudimental Reality on 2 October 2017.
End Notes
1. Louise Kifer Myers. Teaching Children Music in the Elementary School. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1956 edition. 63.
2. Karin Pendley Koser. "Madison ‘Reb’ Short Was My Choral Director." Facebook group. Comment posted 23 February 2013.
3. Deborah J. Saidel. "Musical Notation, Music Performance and Technology: A Long Term Synergistic Relationship." Class paper. Virginia Commonwealth University, 8 December 2014. 8. Its Ram Pages website.
4. Of the four commercial books containing "Kumbaya," two used the half note (Standard, Tradition), and two the quarter note (Accent, Elements, Elements 2000). See post for 27 June 2017 for publishing details.
5. Standard used "Cardiff" for its first melody. The others used "Hot Cross Buns."
6. Obituary for W. J. Sewall. Moberly [Missouri] Monitor-Index, 18 February 1957. 5. Also, TJYahoo. "William Jesse Sewall." Find a Grave, 28 May 2008. Updated by NJBrewer. Sewall was a foreman in a Carthage, Missouri, print shop when his book was published, and later bought the newspaper. He played brass instruments in the city’s Light Guard Band.
7. W. J. Sewall. The Band Man’s Handbook. Carthage, Missouri: Press Book and Job Printing House, 1887. 21. Quoted by Merry Elizabeth Texter. "A Historical and Analytical Investigation of the Beginning Band Method Book." PhD dissertation. The Ohio State University, 1975. 59-60. She noted: "Sewall’s directions for giving the signal to play is not only interesting, it describes a technique that is still common today."
J. R. McEntyre and Harry Haines said the modern method of counting "one and" was introduced in the Haskell Hart Drum Method. (Rhythm Master. Book 1. Eb Alto/Baritone Saxophone. San Antonio: Southern Music Company, 1992. 32.)
Haskett W. Harr wrote: "The use of the voice allows even greater division of notes than the foot. In a measure of 4/4 time count 1-2-3-4, one beat for each quarter note. To divide the quarter note into eighth notes and count them, add the word "and" after each number, thus: 1 and (&) 2 & 3 & 4 &. The quarter notes may be divided into sixteenth notes and easily counted by the added the letter "E" after the 1, and the syllable "Ah" after the AND, thus: 1 e & ah 2 e & uh 3 e & uh 4 e & ah." (Drum Method. Book 1. Chicago: Cole Publishing Company, 1937. 12.)
Lawrence Welk famously simplified this to "and uh 1 and uh 2."
8. Brandon K. McDannald. "A Comparative Summary of Content and Integration of Technological Resources in Six Beginning Band Methods." MA thesis. University of Central Missouri, May 2012.
9. J. Pierson. Comment posted to Amazon website for Essential Elements 2001, Book 1, B Flat Trumpet on 5 August 2017.
10. Amazon Customer. Comment posted to Amazon website for Essential Elements 2001, Book 1, B Flat Trumpet on 21 November 2016.
11. Trina Landrum Miller. Short Facebook group. Undated comment. Short published a set of method books to teach his high school vocal music students to sight read. Madison D. Short. The Right to Sight-Sing Music. Stone Mountain, Georgia: Madison Music Publications, 1978. Four volumes.
12. Georgia. Governor’s Office of Student Achievement. Georgia Schools Grades Reports. "W.S. Hornsby Middle School." State website.
13. Walter Spurgeon Hornsby founded the Pilgrim Health and Life Insurance Company in 1898 [15] and opened his real estate company in 1926. [16] The subdivision was built sometime before he died in 1956. [17]
14. "Isiah Boone." LinkedIn
15. "Walter Spurgeon Hornsby" 124-126 in History of the American Negro and His Institutions. Edited by Arthur Bunyan Caldwell. Atlanta: A. B. Caldwell Publishing Company, 1917. 126.
16. "Hattie B. Hornsby." Who’s Who in Commerce and Industry 14:625:1965.
17. W. S. Hornsby Middle School. "2017-2018 School Profile and Special Programs." School website.
The use of the piano as the regulator of vocal and instrumental music could disguise problems. Louise Kifer Myers noted poor singers "can sing along a fraction of a second behind the leaders and will seemingly be doing well," but they never actually become any better at singing on key [1] and they never learn to read music.
Secondary school teachers were the ones left to address those weaknesses. Karin Pendley Koser remembered her high school choir director in Decatur, Georgia, was the one who "taught us to sight-read, how to breathe, how to enunciate." [2]
Musical notation for vocal music only became necessary when the Medieval Roman Catholic church wanted all its congregations to use the same tunes for the same purposes. Modern reproduction methods emerged after the invention of the printing press and the development of complex instrumental music. Indeed, the technology used to teach orchestra members their parts evolved with the genre, according to Deborah Saidel. [3]
As mentioned in the post for 27 June 2018, the first pages of all modern band method-books began with illustrations of the staff, appropriate clef, and names of notes. They devoted a few exercises to matching sounds from the instruments to the notes, then introduced the idea of duration with whole notes. They mentioned 4/4 time and had students count out a tune before they played it.
There was nothing intuitive about the symbols used to denote relative duration. The melody was marked by dots that rose or fall on a series of horizontal lines. Even if one couldn’t connect the symbols to specific tones, one could visualize a tune’s arc.
Tonal duration was denoted by variations to those dots. Outlined circles were held longer than ones filled in. Perpendicular lines, with or without flags, and small dots were added to further differentiate time lengths.
As soon as possible, instruction manuals had students play together in unison so they absorbed the idea they all had to have the same sense of how long to hold a note. The tendency when they were starting was to hold them for the pleasure in the sound.
Shorter durations were then introduced: some editors used the half-note, and others the quarter-note. [4] At that point instrumental groups were able to play their first song: "Hot Cross Buns" or "Cardiff by the Sea." [5]
When young musicians moved beyond the two basic durations, short and long, they had to learn to interpret temporal symbols as they played. Isiah Boone used "Kumbaya" to drill Augusta, Georgia, middle school students in sight reading a melody that included eighth notes and whole notes. He began by saying "one two one two ready play." At the beginning of each line he repeated "one two play."
Music teachers were essentially conservative. They often used methods they remembered from childhood that had worked for them. Merry Texter noted Boone’s method of counting was introduced in an 1887 band book published in Missouri. William Sewell, who taught bands while in was a college student, [6] recommended:
"It is well . . . to count a measure in the time it is desired the piece should be played. . . . Always say ‘play’ instead of the last count, thus in 4-4 time count, ‘1, 2, 3, play;’ in 2-4 time, ‘1, play;’ in 3-4 time, ‘1, 2, play,’ etc." [7]
At time the video was made most commercial band books came with CDs. However, in 2012, Brandon McDonald found many band-method book editors and publishers lacked the imagination or experience to integrate digital versions into their texts. [8]
If Amazon was any indicator, individuals returning to their instruments were more savvy, perhaps because they understood the discipline that comes from playing with others. J. Pierson recommended "learning the tunes by reading but as soon as possible, close the book and repeatedly play along with the CD from memory. This will develop feel and rhythm." [9]
Another customer, who had used Essential Elements when he was in middle school, said "This is still a solid book to progress from and the online mp3 accompaniment definitely helps you play along with a band." [10]
Of course, band directors know many of their students don’t practice, and all the digital tools in the world won’t motivate them. Like Boone, they have to work with them during class. Another member of that Decatur, Georgia, high school choir remembered that for auditions
"Mr. Short wouldn’t let me pick anything I already knew. Had to pick something I didn’t know, go in the practice room for 10 minutes, then come out and sing it. It was his way of making sure we had learned to READ MUSIC." [11]
"Kumbaya" wasn’t as simple as it seemed because each line began with two quarter notes, followed by a dotted-quarter, eighth, and half notes. The four girls shown in the video had mastered creating tones: only one person squeaked one time in the last line. Remarkably, they were able to handle the multi-note phrasing of the final "Lord." However, while they started each line together, they had a hard time staying together during the initial short-shorter-long phrase that tested their understanding of duration.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Group: four girls playing clarinets
Rhythm Accompaniment: none
Conductor: Isiah Boone
Credits
"old negroe spiritual"
Notes on Lyrics
There were none
Pronunciation: Boone introduced it as kum BY yah
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Tempo: moderate
Basic Structure: the melody was played twice through without breaks or intended variations
Notes on Performance
Occasion: section class
Location: school room with painted brick walls
Microphones: none
Clothing: school clothes
Notes on Movement
The girls were seated on flat-bottomed chairs with one music stand.
Notes on Performers
W. S. Hornsby Middle School had a little over 300 students in grades six to eight in 2017. The student body was 96% Black. [12] The Hornsby neighborhood had been developed on the flood plain of the Savannah river by a local African-American entrepreneur. [13]
Boone graduated with a degree in music from Georgia Southwestern State University in 2009 where his primary instrument was drums. While he was taking classes, he also was teaching percussion in local high schools. He began working at Hornsby in July 2016. [14]
Columbia High School in Decatur, Georgia, was discussed in a post for 12 August 2018.
Availability
YouTube: uploaded by Rudimental Reality on 2 October 2017.
End Notes
1. Louise Kifer Myers. Teaching Children Music in the Elementary School. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1956 edition. 63.
2. Karin Pendley Koser. "Madison ‘Reb’ Short Was My Choral Director." Facebook group. Comment posted 23 February 2013.
3. Deborah J. Saidel. "Musical Notation, Music Performance and Technology: A Long Term Synergistic Relationship." Class paper. Virginia Commonwealth University, 8 December 2014. 8. Its Ram Pages website.
4. Of the four commercial books containing "Kumbaya," two used the half note (Standard, Tradition), and two the quarter note (Accent, Elements, Elements 2000). See post for 27 June 2017 for publishing details.
5. Standard used "Cardiff" for its first melody. The others used "Hot Cross Buns."
6. Obituary for W. J. Sewall. Moberly [Missouri] Monitor-Index, 18 February 1957. 5. Also, TJYahoo. "William Jesse Sewall." Find a Grave, 28 May 2008. Updated by NJBrewer. Sewall was a foreman in a Carthage, Missouri, print shop when his book was published, and later bought the newspaper. He played brass instruments in the city’s Light Guard Band.
7. W. J. Sewall. The Band Man’s Handbook. Carthage, Missouri: Press Book and Job Printing House, 1887. 21. Quoted by Merry Elizabeth Texter. "A Historical and Analytical Investigation of the Beginning Band Method Book." PhD dissertation. The Ohio State University, 1975. 59-60. She noted: "Sewall’s directions for giving the signal to play is not only interesting, it describes a technique that is still common today."
J. R. McEntyre and Harry Haines said the modern method of counting "one and" was introduced in the Haskell Hart Drum Method. (Rhythm Master. Book 1. Eb Alto/Baritone Saxophone. San Antonio: Southern Music Company, 1992. 32.)
Haskett W. Harr wrote: "The use of the voice allows even greater division of notes than the foot. In a measure of 4/4 time count 1-2-3-4, one beat for each quarter note. To divide the quarter note into eighth notes and count them, add the word "and" after each number, thus: 1 and (&) 2 & 3 & 4 &. The quarter notes may be divided into sixteenth notes and easily counted by the added the letter "E" after the 1, and the syllable "Ah" after the AND, thus: 1 e & ah 2 e & uh 3 e & uh 4 e & ah." (Drum Method. Book 1. Chicago: Cole Publishing Company, 1937. 12.)
Lawrence Welk famously simplified this to "and uh 1 and uh 2."
8. Brandon K. McDannald. "A Comparative Summary of Content and Integration of Technological Resources in Six Beginning Band Methods." MA thesis. University of Central Missouri, May 2012.
9. J. Pierson. Comment posted to Amazon website for Essential Elements 2001, Book 1, B Flat Trumpet on 5 August 2017.
10. Amazon Customer. Comment posted to Amazon website for Essential Elements 2001, Book 1, B Flat Trumpet on 21 November 2016.
11. Trina Landrum Miller. Short Facebook group. Undated comment. Short published a set of method books to teach his high school vocal music students to sight read. Madison D. Short. The Right to Sight-Sing Music. Stone Mountain, Georgia: Madison Music Publications, 1978. Four volumes.
12. Georgia. Governor’s Office of Student Achievement. Georgia Schools Grades Reports. "W.S. Hornsby Middle School." State website.
13. Walter Spurgeon Hornsby founded the Pilgrim Health and Life Insurance Company in 1898 [15] and opened his real estate company in 1926. [16] The subdivision was built sometime before he died in 1956. [17]
14. "Isiah Boone." LinkedIn
15. "Walter Spurgeon Hornsby" 124-126 in History of the American Negro and His Institutions. Edited by Arthur Bunyan Caldwell. Atlanta: A. B. Caldwell Publishing Company, 1917. 126.
16. "Hattie B. Hornsby." Who’s Who in Commerce and Industry 14:625:1965.
17. W. S. Hornsby Middle School. "2017-2018 School Profile and Special Programs." School website.
Sunday, July 1, 2018
Hilltop Christian School Band - Kum Ba Ya
Topic: Pedagogy - Duration
Cultural groups as diverse as the Welsh, many Africans, and some Slavs created and maintained complex group singing traditions. Such musicality was rejected by English and Scots followers of Jean Calvin. While Shakespeare used patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables, they defined their songs by the number of syllables in a line: long meter had four lines of eight syllables (8-8-8-8), short meter had four six-syllable lines (6-6-6-6) and common meter alternated the two line lengths, (8-6-8-6). Text were associated with tunes with the same metric counts.
John Wesley reintroduced harmony after he observed the effects of singstunden [1] in the Moravian religious colony he visited in Saxony. [2] His preface to a 1761 hymn collection tried to reconcile his innovations with earlier styles of psalm singing. Wesley enjoined members to "sing lustily and with good courage" like Puritans, but also to "strive to unite your voices together, so as to make one clear melodious sound." [3]
Once the tradition of group singing was lost, it was difficult to reestablish. The bar line became the device singing teachers used to organize groups who counted beats in a measure rather than syllables in a line. Lowell Mason’s hymn collection from 1848 was transitional: it used bars and single numbers at the beginning to indicate the number of beats in a measure: 2, 3, 4. [4]
He had tried to introduce the contemporary European time-signature format of 4/4 in his 1841 collection, [5] but was met with resistence. A member of the Church of the Brethren complained, "these multiplied varieties" of rhythm or meter found in some books "are not only unnecessary and useless, they are positively injurious, and only tend to involve the subject in difficulties." [6] Jesse Bowman Aikin argued there were only three types of "measures—equal, unequal, or compound." [7]
"To keep time, we must beat time, and when one mode of each measure only is used, correctness in keeping time is soon attained. The habit is soon formed of appropriating one beat to each half-note, or its equivalent, whether in equal or unequal measure." [8]
While Mason and Bowman were discussing meter, that was only a means to address the underlying problem that adults had to be taught to follow a leader and start, continue, and end a phrase together. The closer one was to the Calvinist belief in personal grace, the more difficult it was for a music director to overcome habits of individual action.
Without any formal education, children acquired their culture’s basic vocal skills. Arnold Gesell’s team found many kindergarten-aged children in the late 1930s had learned to sing along with phonograph records. [9] At that point, before they could read, Karl Gehrkens suggested teachers could exploit their listening skills by singing "in a light voice, absolutely true to pitch" and having their students sing with them. [10]
The burden placed on teachers to maintain perfect pitch every time they sang was eased when pianos became available in schools after World War II. [11] After that children could be taught to match their voices to it while they sang with the teacher and class. By the 1960s, Frank Churchley remembered Canadian school music-books provided collections of age-appropriate songs [12] for a teacher who "pounds out the notes, and mindlessly gets the kids to just follow." [13]
The skill of singing with the piano became fundamental to all further music training. Along with providing standardized sounds, the accompaniments marked rhythms. Many were no more than melodies and chords at the beginnings of phrases or measures. Implicitly, they taught singers to follow its lead to stay together.
Joseph Maddy transferred singing skills to instrumental music in 1923. He suggested students:
"Learn each tune by singing it with the Do, Re, Mi syllables, using a perfectly smooth, soft, steady tone in rather slow time. Then play it in the same way with a steady breath, making the instrument sound as nearly like your singing as possible." [14]
Harold Rusch, who came of age in the 1930s, [15] revived the method in his instrumental method book for elementary schools in 1961. He began with children’s songs like "Three Blind Mice" and "Mary Had a Little Lamb," which he printed with notes, fingerings, and words. [16]
David Wright employed several of these techniques with students in a small Antioch, California, elementary school to encourage them to transfer habits formed in church to instrumental ensembles. He chose a familiar song, "Kumbaya," for a public performance. Then, because Hilltop Christian included vocal music in its program, he could assume his students already had sung in groups. He realized his students were so occupied with mastering their instruments and reading the music, they hadn’t yet had time to learn how to follow his lead. Thus, he had a pianist maintain the tempo by playing chords, much like she would have done for a religious service.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Soloists: none
Instrumental Groups: three clarinets, two flutes, three saxophones
Instrumental Accompaniment: piano
Rhythm Accompaniment: none
Conductor: David Wright
Credits
None given
Notes on Lyrics
There were none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Tempo: slow
Basic Structure: played melody through twice
Instrumental Style: unison
Notes on Performance
Occasion: sacred concert
Location: stage, perhaps in a chapel
Microphones: one floor mike at the front of the stage in the center
Clothing: black slacks and black or white tops
Notes on Movement
The eight musicians sat in a semi-circle on cushioned straight-backed chairs. Wright stood a little to the side and used a baton in his right hand. Four people sat behind them who might have played other instruments or had other parts in the concert.
Notes on Performers
Wright had a bachelor’s degree in music from Mount Saint Mary’s College in Los Angeles and a masters in music from California State University, East Bay. He taught during the day in the Mount Diablo schools, and participated in Hilltop’s after-school program. His instrument was the flute. [17]
Hilltop Christian was a small school with eight to twelve students in a grade. The surrounding community of Antioch, California, had become a bedroom community for Oakland and San Francisco. The Seventh Day Adventist student body was less than 25% white [18] and the band director was an African American. While the eight young musicians could have constituted an entire grade, they were not typical of the school. Four looked white and four did not. This was essentially a wind ensemble, and all the clarinet and flute players were girls. The saxophone players were boys.
Availability
YouTube: "Kum Ba Ya." Uploaded by cornell7ant on 10 March 2013.
End Notes
1. Singstunde were singing sessions where the song leader used verses from multiple hymns that were related to the day’s sermon or theme. They could last hours, and usually were held as part of the evening services at the Moravian colony at Herrnhut, Saxony. (C. Daniel Drews. "Moravian Worship: The Why of Moravian Music." 29-43 in The Music of the Moravian Church in America. Edited by Nola Reed Knouse. Rochester: University Rochester Press, 2008. 34.)
2. Bertrand Harris Bronson. "Some Aspects of Music and Literature." 91-118 in Bronson. Facets of the Enlightenment. Berkeley: University of California Press 1968. On Wesley, 12.
3. John Wesley. "Directions for Singing." Select Hymns: with Tunes Annext. London: 1761. Reprinted in Martin V. Clarke. "John Wesley’s ‘Directions for Singing’: Methodist Hymnody as an Expression of Methodist Beliefs in Thought and Practice." Methodist History 47:196-209:2009. 196. Emphasis in original.
4. Lowell Mason and George James Webb. The Psaltery. Boston: Wilkins, Carter, and Company, 1848 edition.
5. Lowell Mason. Carmina Sacra. Boston: J. H. Wilkins and R. B. Carter, 1841.
6. J. B. Aikin. The Christian Minstrel. Philadelphia: T. K. Collins, Jr., 1853 edition. 5.
7. Aikin. 4. Equal was variation of Xx where formula was division by halves. Unequal was Xxx where division by thirds. Compound was multiples of 3/4 like 6/8.
8. Aikin. 5. Aiken was a pioneer in the development of shaped-note song books.
9. Arnold Gesell and Frances L. Ilg. The Child from Five to Ten. New York: Harper and Row, 1946. 83. They said children preferred records to radio because they could replay them. Later, video channels and CDs would provide the same control.
10. Karl Wilson Gehrkens. Music in the Grade Schools. Boston, C. C. Birchard and Company, 1934. 33.
11. Some schools always had pianos, but the depression made them a luxury item and war shortages made them scarce.
12. Frank E. Churchley. Interviewed by Betty Hanley. "Frank E. Churchley: Gentleman, Scholar, Teacher." March 2005. 42. For more on Churchley, see the post for 25 July 2018.
13. Churchley. 36.
14. Joseph E. Maddy and Thaddeus P. Giddings. Universal Teacher. Cornet or Trumpet. Elkhart, Indiana: C. G. Conn, Ltd., 1923. 1. For more on Joseph Maddy, see the post for 27 June 2018.
15. Rusch was born in 1908 and studied at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Lawrence University. (Dutch Wikipedia. "Harold W. Rusch.") Rusch was mentioned in the post for 27 June 2018.
16. Harold W. Rusch. Hal Leonard Elementary Band Method. Bb Cornet or Trumpet. Winona, Minnesota: Hal Leonard Music, Inc., 1961.
17. "David Wright." Hilltop Christian School website.
18. "Hilltop Christian School." Niche website.
Cultural groups as diverse as the Welsh, many Africans, and some Slavs created and maintained complex group singing traditions. Such musicality was rejected by English and Scots followers of Jean Calvin. While Shakespeare used patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables, they defined their songs by the number of syllables in a line: long meter had four lines of eight syllables (8-8-8-8), short meter had four six-syllable lines (6-6-6-6) and common meter alternated the two line lengths, (8-6-8-6). Text were associated with tunes with the same metric counts.
John Wesley reintroduced harmony after he observed the effects of singstunden [1] in the Moravian religious colony he visited in Saxony. [2] His preface to a 1761 hymn collection tried to reconcile his innovations with earlier styles of psalm singing. Wesley enjoined members to "sing lustily and with good courage" like Puritans, but also to "strive to unite your voices together, so as to make one clear melodious sound." [3]
Once the tradition of group singing was lost, it was difficult to reestablish. The bar line became the device singing teachers used to organize groups who counted beats in a measure rather than syllables in a line. Lowell Mason’s hymn collection from 1848 was transitional: it used bars and single numbers at the beginning to indicate the number of beats in a measure: 2, 3, 4. [4]
He had tried to introduce the contemporary European time-signature format of 4/4 in his 1841 collection, [5] but was met with resistence. A member of the Church of the Brethren complained, "these multiplied varieties" of rhythm or meter found in some books "are not only unnecessary and useless, they are positively injurious, and only tend to involve the subject in difficulties." [6] Jesse Bowman Aikin argued there were only three types of "measures—equal, unequal, or compound." [7]
"To keep time, we must beat time, and when one mode of each measure only is used, correctness in keeping time is soon attained. The habit is soon formed of appropriating one beat to each half-note, or its equivalent, whether in equal or unequal measure." [8]
While Mason and Bowman were discussing meter, that was only a means to address the underlying problem that adults had to be taught to follow a leader and start, continue, and end a phrase together. The closer one was to the Calvinist belief in personal grace, the more difficult it was for a music director to overcome habits of individual action.
Without any formal education, children acquired their culture’s basic vocal skills. Arnold Gesell’s team found many kindergarten-aged children in the late 1930s had learned to sing along with phonograph records. [9] At that point, before they could read, Karl Gehrkens suggested teachers could exploit their listening skills by singing "in a light voice, absolutely true to pitch" and having their students sing with them. [10]
The burden placed on teachers to maintain perfect pitch every time they sang was eased when pianos became available in schools after World War II. [11] After that children could be taught to match their voices to it while they sang with the teacher and class. By the 1960s, Frank Churchley remembered Canadian school music-books provided collections of age-appropriate songs [12] for a teacher who "pounds out the notes, and mindlessly gets the kids to just follow." [13]
The skill of singing with the piano became fundamental to all further music training. Along with providing standardized sounds, the accompaniments marked rhythms. Many were no more than melodies and chords at the beginnings of phrases or measures. Implicitly, they taught singers to follow its lead to stay together.
Joseph Maddy transferred singing skills to instrumental music in 1923. He suggested students:
"Learn each tune by singing it with the Do, Re, Mi syllables, using a perfectly smooth, soft, steady tone in rather slow time. Then play it in the same way with a steady breath, making the instrument sound as nearly like your singing as possible." [14]
Harold Rusch, who came of age in the 1930s, [15] revived the method in his instrumental method book for elementary schools in 1961. He began with children’s songs like "Three Blind Mice" and "Mary Had a Little Lamb," which he printed with notes, fingerings, and words. [16]
David Wright employed several of these techniques with students in a small Antioch, California, elementary school to encourage them to transfer habits formed in church to instrumental ensembles. He chose a familiar song, "Kumbaya," for a public performance. Then, because Hilltop Christian included vocal music in its program, he could assume his students already had sung in groups. He realized his students were so occupied with mastering their instruments and reading the music, they hadn’t yet had time to learn how to follow his lead. Thus, he had a pianist maintain the tempo by playing chords, much like she would have done for a religious service.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Soloists: none
Instrumental Groups: three clarinets, two flutes, three saxophones
Instrumental Accompaniment: piano
Rhythm Accompaniment: none
Conductor: David Wright
Credits
None given
Notes on Lyrics
There were none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Tempo: slow
Basic Structure: played melody through twice
Instrumental Style: unison
Notes on Performance
Occasion: sacred concert
Location: stage, perhaps in a chapel
Microphones: one floor mike at the front of the stage in the center
Clothing: black slacks and black or white tops
Notes on Movement
The eight musicians sat in a semi-circle on cushioned straight-backed chairs. Wright stood a little to the side and used a baton in his right hand. Four people sat behind them who might have played other instruments or had other parts in the concert.
Notes on Performers
Wright had a bachelor’s degree in music from Mount Saint Mary’s College in Los Angeles and a masters in music from California State University, East Bay. He taught during the day in the Mount Diablo schools, and participated in Hilltop’s after-school program. His instrument was the flute. [17]
Hilltop Christian was a small school with eight to twelve students in a grade. The surrounding community of Antioch, California, had become a bedroom community for Oakland and San Francisco. The Seventh Day Adventist student body was less than 25% white [18] and the band director was an African American. While the eight young musicians could have constituted an entire grade, they were not typical of the school. Four looked white and four did not. This was essentially a wind ensemble, and all the clarinet and flute players were girls. The saxophone players were boys.
Availability
YouTube: "Kum Ba Ya." Uploaded by cornell7ant on 10 March 2013.
End Notes
1. Singstunde were singing sessions where the song leader used verses from multiple hymns that were related to the day’s sermon or theme. They could last hours, and usually were held as part of the evening services at the Moravian colony at Herrnhut, Saxony. (C. Daniel Drews. "Moravian Worship: The Why of Moravian Music." 29-43 in The Music of the Moravian Church in America. Edited by Nola Reed Knouse. Rochester: University Rochester Press, 2008. 34.)
2. Bertrand Harris Bronson. "Some Aspects of Music and Literature." 91-118 in Bronson. Facets of the Enlightenment. Berkeley: University of California Press 1968. On Wesley, 12.
3. John Wesley. "Directions for Singing." Select Hymns: with Tunes Annext. London: 1761. Reprinted in Martin V. Clarke. "John Wesley’s ‘Directions for Singing’: Methodist Hymnody as an Expression of Methodist Beliefs in Thought and Practice." Methodist History 47:196-209:2009. 196. Emphasis in original.
4. Lowell Mason and George James Webb. The Psaltery. Boston: Wilkins, Carter, and Company, 1848 edition.
5. Lowell Mason. Carmina Sacra. Boston: J. H. Wilkins and R. B. Carter, 1841.
6. J. B. Aikin. The Christian Minstrel. Philadelphia: T. K. Collins, Jr., 1853 edition. 5.
7. Aikin. 4. Equal was variation of Xx where formula was division by halves. Unequal was Xxx where division by thirds. Compound was multiples of 3/4 like 6/8.
8. Aikin. 5. Aiken was a pioneer in the development of shaped-note song books.
9. Arnold Gesell and Frances L. Ilg. The Child from Five to Ten. New York: Harper and Row, 1946. 83. They said children preferred records to radio because they could replay them. Later, video channels and CDs would provide the same control.
10. Karl Wilson Gehrkens. Music in the Grade Schools. Boston, C. C. Birchard and Company, 1934. 33.
11. Some schools always had pianos, but the depression made them a luxury item and war shortages made them scarce.
12. Frank E. Churchley. Interviewed by Betty Hanley. "Frank E. Churchley: Gentleman, Scholar, Teacher." March 2005. 42. For more on Churchley, see the post for 25 July 2018.
13. Churchley. 36.
14. Joseph E. Maddy and Thaddeus P. Giddings. Universal Teacher. Cornet or Trumpet. Elkhart, Indiana: C. G. Conn, Ltd., 1923. 1. For more on Joseph Maddy, see the post for 27 June 2018.
15. Rusch was born in 1908 and studied at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Lawrence University. (Dutch Wikipedia. "Harold W. Rusch.") Rusch was mentioned in the post for 27 June 2018.
16. Harold W. Rusch. Hal Leonard Elementary Band Method. Bb Cornet or Trumpet. Winona, Minnesota: Hal Leonard Music, Inc., 1961.
17. "David Wright." Hilltop Christian School website.
18. "Hilltop Christian School." Niche website.
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