![]() ![]() It is often used for children's services. This song could be used to open a worship service. For the upbeat stanzas, move the tempo ahead. For the subdued stanzas, keep the tempo moderate to slow. The desired mood should determine the tempo. It is best sung in unison with little or no accompaniment. KUM BA YAH is sometimes written in triple meter, and sometimes in duple. A few hymnals call it DESMOND, after the South African archbishop, Desmond Tutu. The tune KUM BA YAH has the same origins as the text. As with many folk songs, there is no single accepted version. A few are on a happier note: “Someone's singing,” “Let us praise the Lord,” etc. Most of the other stanzas are on a sad theme: “Someone's crying,” “Someone's hurting,” etc. The first stanza is “Kum ba yah,” which is, of course, the title of the song. It is often thought of as a children's song, but it can be sung by all of God's people as a request for His presence in times of trial. Today, outside of church, the name of the song has become idiomatic for naïve, superficial peace. ![]() It was most popular from the 1950s to 1990s, but its use started declining in the 1980s. This folksong has become popular all over the world. ![]() A transcription of that recording bears a close resemblance to the song we know today in the structure of the tune and the form and wording of the lyrics. The recording was collected in 1926 – ten years before Frey claimed to have written it – in Georgia by Robert Gordon and was sung by H. This is supported by the existence of a cylinder recording of the song in the American Folklife Center archives in the Library of Congress. The third and most likely story is that it is an African-American spiritual that originated at an unknown date in the American South. Frey has claimed a copyright on the song. He claimed to have written the song at a Christian Crusade camp in 1936, at age seventeen, with the original first line “Come by here.” Another camper took the song home to his missionary parents, who in turn took it to Angola, where it was altered to “Kum ba yah,” and then brought back to the U.S. One story is that it originated in the southern coastal regions of the U.S., near South Carolina and northern Florida, where Gullah, an African-American dialect, is spoken.Īnother story comes from the authorship claims of Marvin Frey. At least three distinct stories have come to varying stages of acceptance by the public. There has been great debate over the origins of this song. So why did "Kumbaya" among all the folksongs written in the last 100 years become an idiom for idiocy? Here's a partial list of etymologists, linguists and other experts who say they don't know. But neither does the decision to make "Kumbaya" the symbol of insincere bonhomie. In other verses, someone's singing, crying, sleeping and so on. A typical verse runs: Someone's praying, Lord, Kumbaya. "Kumbaya" is a pidgin version of "Come by here." The word repeats as a prayer throughout the song. "And then everyone decided, Let's just make fun of that.". "I guess that song was the ultimate expression of people in the '60s who really cared," said. How did 'Kumbaya' become a mocking metaphor? Why is "Kumbaya" the designated silly-song to represent phony or ineffectual friendliness?. ![]()
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