One of the English language’s most recognized and performed songs is Happy Birthday to You, which first appeared between 1893 and 1912 as new age-grading standards in American schools increased the need for a common celebratory song (E. Pleck). HBTY is a derivative work combing the generally-assumed-to-be-folk lyrics with the tune of Good Morning to All, a melody written by and copyright to Mildred J. Hill in 1983. The original GMTA lyrics were penned by her sister, Patty Smith Hill. According to the Warner Music Group, HBTY will remain under copyright in the U.S. Until 2030 - an assertion that is contested in detail by Professor Robert Brauneis in his paper Copyright and the World’s Most Popular Song (PDF).

Often when people learn that HBTY is under copyright, they’re shocked. There are understandable reasons why - it’s assumed timelessness combined with it’s frequent use give the song thefeeling of being public domain. In contrast to feelings & assumptions, Brauneis’ account favors facts and official legal documents. He asserts HBTY’s success (copyright or not) is rooted largely in the fact that GMTA itself was “…the product of a highly focused, laborious effort to write a song that was extremely simple to sing, yet musically interesting and emotionally expressive…”. From there, the story of its copyright status becomes compelling and complex.

While I don’t think the © claim has two legs to stand on, it’s not my focus here. With this post I’m primarily hoping to draw attention to GMTA authors Patty and Mildred Hill, and their respective roles as pioneering women; leaders in progressive education and musicology. Perhaps they’ll someday be inducted to the National Womens’ Hall of Fame. 

Mildred Takes Note

In 1892 one Johann Tonsor wrote an article for the journal Music entitled “Negro Music”. Containing transcriptions of traditional melodies, the article discussed syncopation, the blues scale and “blue notes”. The article suggested these themes were the seeds for what would grow to become a distinctively unique American national music. For readers of the day, it may have been shocking to read “When our American musical Messiah sees fit to be born he will then find ready to his hand a mass of lyrical and dramatic themes with which to construct a distinctively American music.” with regards to African-American song. The reader would be even more surprised to learn that Tonsor was actually the pen-name of a woman, Mildred J. Hill. 

In 1893 Mildred and Patty began working on a songbook, Song Stories for the Kindergarten, with the goal of providing children with expressive, emotional music of quality that encouraged participation. The Hills adapted Mildred’s original melodies such as GMTA, to fit the limited singing range of young children. Her drafts, equipped with easy and repetitive intervals, were brought into the classroom, tested, and then later modified as needed so that even the youngest kids could participate. Noting that symmetry, repetition, and variation were all used to make a work like Good Morning to All memorable and interesting, Professor Burton (former Heritage Chair in Music at George Mason) suggests that Mildred’s studies of African-American music “undoubtedly had strong influence on this type of motivic construction…”

Just to recap as I find this especially bad-ass: In the late 1800s a woman musicologist published an appreciative understanding of African-American musical themes, and used that understanding to not only make accurate predictions about the future of American music, but to help revolutionize how teachers and young children interact.

Mildred once described local rail workers’ use of songs to assist with their labors, noting the often heard lyrics “Another good man gone, gone, gone.” were sung in perfect time to the process of (1) taking hold of a rail, (2) lifting it, (3) moving it, and (4) placing it down. With the assistance of a few line breaks, her exact words form what feels to me like a nice little poem, or Fluxus-style performance score:

Take hold,
lift, 
move over, 
put down.

Patty Hill’s Creative Blocks

Born March 27th 1868, Patty Hill’s life was one dedicated to education. An emotive writer and speaker, her involvement with Song Stories for the Kindergarten is but one of many great moments in a distinguished 50+ year career.

In 1887 the Louisville Free Kindergarten Association was formed; Anna E. Bryan, a recruit from the Chicago chapter, was appointed director. One of Bryan’s first students was Patty, who focused on the then-unorthodox study of play. In her valedictorian speech she spoke sadly of Adam and Eve’s lack of childhood (play time). Soon after, Patty herself would head up the Association. The school flourished as directors were taught to pay special attention to activities like singing, playing games, and painting - always allowing the child to take a lead and be personally expressive. Her efforts were noticed - in 1905 Dean Earl Russel of Columbia Teachers College sent an invitation to the “young radical in the South.” She would spend the next 30 years along-side the world’s leaders in education.

There, colleague John Dewey’s methodology helped Hill develop the Patty Hill Blocks, a set of building blocks, sliding boards, and climbing apparatus large enough for children to use in the building of advanced structures. The wildly popular blocks encouraged the child’s understanding of both leadership and supporting roles in team-based activities.

By 1910 Hill was promoted to Head of the Department of Kindergarten Education, an achievement unheard of for a woman at the time, let alone one with no formal degree. There’s a lot more to the story including Hill’s role in the formation of the National Association of Nursery Education (NAEYC), and later efforts to improve low-income neighborhoods around Columbia University. As we enter a new era of play and gaming in the classroom (NY Times), I felt it’s a good time for us to look back on Patty’s efforts with a renewed sense of appreciation. Thx 4 the games, P.

Further Reading

Mildred Hill’s collections of hymnals and spirituals (PDF): One and Two
Dauntless Women in Childhood Education by Agnes Snyder (PDF) 
History of Music in Louisville by Mildred J. Hill (PDF)