Simple Gifts
Dean included Simple Gifts on his 2008 CD, Give Us a Song. The arrangement employs a finger-style guitar and vocal accompaniment to bring a fresh sound to Simple Gifts while keeping the song's unobstructed folk quality. The recording is available at CD Baby and iTunes.
Dean included this rendition of Simple Gifts in a performance at Southport Christian Church, Indianapolis, Ind., in October 2009.
I became most acquainted with the song as a member of the University of Kentucky Choristers. In the spring of 1979, the Choristers began an annual reactment of a Shaker worship service at the Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill, Ky. As I say in the video intro, that experience and that music have never turned loose of me.
The Shaker hymn, Simple Gifts, was composed by Elder Joseph Brackett in 1848. It was part of the worship life of the Shaker faith community as a dance song and became one of the best known American folk melodies.
Aaron Copeland used the melody in the seventh section of his ballet, Appalachian Spring. John Williams also used the melody in Air and Simple Gifts, a piece arranged for the inauguration of President Barack Obama. The tune is also the basis for the song Lord of the Dance.
Helpful Links
- Learn about the Shakers at the Hancock Shaker Village web site
- The Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill, Ky.
- Music of the Shakers