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Shaker Gift Song, A

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Frank Ticheli

Frank Ticheli


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General Info

Year: 2004
Duration: c. 2:10
Difficulty: II (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Manhattan Beach Music
Cost: Score and Parts (print) - $95.00   |   Score Only (print) - $15.00


Instrumentation

Full Score
Flute I-II
Oboe
Bassoon
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III
B-flat Bass Clarinet
E-flat Alto Saxophone I-II
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
B-flat Trumpet I-II-III
Horn in F
Trombone I-II
Euphonium
Tuba
Percussion I-II

(percussion detail desired)


Errata

None discovered thus far.


Program Notes

The Shakers were a religious sect who splintered from a Quaker community in the mid-1700s in Manchester, England. Known then derisively as "Shaking Quakers" because of the passionate shaking that would occur during their religious services, they were viewed as radicals, and their members were sometimes harassed and even imprisoned by the English. One of those imprisoned, Ann Lee, was named official leader of the church upon her release in 1772. Two years later, driven by her vision of a holy sanctuary in the New World, she led a small group of followers to the shores of America where they founded a colony in rural New York.

The Shakers were pacifists who kept a very low profile, and their membership increased only modestly during the decades following their arrival. At their peak in the 1830s, there were some 6,000 members in nineteen communities interspersed between Maine and Kentucky. Soon after the Civil War their membership declined dramatically. Their practice of intense simplicity and celibacy accounts for much of their decline.

Today there is only one active Shaker community remaining, the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village in New Gloucester, Maine. They maintain a Shaker library, a Shaker museum, and a website at www.shaker.lib.me.us.

The Shakers were known for their architecture, crafts, furniture, and perhaps most notably, their songs. Shaker songs were traditionally sung in unison without instrumental accompaniment. Singing and dancing were vital components of Shaker worship and everyday life. Over 8,000 songs in some 800 songbooks were created, most of them during the 1830s to 1860s in Shaker communities throughout New England.

A Shaker Gift Song is a separate publication of the third song from Simple Gifts: Four Shaker Songs. The idea for separately publishing this movement came from a middle school band director, who thought it ideal for Grade 2 bands. It is based on the Shaker lullaby, Here Take This Lovely Flower, found in Dorothy Berliner Commin's extraordinary collection, Lullabies of the World, and in Daniel W. Patterson's monumental collection, The Shaker Spiritual.

This song is an example of the phenomenon of the gift song, music received from spirits by Shaker mediums while in trance (see pp. 316 ff. in Patterson, op. cit., for a detailed account, and also Harold E. Cook's Shaker Music: A Manifestation of American Folk Culture, pp. 52 ff.). Although the Shakers practiced celibacy, there were many children in their communities, including the children of recent converts as well as orphans whom they took in. Like many Shaker songs, this lullaby embodies the Shakers' ideal of childlike simplicity.

- Program Note from publisher


Media

State Ratings

  • Florida: II
  • Georgia: II
  • Indiana: ISSMA JUNIOR BAND GROUP II
  • Kansas: III
  • Maryland: II
  • Tennessee: II


Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project


Works for Winds by This Composer

Adaptable Music


All Wind Works


Resources

  • Frank Ticheli website Accessed 6 July 2020
  • Ticheli, F. (2004). A Shaker Gift Song [score]. Manhattan Beach Music: Brooklyn, N.Y.
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