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Simple Gifts (one movement)

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Frank Ticheli

Frank Ticheli


Subtitle: Simple Gifts. Four Shaker Songs for Adaptable Band


General Info

Year: 1848 / 2002 / 2020
Duration: c. 3:30
Difficulty: III (see Ratings for explanation)
Original Medium: Orchestra
Publisher: Manhattan Beach Music
Cost: Score and Parts (digital) - $50.00


Instrumentation (Adaptable Band)

Each wind section contains four parts (I-II-III-IV)

Full Score
C Treble Clef

  • Flute
  • Oboe

B-flat Treble Clef

  • B-flat Soprano Clarinet
  • B-flat Bass Clarinet
  • B-flat Tenor Saxophone
  • B-flat Trumpet

E-flat Treble Clef

  • E-flat Alto Saxophone
  • E-flat Baritone Saxophone

F Treble Clef

  • Horn in F

C Bass Clef

  • Bassoon
  • Low Brass

Percussion

  • Timpani
  • Mallets
  • Percussion I-II


Errata

None discovered thus far.


Program Notes

THE SHAKERS

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.


THE CREATION OF SIMPLE GIFTS: FOUR SHAKER SONGS

My work is built from four Shaker melodies -- a sensuous nature song, a lively dance tune, a tender lullaby, and most famously, Simple Gifts, the hymn that celebrates the Shaker's love of simplicity and humility. In setting these songs, I sought subtle ways to preserve their simple, straightforward beauty. Melodic freshness and interest were achieved primarily through variations of harmony, of texture, and especially of orchestration.

The finale is a setting of the Shakers' most famous song, Simple Gifts, sometimes attributed to Elder Joseph Bracket (1797-1882) of the Alfred, Maine, community, and also said (in Lebanon, New York, manuscript) as having been received from a Negro spirit at Canterbury, New Hampshire, making Simple Gifts possibly a visionary gift song. It has been used in hundreds of settings, most notably by Aaron Copland in the brilliant set of variations which conclude his Appalachian Spring. Without ever quoting him, my setting begins at Copland's doorstep, and quickly departs. Throughout its little journey, the tune is never abandoned, rarely altered, always exalted.

- Program Note by composer


Media


State Ratings

None discovered thus far.


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Works for Winds by This Composer

Adaptable Music


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