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Festive Piece on "Simple Gifts" for piano, four hands.
arranged by Joseph M. Martin. GlorySound/Shawnee Press, Inc. (49 Waring Dr., P.O. Box 690, Delaware Water Gap, PA 18327), 2002. 10 pp., $9.95. Advanced.
Inspired by the occasion of the arranger's twentieth wedding anniversary and certainly the worlds "my gift from the Lord," this short (five pages for each part) four-hand composition reflects the compositional style.
The piece has frequent half-step upward modulations, as well as a generally exhilarating and fervent celebratory mood. Beginning in F major and ending triumphantly in D major with double thirds, augmentation and diminution of the familiar melody, this version of "Simple Gifts" is far from the original Shaker tune composed in 1848 by Shaker Elder Joseph Brackett, Jr. Usually performed as a round, the Martin ...
- Struggling to Define a Nation: American Music and the Twentieth Century
- Magazine article from: The American Music Teacher Drucker, Arno February 1, 2009 700+ words
...work. In the author's own words: "It may be a struggle to define a nation, but it can be an exhilarating one." -Reviewed by Arno Drucker, Baltimore, Maryland [Author Affiliation] Reviewed by Arno Drucker, Baltimore, Maryland
- Arts Dispatches
- Newspaper article from: Portland Press Herald (Maine) Bob Keyes, Compiled by Bob Keyes, Staff Writer November 15, 2009 700+ words
...gala, '"Tis the Gift," from the first three words of the famous Shaker song. "Tis the Gift" was written by Elder Joseph Brackett, who was born in Cumberland on May 6, 1797, and lived in Gorham and Poland Springs, before settling in the Shaker community...
- Simple Gifts
- Reference information from: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music MICHAEL KENNEDY and JOYCE BOURNE January 1, 1996 700+ words
Simple Gifts (or The Gift to be Simple ) . Shaker hymn, probably comp. 1848 in Shaker community in Alfred, Maine, by Joseph Brackett (1797–1882). Quoted by Copland in Appalachian Spring ; he also arr. it in his first set of Old American Songs (1950).
- Keyboard -- Czech Piano Music selected and edited by Rudolf Firkusny
- Magazine article from: The American Music Teacher Drucker, Arno June 1, 1996 700+ words
...and have a relaxed charm that will please audiences and performers. This is a handsome volume of 181 pages, well worth the price and containing pieces undoubtedly known by few pianists. Reviewed by Arno Drucker, Baltimore, Maryland.
- `Simple'-Minded; The Ad World Appropriates a Shaker Hymn
- Newspaper article from: The Washington Post Elizabeth Kastor February 22, 1995 700+ words
...It just works wonderfully when you're cutting to a car in motion." Which may not have been exactly what Shaker elder Joseph Brackett had in mind when he wrote the song. When true simplicity is gained To bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed, To turn...
- Shakers step up to a New York stage.(Features)(Arts & Leisure)(Short Takes)
- Newspaper article from: The Christian Science Monitor October 22, 1999 700+ words
...gift to be simple/ 'tis the gift to be free;/ 'tis the gift to come down where we ought to be.") Written by Elder Joseph Brackett around 1875, it became a memorable theme in Aaron Copland's "Appalachian Spring" (1944), perhaps the best-known...
- Shakers Sing Out - for the Record
- Newspaper article from: Chicago Sun-Times MARY CAMPBELL February 4, 1996 700+ words
...Shaker Chants and Spirituals." The title comes from the Shakers' best-known song, "Simple Gifts," which Elder Joseph Brackett composed in Alfred, Maine, in 1848. Are the Shakers joining a boomlet of esoteric religious recordings started two years...
- SINGING SHAKERS STILL MAKE A JOYFUL NOISE THEY WILL PASS ON MELODY IN...
- Newspaper article from: Albany Times Union (Albany, NY) August 22, 1991 700+ words
...celebrating their sect in music. Perhaps most famous of their songs is "Simple Gifts," a work written in 1847 by Elder Joseph Brackett and adapted by Aaron Copland in his piece, "Appalachian Song." The song has also been recorded by Judy Collins. It...
