Reprinted from:
The Bulletin of The Society for American Music
Volume XLV, No. 2 (Spring 2019)
Aaron Copland’s “Simple Gifts” in Appalachian Spring
by Roger Lee Hall
On the seventy-fifth anniversary of the premiere of Appalachian Spring at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, this seems an appropriate time to provide background about the folk tune that Aaron Copland chose to use in his ballet score. As the Shaker lyrics say, it is time that “we come round right” and correct the errors about the song. First, the Shakers never titled it “The Gift to be Simple” in their music manuscripts. Nor does the song begin: “‘tis a gift to be simple.” They did not consider it a hymn either, which is how it is often classified today. Shaker hymns usually have more than one verse. “Simple Gifts” has only one verse in two equal strains of eight measures each
and both are repeated (AA/BB)
with these lyrics:
‘Tis the gift to be simple, ‘tis the gift to be free,
‘Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be;
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
‘Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gain’d,
To bow and to bend we shan’t be ashamed,
To turn, turn will be our delight
‘Till by turning, turning we come round right.
The last few lines of the song refer to choreographic instructions since Shaker manuscripts identified it as a “quick dance” or as simply a “dancing song.” The words and music for the song were by Elder Joseph Brackett (1797–1882), a prominent Maine Shaker leader who composed it in Alfred, Maine in 1848.1
How and why did Copland choose to use the “Simple Gifts” song in his Appalachian Spring ballet score? I asked Copland those questions in a lengthy interview with him at his home on July 21, 1980. He said that he had “found a book in a library and the book had the title of that Shaker song.” So, he naturally looked at that tune in the book. In fact, the title of the book by Edward Deming Andrews, published in 1940, was The Gift to be Simple. That title has caused confusion among some who claim it was the same title as the Shaker song which is untrue.
Copland also said he had heard about the Shakers from Martha Graham and was curious about their music. His answer to my question about why he chose that tune was more descriptive:
"It’s very curious. It’s kind of an instinctive feeling of empathy with a tune. I can play a tune out of a collection and think, “Gee, this is a very good tune, but I could never work with it.” I can’t tell you why. I’m just not that interested or there is something about it that puts me off a bit. Or, on the other hand, I’ll play something and immediately I’ll know—'Oh, that I could work with.' It’s hard to analyze really."
Graham also sensed the importance of the Shakers and Copland’s use of the tune in Appalachian Spring when she said that section
would “stay with people and
give
them great joy.”2
I also asked Copland if he especially liked “Simple Gifts” since he used it a second time in his vocal arrangement for Old American Songs I in 1950. He replied:
"I was particularly fond of it. I had a book full of tunes. I didn’t have to pick that one. I’ll immediately know what tune attracts me and what one doesn’t. I can see that the other tune is just as good really, but I don’t have that immediate feeling of it belonging to me for some curious reason."3
Copland meeting Sister Mildred Barker in 1974;
© Photo by Gail Hall
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It seems mainly from Copland’s arrangement of this Shaker song in his ballet score that the song has become known worldwide. Some may wonder if Copland ever met any Shaker members. Through a happy coincidence, Copland was invited to a week-long celebration of his music by the Cleveland Orchestra. At the same time, in the neighboring city of Shaker Heights, Ohio, several Shaker members were there to present a workshop for teachers. After phoning him at his hotel, I was able to set up a meeting between Copland and several Shakers from Sabbathday Lake, Maine. They met on November 9, 1974 at a music librarian’s home and Copland graciously signed a vocal arrangement of “Simple Gifts”
for two of the Shakers.4 This was the only meeting between Copland and the Shakers.
Elder Joseph Brackett would probably never have guessed that nearly one hundred years later, his simple dance song would be rediscovered and used by a prominent American composer and later be considered one of the great American religious folk songs. It seems appropriate that Copland happened to choose a Shaker dance tune for his Variations on it in Appalachian Spring. As Diana Van Kolken wrote in her book about this religious community: “The Shakers were spiritual pioneers, and when we look at them, we see something of ourselves.”5
Notes
1 See Roger Lee Hall, “Simple Gifts”: Great American Folk Song, 2nd ed.
(PineTree Press, 2019), 25–34.
2 Annegret Fauser, Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2017), 41.
3 All Copland quotes are from the interview on July 21, 1980.
See “Simple Gifts”, 61-63. Also, the audio recording,
“A Conversation with Aaron Copland,”
American Music Recordings Collection CD 0005, 2000.
4 See “Aaron Copland Meets The Shakers,”
American Music Preservation, last modified November 2014, www.americanmusicpreservation.com/CoplandMeetsTheShakers.htm.
5 Introducing the Shakers: An Explanation and Directory (Gabriel’s Horn Publishing Company, 1985); quoted in David Vanderhamm,
“Simple Shaker Folk: Appropriation, American Identity, and Appalachian Spring,”
American Music 36, no. 4 (Winter 2018), 521.
