"Gentle Words"

A Shaker Song Discovery

 

Words to the Shaker song:

What the dew is to the flower,
Gentle words are to the soul,
And a blessing to the giver,
And so dear to the receiver
We should never withhold.
Gentle words, kindly spoken,
Often soothe the troubled mind,
While links of love are broken
By words that are unkind.
Then O, thou gentle spirit,
My constant Guardian be,
"Do to others," be my motto,
"As I'd have them do to me."

 

What is not generally known is a large amount of Shaker music was written by women throughout their history.

Back in 1974, while collecting research for my first music collection, I discovered the beautiful song, "Gentle Words," in a manuscript music book at the Shaker Historical Society in Ohio in alphabet music notation. I was immediately impressed with the song's poetic beauty, including the last two lines which are a paraphrase of the Golden Rule from the Bible. Also the lovely tune.

This song had been collected by Alma McGill Stoll (1855-1940), who lived with the Shakers from 1858 to 1877.

Her manuscript book was titled:

"A Collection of Songs, Hymns and Anthems, Selected and Written by Alma McGill, North Union, Ohio, April 21st 1872."

The North Union Shaker community was disbanded in 1889 and eventually became what is today the city of Shaker Heights, Ohio.

Alma McGill left the Shakers and married a man who had also lived with the North Union Shakers, Joseph Stoll (1857-1935). After her passing her daughter donated her Shaker music book to the Historical Society where I first noticed it.

In her music book it contains music from these Shaker communities:

North Union, Ohio
Pleasant Hill, Kentucky
Canterbury, New Hampshire
Union Village, Ohio
Alfred, Maine
Groveland, New York
New Lebanon, New York
White Water, Ohio
Enfield, New Hampshire
New Gloucester (today - Sabbathday Lake), Maine

In her book, "Gentle Words" is credited to "PMR P. Hill" who was Polly M. Rupe from the Shaker community of Pleasant Hill, Kentucky.

This Shaker humility song was composed about 1867, just after the end of the Civil War. It was written perhaps as a reaction to the horrors of that conflict.

My edited version of "Gentle Words," along with another song found in Alma McGill's music book, "Slow March" by Ephraim Frost, was published in my first music collection, A Western Shaker Music Sampler (Cleveland, Ohio: Western Reserve Historical Society, 1976). That was the first published edition of "Gentle Words."

Over the years I have performed the song in various concerts. With several other singers we performed tthe song at a Friends of the Shakers meeting at Sabbathday Lake, Maine in 1976. After that program, I was surprised but pleased when Sister Mildred Barker told me she remembered that song from her youth when she lived at the Shaker community in Alfred, Maine. Sister Marie Burgess was so moved by the words that she recited them in Sunday worship the next day at Sabbathday Lake.

I arranged "Gentle Words" for SATB chorus in 1976 and the first recording of it was performed by the Plymouth Church Choir of Shaker Heights, Ohio under the direction of John D. Herr on this CD:

Later I found a slightly different version of "Gentle Words" in a Canterbury, New Hampshire Shaker music book and my edition of that version was published in The Shaker Messenger magazine.

Since that time, this humility song has been recorded by others like the Enfield Shaker Singers, directed by Mary Ann Haagen, and by Randy Folger, the former music interpreter at the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Kentucky.

Also, it has been recorded on a CD performed by The Tudor Choir. It was my edition of "Gentle Words"that was used as source material by Kevin Siegfried for his arrangement on that CD.

Since I first discovered it back in 1974 at the Shaker Historical Society in Ohio, "Gentle Words" has become a meaningful song to those who feel the impact of its message of tolerance and speaking with "links of love" rather than "by words that are unkind."

--- Roger Lee Hall, 2019

More about music of the North Union Shakers is available on this computer research disc:

 

 

 

"Gentle Words" is sung by Colleen Liggett on this highly praised CD:

 

 

Book on Shaker Music

This informative book contains the lyrics and sources for all 25 Shaker songs, hymns and anthems on the CD. These Shaker spirituals originated in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, and Kentucky.

The book also includes a great deal of historical information and a rare interview with two past Canterbury Shaker sisters plus an interview with composer, Aaron Copland, who arranged the popular Shaker song, "Simple Gifts" aka: "'Tis the gift to be simple" in his ballet score, Appalachian Spring, also a vocal arrangement in his "Old American Songs."

There is also a choral arrangement (S-A-T-B) of "Gentle Words" by the author in the back of the book --

 

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