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Shaker Music In Our Time
"My Shaker Home" - A Celebration of Shaker Music in Our Time
A special music program presented
by Shaker music scholar, Roger Hall,with performances by
The Canterbury Singers, Kathryn Southworth, Directorat Canterbury Shaker Village
on November 8, 2025
The program highlighted several important Shaker Sisters
and how they helped preserve their extensive repertoryof Shaker music.
These are the three Shakers who were interviewed by Roger Hall about their music:
© photo by Gail M. Hall
Eldress Bertha Lindsay (1897-1990)
Canterbury, New HampshireShe spoke about Shaker music and sang a few Shaker hymns and songs
during an interview at Canterbury in 1972
© photo by Gail M. Hall
Sister Bertha Lillian Phelps (1876-1973)
at Canterbury, New Hampshire community,
composer of "My Shaker Home", a pianist,
and author of a booklet about Shaker music
© photo by Gail M. Hall
Sister Ruth Mildred Barker (1897-1990)
at Alfred and Sabbathday Lake, Maine communities,
a singer and author of articles on Maine Shaker history and musicians
Roger Lee Hall has been a Shaker music preservationist
and has researched and performed Shaker music for over 50 years.
Read about his many years of Shaker music research and performance -- hereHis audio interviews with the three Shakers mentioned above
are included on this CD-ROM or USB Flash Drive:
This music collection contains music from
all the major Shaker communities in America
Music book
Accompanying CD
Both Sister Lillian Phelps and Sister Mildred Barker
were narrators on a ten LP record set
produced in 1961 by Cleveland disc jockey and college professor,
Bill Randle, titled
Two of the ten LP records were about their music
and were later released on Rounder Records on a highly rated popular 2-CD set,
with a 72 page illustrated booklet written by Roger Hall.
This 2CD set is titled:
Arrangements
An arrangement is a piece of music that has been significantly altered, such as adding new voice parts and keyboard or with other instrumental accompaniment.
For example,"Love is Little," a Shaker song that was originally just melody only. It was arranged into a four part chorus (soprano-Alto-Tenor-Bass) by Roger Hall.Examples of Shaker arrangements are found in the Music Supplement of
"Invitation to Zion" - A Shaker Music Guide.
See these web listings:
Shaker music arrangements by Roger HallShaker music arrangements by Kevin Siegfried
Editions
An edition is basically the original music itself with only minor changes such as the best key for singing.
No significant alterations are made to the original music.
Examples of this are found in Daniel Patterson's The Shaker Spiritual
and Roger Hall's Love is Little: A Sampling of Shaker Spirituals [shown at left].
See the music editions listed at
There are also recordings with edited Shaker music at
Whichever type is used for performance,
the arranger or editor should always be credited in concerts or recordings.Remember that original Shaker music may be in public domain, but much of it would not be available for performance
if it were not for the work of the arrangers and editors. They deserve to be recognized for their work.One example of a Shaker song with both an edition and arrangement is by the last Shaker male from a Massachusetts
Shaker community, Brother Ricardo Belden. He was interviewed in the mid-1950s by Jerome Count from
the Shaker Village Work Camp in New Lebanon, NY.
Brother Ricardo sang one Shaker song during the recorded interview,
"Living Souls, Let's Be Marching" which is included on this CD:Gentle Words - A Shaker Music Sampler
Are you looking for Shaker music to perform or research for an article or book?
See the 56 Shaker songs and hymns listed in the Shaker Music Series
Latest Music Publications
To read about this massive multi-media collection from 2024
with over 500 files including 100 audio examples -- click here
To read about this book and accompanying CD -- click here
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Four Music Collections
"Invitation to Zion" - A Shaker Music Guide
"More Love" - A Shaker Music Legacy
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CDs with arrangements of Shaker tunes
Both original Shaker tunes and arrangements
of Shaker songs and hymns are included on this CD:Celestial Praises: A Celebration of Shaker Spirituals (AMRC CD 0017)
Includes original and arranged Shaker tunes
plus singing by several Shaker Sisters
and excerpt from an interview with
composer, Aaron Copland -- click here
Music Program
Would you like to schedule a program about Shaker music for your group, either in-person or on the Web?
Are you interested in scheduling an entertaining music program with Roger Lee Hall
To inquire about a Shaker music program either in person or as a webinar -- click here
Would you like to perform Shaker music with a choir in church or other location?
Roger Lee Hall has arranged many Shaker tunes over the years and some of them have been recorded.
See his list of Shaker music arrangements -- click here
If you have any questions, write to:
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