"My Shaker Home"

A 50th Anniversary Memorial Tribute

to

Sister Bertha Lillian Phelps (1876-1973)
© photograph by Gail M. Hall, 1972

 

Sister Lillian Phelps was born in East Boston, Massachusetts on 22 November 1876.
In 1892, she went to visit the Shakers at Canterbury at the age of 16. She signed the covenant to become a member of the Shaker community in 1899. She remained there until her passing at the age of 96 on 31 May 1973. As the accompanist at Canterbury, she was the organist at the Chapel and accompanist for the Qui Vive Quartet. She also composed a few Shaker hymns,
including "Tarry Not" which is the next to last hymn in the 1908 Canterbury Shaker hymnal.

 

Last known original Shaker song from the 20th century

In 2009, Roger Hall was collecting research at the Canterbury Shaker Village Library
for an upcoming music program and discovered a song composed in July of 1959
by Sister Lillian Phelps, which had never been published anywhere.
He made an new modern edition of the song, then a few years later, he arranged "My Shaker Home" for voice and piano. It was performed by Jim Miller and Karol Carroll, accompanied by Katie and Samantha Allman, violins, and Kathryn Southworth, piano on this AMRC CD:

"My Shaker Home," composed by Sister Lillian Phelps in 1959, was the last original Shaker song composed in the 20th century. This has been confirmed by Darryl Thompson, who asked his dad, former Canterbury museum curator, Charles (Bud) Thompson, and he remembered this song being sung many years ago while he was driving the Shaker sisters and they were coming back from a trip and how they felt about their return, as the song describes it:

"On the top of the hill, so quiet and still is my lovely Shaker home."

This CD (AMRC 0048) is only available from this website.
To read how to order -- click here

A message from the record producer

"In March of 1972, I spent two days interviewing the last two Shaker musicians at Canterbury, New Hampshire. The highlight of those interviews was when 75-year old Eldress Bertha Lindsay sang and 95-year old Sister Lillian Phelps accompanied her at the piano and she played entirely from memory.I'll never forget how inspiring it was listening to these two elderly Shakers show such deep devotion to their spiritual music."

-- Roger Lee Hall, music preservationist

Excerpts from his 1972 interview are included on this CD-ROM
with audio and video bonus files:

 

In 1960 a series of recordings were made by popular Cleveland disc jockey, Bill Randle, who had promoted Elvis Presley in his early years and introduced him on national television in 1956.

Bill Randle produced with his own money a massive 10 LP album set in 1961 which was titled:

 

This 10 LP box set featured all aspects of Shaker culture and was based on lectures given by Shakers from Canterbury and Sabbathday Lake, Maine in 1959 and 1960. It remains the most authoritative description of Shaker history from the 20th century. Read more about it -- click here

Two of the albums in that set were devoted to Shaker music. In 1999, those albums were edited by Roger Hall, who included his interviews from 1972 and 1980 on a 2 CD set with a 72 page illustrated booklet from Rounder Records titled:

 

One of Sister Lillian's original songs was written in 1914 and begins:

Let mine be the hand to reach out to the wayward,
Let mine be the voice to speak courage and hope.
Let mine be the heart that loves to the uttermost,
The needy with whom God has called me to walk.

Her song was sung by Eldress Bertha Lindsay on the Let Zion Move 2-CD set.
This song has been transcribed and edited by Roger Hall.

 

 

 

This CD is dedicated to the memory of two Shaker musicians
who spoke with Roger about their music:
Sister Lillian Phelps and Sister Mildred Barker.

Both were dedicated to their Shaker faith
and expressed it beautifully in their love of music.

To read about the CELESTIAL PRAISES CD (AMRC 0017) -- click here

 

 

 

The expanded 3rd edition of this popular book
includes Sister Lillian's history of Shaker music and
highlights from the 1972 interview, plus the lyrics to 25 Shaker spirituals,
and at the back of the book a new Music Supplement:
"A Shaker Song Quartet" arranged by Roger Lee Hall.

To read about this book -- click here

 

 

 

 

For any questions or comments -- click here

 

 

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