Well, what better way to begin the week --- as Thanksgiving approaches --- than with "Simple Gifts," a Shaker dance song now sometimes classified as a hymn, performed here by the Gay Mens Chorus of Los Angeles.
Like many others my age I heard the tune first --- as the principal theme in Aaron Copland's 1945 orchestral suite adapted from his 1944 score for the Martha Graham ballet named "Appalachian Spring" although it really had nothing to do with Appalachia and we're free to debate whether "spring" refers to the season or to a source of living water.
The composer was Elder Joseph Brackett and the date, 1848, during a time when he was a member of the Shaker community at Alfred, Maine.
Although his words seem to preach, it seems to have been created primarily for dance. Shakers, among many creative American religious expressions of the first half of the 19th century, were big on integrating faith and life, including religious expression and dance.
'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 gained,
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.
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