I thought that as we draw closer to Thanksgiving it would be nice to share a folk song centered around gratitude for our Folk Song Fridays series. The Shaker hymn Simple Gifts is such a lovely artifact of the Shaker movement, and is so nice to sing through as you ponder the simple gifts in your own life.
Now, Simple Gifts was in fact a composed song, written in 1848, and we know the composer’s name–Joseph Brackett. In many instances, having such a clear genesis for a song generally disqualifies it as being called a “folk song”–but this song has enmeshed itself so deeply into American culture, and so typifies the Shaker movement that it has become a folk song in its own right. In researching more about this folk song, I even found where variants and later verses were added years and years later–a sure sign that a song has entered folk-territory. It has become music for the every man, to use and change and love and sing, and most importantly, to share.
The Shaker movement is so interesting to me. In so many ways, the founding Shakers were ahead of their time. Their understanding of equality between men and women as well as racial equality is incredible. Reading through their history was wonderful, and I would highly recommend sharing some of it with your children or students. One notable person to share is Hannah Cohoon, an artist in the early Shaker community. Her “gift drawings” are important artifacts that preserved the Shaker’s beliefs and have become the iconic images now associated with the Shaker movement. Her gift drawing “The Tree of Life” is THE image of the Shakers, and I used it as a references as I drew the image on the Song Card for this week. It was so interesting to learn about her and her art as I was researching for this folk song.
One of the notable qualities of Shaker worship was their movement–and this is reflected in the lyrics of song. The “turns” in the song are dance instructions, and “by turning, turning we’ll come round right” is the moment the dancer should return to facing forward as they were in the beginning of the dance. I’ll try to find more instructions on the dance and will update the post if I find more, but for now I have the activity on the card as a passing activity. When the song ends, whoever is holding the object can express something they are grateful for.
There are many masterful performances of this folk song, and it would be such a powerful experience to share a few with your children or students, and compare how different people have adapted the folk song through the years. Additionally, Aaron Copland used Simple Gifts as the foundation for the ending of his work “Appalachian Spring”, which would also be wonderful to share with your students.
You can download the free 4x6 song card by clicking here
Happy Singing!
-Lauren