Product Description
Simple Gifts Shaker Hymn for Brass Quintet Transcribed by Jari Villanueva
Brass Quintet
2 Trumpets in Bb
Horn
Trombone
Tuba
The tune was written by Joseph
Brackett (17971882) in 1848.[Brackett, a lifelong resident of Maine,
first joined the Shakers at Gorham, Maine, when his father's farm helped
to form the nucleus of a new Shaker settlement.
The song was largely unknown outside Shaker communities
until Aaron Copland used its melody for the score of Martha
Graham's ballet Appalachian Spring (Shakers once worshipped
on Holy Mount, in the Appalachians), first performed in 1944. Copland used
"Simple Gifts" a second time in 1950 in his first set of Old
American Songs for voice and piano, which was later orchestrated. Many
people thought that the tune of "Simple Gifts" was a traditional
Celtic one but both the music and original lyrics are actually the compositions
of Brackett. "Simple Gifts" has been adapted or arranged many times
since by folksingers and composers.
https://youtu.be/wltpp5uMTFQ
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