Simple Gifts

Elder Joseph Brackett (1797 to 1882) of the Shaker community in Maine is credited with the song in 1848. Shaker manuscripts mark it as a dancing song, and the lines about turning may be dance directions as much as faith. Brackett said the tune came to him by inspiration, though its first part is close to a Swedish schottische, "Johan på Snippen," and to Danish, Finnish and Dutch tunes.

Outside the Shakers few knew it until Aaron Copland used the melody in Appalachian Spring, Martha Graham's ballet, in 1944. Sydney Carter later rewrote the tune and words as "Lord of the Dance," and New England fiddlers play it as a contra march.