Shaker Music
in
America
The 19th century
Shaker Hymns
About 1805, the first hymns were written down with text only, without any tunes. The first printed Shaker hymnbook, Millennial Praises, was printed at Hancock, Massachusetts in 1813 and had 140 hymn texts but no tunes. But there were tunes written down in the manuscript volumes.
These are a few of the prominent hymns in Millennial Praises:
Mother -- a ballad hymn by Elder Richard McNemar which tells the story of early Shakerism and Mother Ann Lee's journey from England to America.
Rights of Conscience -- a hymn by Elder Issachar Bates which begins with a tribute to George Washington (first six verses), then details the trials and tribulations of the early Shakers.
One of the early hymns, "The Happy Journey," was included in a Shaker manuscript journal compiled by Thomas Hammond from the Harvard Shaker Community in Massachusetts. The entry is dated 1808 and the tune is written in
Shaker letteral notation. The journal entry reads as follows:
August 18. Richard Merrill, Joshua Goodrich, Levina Goodrich & Betty David came from Hancock. Joshua learned our brethren & sisters the song to the Happy Journey.
This is the manuscript journal page...
This hymn from Hancock was reproduced in the music collection: The Happy Journey: Thirty-five Shaker Spirituals Compiled by Miss Clara Endicott Sears (Fruitlands Museums, 1982), and was also included on the CD: Love is Little: A Sampling of Shaker Spirituals
Like the hymns, songs also had texts but usually with only one verse.
By the 1850s, thousands of hymns and songs had been written.
After the Civil War, the number of single line songs declined but harmonized hymns (SATB) remained strong throughout the remainder of the 19th century.
Shaker Anthems
Around 1815, the third type of Shaker music was introduced -- the anthem.
This was a longer piece of unrhymed music, similar to anthems by New England composers like William Billings and Jacob French.
One of the most prominent early anthems was "Mount Zion"
by Elder Issachar Bates, composed about 1815, as shown in this
manuscript copy...
"Mount Zion" is performed by Carolyn Dickson on the CD,
Gentle Words: A Shaker Music Sampler
This anthem was included in the first published Shaker hymnal with music, A Sacred Repository of Anthems and Hymns,
printed in 1852 at Canterbury, New Hampshire
by this Shaker leader...
Elder Henry C. Blinn
Issachar Bates had been a fifer in the American Revolution and a Baptist song leader before he joined the Shakers in 1801.
He was the first Shaker tunesmith and later made missionary journeys to Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, and was also a church elder at various communities before returning to New Lebanon, NY in 1835.
His best known spiritual was the dance song, "Come Life, Shaker Life."
A much later anthem was Elder James Russell's 1883 anthem,
"Millennial Praise" [recorded on Gentle Words].
All three types of Shaker music (songs, hymns, and anthems)
continued to be written throughout the 19th century.
Music Collection
The words and music for many 19th century Shaker titles are included in the songbook and accompanying CD titled:
Love is Little: A Sampling of Shaker Spirituals
This CD and songbook has 36 Shaker spirituals representing all the major Shaker communities, from Maine to Kentucky.
The collection has a representativeselection of different types of Shaker music, such as dance songs, gift songs, greeting songs, humility songs, march songs, anthem and gospel hymns. In addition to the words and music for all the spirituals, there are also extensive notes and a bibliography of Shaker collections and editions.
The best known 19th century Shaker song is "Simple Gifts" (also known by its first line:
'Tis the gift to be simple). It was composed
at Alfred, Maine. Unfortunately, this song is often incorrectly identified as a "Traditional Shaker Hymn." Actually it is NOT a hymn. Read all about it at this link:
Joseph Brackett's "Simple Gifts"
More>
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