Simple Gifts

You get an mp3 of the recording and a pdf of the arrangement. This classic Shaker song, composed in 1848 probably by Elder Joseph Brackett from the Alfred Shaker Village, was arranged for the Guilford Community Church and performed here by Peter, Mary Alice, soloists joined by the Starry Mountain Singers.  This also works as a piano/unison piece, having the piano play the vocal parts to solo or unison singing.

Here is a simple accordion/banjo/solo arrangement Mary Alice and then-soprano Sam Amidon sang (Mary Alice accordion, Peter banjo) for the Amidons’ 1991 “This Pretty Planet” album.

‘Tis a gift to be simple, ’tis a gift to be free,
‘Tis a gift to come down where you aught to be,
And when you find yourself in the place just right,
T’will 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, to turn will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come round right.