I understand there are less that ten Quakers left, and I'm sure most of the departed are revolving in their graves over the crass commercialism of this tune (cars, cereal, etc, etc.). It's a wonderful tune and a meaningful lyric.......Tiger

Frank Phillips

My husband is a Quaker and he tells me that originally the description "Quaker" was used as a slur (the official name of the denomination is the "Society of Friends") but they started using the name themselves. And they didn't (don't) quake as a ritual or practice, but they meet silently in meditation and sometimes, some members are moved physically and emotionally by the Spirit of God. Shakers were an offshoot of Quakers, the founder of the Shakers had been a Quaker. They danced ritual dances, but again, shook as a response to the Spirit of God. They lived communaly and were quite innovative. A drawback to Shakers growth was the celibacy part. (Makes it a little hard to recruit and they didn't "grow" new members.) The song Simple Gifts was part of a ritual dance they did as part of their religious practice. For example "When true simplicity is gained...to BOW AND BEND we shant be ashamed. To turn, turn will be our delight, till turning turning we come 'round right. This part describes the movements of the dance. Their are some wonderful settlements in Kentucky if anyone is particularly interested.

Quakers never had a celibacy vow-why do you think they're called the Society of Friends? :-)

Thanks very much for the info.

Frank

There are definitely more than 10 Quakers left.

Now the Shakers...... There is a small sect remaining which refers to themselves as Shakers - not Quakers. Saw them last year at Penrod Festival in Indianapolis where they did a worshipful dance to "Simple Gifts."

I have done just enough research to be able to do a Shaker songs workshop at festivals and such. The references that I came across for Simple Gifts suggest that this was a gift song to Elder Joseph Brackett, Jr. (so we can replace trad and anon as the author) and that when he was dancing while singing it, people remembered seeing his coat tails flying as he sang "to turn and to turn." The idea of the gift song is that it was given to him by a spirit, not necessarily of his own making.

Sabbathday Lake, Maine is the last remaining active community, and the Shakers are no longer accepting new members. There were 24 different communities: mostly in New England, New York, the West (in 1805, that meant Kentucky and Ohio), and one each in Florida and Georgia for a few years around 1900. Mother Ann Lee started the group from a group of Shaking Quakers (who were former Quakers) in 1770 after a vision while she was a prisoner in the Old Bailey in London.

Their earliest songs (vocalizations without words (and no instruments used until much later)) came in the early 1780s. Over the years they developed many letteral forms for music notation (like some threads here are suggesting), and from the good libraries that have preserved their things, there are 8,000-10,000 songs attributed to the Shakers. The songs were first used for dancing but later developed in other ways and did such things as helping converts learn what the religion was about. Songs were generally sung unaccompanied, but at times and in some communities, they did use instruments, and some places had big church organs.

Allinkausay,
Bill