“To Bow and to Bend”: The Musical Life of the American Shakers

The Shaker movement began in the mid-18th century in Manchester, England, as a radical sect that practiced frenzied religious observances, hence their name, “Shaking Quakers.” Due to persecution there, several members fled in 1774 to the American colonies, guided by their first spiritual leader, Ann Lee (1736-1784). A highly charismatic figure, Lee and her followers spread their Pentecostal message throughout New England during the following years until her death in 1784. After her passing, American-born leaders took upon the task of establishing Shaker communities, isolated from the larger world, where members could practice the precepts taught by Lee considering celibacy, sharing of all possessions and love of fellow men. Shaker ideal influenced the American psyche in important ways, from the strong pacifism exercised by Shakers to the uncomplicated aesthetics of their famous furniture. Their belief in a simple lifestyle (as expressed in the song “’Tis a gift to be simple”) has served as an intellectual successor to the New England tradition of thought represented by Thoreau and Emerson.
The core repertory of the last remaining Shaker community still active in the United States, located in Sabbathday Lake, Maine, was recorded there in 1989. These anthems, hymns and folk spirituals have been largely transmitted orally from generation to generation since the arrival of the first Shakers in America 250 years ago. They therefore constitute an important treasure of American folk culture, a culture that, for its much-diminished numbers, is still emphatically alive and active.
Many Shaker songs are said to have been “inspired”; that is, a Shaker received the melody and text as a “gift” from a spirit. It has been estimated that thousands of such “gift songs” were received in the 1830s and 1840s. Shaker songs have strong ties to both the hymnody of the Protestant church and to Anglo-American folk song. Anthems have a regular structure and contain a series of repeating verses, whereas “spirituals” are usually through composed, irregular in rhythm and sung in folk modes. All songs are performed, as is traditional, a cappella. This music of the last Shakers constitutes an important form of spiritual expression and inspiration for the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village in Maine. (Audio-CD with 51 Shaker Spirituals included).