by Joseph Brackett, Elder (1797 - 1882)
'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the...
Language: English
Our translations: CHI
'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free 'tis the gift to come down where you ought to be And when we find ourselves in the place just right 'Twill 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, turn will be our delight 'Till by turning, turning we come round right. 'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free 'tis the gift to come down where you ought to be And when we find ourselves in the place just right 'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
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View text with all available footnotesText Authorship:
- by Joseph Brackett, Elder (1797 - 1882), written 1837-1847, Shaker song [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Aaron Copland (1900 - 1990), "Simple gifts", 1950, first performed 1950 [ voice and piano or orchestra ], from Old American Songs, First Set, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by George Crumb (1929 - 2022), "'Tis the Gift to be Simple", 2006 [ male voice, female voice, amplified piano, and percussion ], from Voices from a Forgotten World: American Songbook V, no. 7 [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CHI Chinese (中文) (Yen-Chiang Che) , "簡樸之恩賜", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 114