Joseph Brackett

Brackett was born in Cumberland, Massachusetts on May 6, 1797, as Elisha Brackett.{{cite book|last=Hall|first=Roger L.|year=2006|title=The Story of SIMPLE GIFTS|publisher=PineTree Press}}{{cite web|last=Hall|first=Roger|title=Joseph Brackett's "Simple Gifts"|url=http://www.american-music.org/publications/bullarchive/hall233.htm|work=Society for American Music Bulletin|access-date=4 February 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180525145400/http://www.american-music.org/publications/bullarchive/hall233.htm|archive-date=25 May 2018|url-status=dead}} When he was 10, his first name was changed to Joseph, like his father's, as the Bracketts joined the short-lived Shaker community in Gorham, Maine.{{cite book|last=Glover|first=Raymond F.|title=The Hymnal 1982 Companion, Volume 2|year=1994|publisher=The Church Hymnal Corporation|location=New York|pages=347–348|isbn=9780898691436|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4zSSyZpGSekC&q=joseph+brackett&pg=PA347}} This new Shaker community was centered on the Bracketts' property, until the whole group moved to Poland Hill, Maine, in 1819. Brackett's father died there on July 27, 1838, but Brackett continued to rise in the Shaker community, eventually becoming the head of the society in Maine.

Brackett died in the Shaker community of Sabbathday Lake at New Gloucester, Maine, on July 4, 1882.

Brackett is known today primarily as the presumed author of the Shaker dancing song "Simple Gifts", which has become an internationally loved tune, both through his original version and many of its adaptations. There are two conflicting narratives of Shaker origin as to the composer of the song. One account attributes the song to a "Negro spirit" heard at Canterbury, New Hampshire, which would make the song a "gift song" received by a Shaker from the spirit world. Alternatively, and far more widely accepted, the song's composer is said to be Brackett.{{Cite book|url=https://issuu.com/manhattanbeachmusic/docs/simple_gifts_conductor_score|title=Simple Gifts: Four Shaker Songs for concert band by Frank Ticheli|last=Ticheli|first=Frank|publisher=Manhattan Beach Music|year=2012|location=Brooklyn, New York|pages=7}} The song, written in 1848, was largely unknown outside of Shaker communities until Aaron Copland used the melody in his 1944 composition Appalachian Spring. The tune is also known widely through the lyrics "Lord of the Dance", written by Sydney Carter in 1963. The "Tune Lovers Society", an online organization designed to preserve and protect American tunes from the past, sponsors a birthday commemoration for Brackett on May 6.{{cite web|url= http://www.americanmusicpreservation.com/JosephBrackettSimpleGifts.htm#josephbrackettday |title= Joseph Brackett Day|publisher= American Music Preservation.com |access-date=August 26, 2012}}

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• [http://www.americanmusicpreservation.com/JosephBrackettSimpleGifts.htm Joseph Brackett and Simple Gifts]
• [http://maineshakers.com/ Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village]
• {{IMSLP|id=Brackett, Joseph}}
• [http://www.americanmusicpreservation.com/JosephBrackettSimpleGifts.htm#josephbrackettday Joseph Brackett Remembrance]
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Category:1797 births

Category:1882 deaths

Category:People from Cumberland, Maine

Category:Songwriters from Maine

Category:People from New Gloucester, Maine

Category:19th-century American musicians

Category:Folk musicians from Maine

Category:Shaker members

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