ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 4, 1996 TAG: 9602020041
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: MARY CAMPBELL ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Shakers don't make furniture anymore. They don't dance anymore and they don't shake.
But they do sing.
And they've made the first recording in Shaker history.
Thus it is also a document - if a compact disc may be called such - an authentic page of Americana by perhaps the last vestige of an austere religious sect that has aroused admiration and ridicule alike ever since it arrived here before the birth of the nation.
It goes without saying that the recording was made with typical Shaker simplicity and taste. It is sung with the Boston Camerata and titled ``Simple Gifts: Shaker Chants and Spirituals.''
The title comes from the Shakers' best-known song, ``Simple Gifts,'' which Elder Joseph Brackett composed in Alfred, Maine, in 1848.
Are the Shakers joining a boomlet of esoteric religious recordings started two years ago with ``Chant,'' a CD of Gregorian chants sung by Benedictine monks? That recording has sold 2 million copies worldwide.
``Nay,'' laughs Sister Frances Carr, one of only seven remaining Shakers, living in the only remaining active Shaker village, in Sabbathday Lake, Maine.
She explains that the Shakers' CD grew out of research by Boston Camerata director Joel Cohen. He was looking for early American religious music for his vocal group to sing at the opening of a new hall at Tanglewood in 1994.
The Camerata has explored Medieval and Renaissance music and in recent years has delved into early American music. One place Cohen went repeatedly was the Shakers' library at Sabbathday Lake.
The Shakers began inviting him to share their noon meal.
``We'd tell him what songs we knew and our favorites,'' Sister Frances said during an interview in the Erato Records office here. ``We'd sing with him.''
Cohen took his six-member ensemble to the Shaker Village. They and the Shakers sang for each other and sang together and had a lot of fun. Cohen wound up arranging a program for the Tanglewood opening of totally Shaker music, with four Shakers joining the Camerata.
``One day Joel asked if we might be interested in making a CD,'' Sister Frances says. ``Our first reaction was that we might not have the time. We didn't think we wanted to get into it. But it kind of took over.''
Erato Records (which records the Boston Camerata) set up recording sessions in the 1794 Meeting House at Sabbathday Lake.
Aaron Copland had earlier used the Shaker song ``Simple Gifts'' in his ballet music for Martha Graham's ``Appalachian Spring.'' Judy Collins had also recorded it. But never before had the Shakers recorded their own repertoire.
Shakers sing on nine of the CD's 34 songs. They sang at night so traffic on a nearby highway wouldn't interfere.
``We sang from 8 to 9 with the Camerata and from 9 to 1 in the morning the Camerata would sing,'' Brother Arnold Hadd says. ``We'd stay and listen for a long time. It was hard not to. Spirits were there and definitely approving it. There was a spirit in that Meeting House.''
``There are 10,000 Shaker songs,'' Cohen remarked during a party at Manhattan's American Craft Museum to launch the CD. ``Many are preserved in an oral tradition. Many I transcribed from manuscripts in an archive in the old schoolhouse.''
Brother Arnold says there once were probably 25,000 songs, all composed before the 20th century. Most were lost because they weren't written down.
``Since about 1900,'' Brother Arnold says, ``we haven't had the gift.''
After the community's leaders - Sister Frances and Brother Arnold - sang with the Camerata at the CD launch party, Sister Frances spoke:
``Over the last 20 or more years great interest in Shaker life had been evident. People discover a Shaker chair in the attic and are happy. We're happy they're happy. But it's been puzzling that so little research has been done on Shaker music. Music is as much a part of Shaker life as breathing.''
In her book, ``Growing Up Shaker,'' Sister Frances writes about a Sister Mildred Barker, who was in charge of girls moving from the Children's House to the Dwelling House. On Friday evenings, Sister Mildred taught them Shaker songs she herself had learned as a child and wanted to keep alive.
``She had a little saying pasted onto her desk, `The Lord respects me when I work but He loves me when I sing,''' Sister Frances said.
``There's a song for everything - happiness, dancing, strength needed in time of sorrow and heartache, even to reprove,'' Sister Frances said later. ``Songs that came to be uppermost are songs of joy and hope.''
Brother Arnold, who was eager to get back to peaceful Sabbathday Lake, says, ``Our singing is not just a performance. It comes from our heart. It's part of the act of worshiping God.''
Many Shaker songs were meant to be danced to.
``Nay, we're not dancing now,'' says Sister Frances, who is 68. Unity is important to Shakers, Brother Arnold explained, so when some Shakers became too old to participate it was decided nobody would dance.
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