Aaron Copland and Martha Graham’s Appalachian Spring is noteworthy for popularizing the Shaker hymn Simple Gifts, but the ballet’s appropriation of the religious sect and its history in American folk discourse is more complex than initial assessments of the piece let on. The Shakers’ cultural identity through American history is closely tied to the needs of the present discourse. In the early twentieth century, Van Wyck Brooks called for the creation of a “usable past” in American arts. The Shakers became an important source of a usable past, especially for the visual arts. Exhibits of Shaker decorative arts and “Shaker rooms” became popular museum fixtures. In assessing American art and design culture in the 1930s, scholars such as Constance Rourke deemed the Shakers an American folk culture, unattached to the vestiges of European culture. Starting in the late 1920s, Edward Deming Andrews and Faith Andrews promoted Shaker culture and commodified their perceived authenticity by selling Shaker furniture. Per the Andrews’ marketing, by purchasing Shaker furniture (or a songbook), one could come in contact with its aura of authenticity. Appalachian Spring premiered in the middle of this Shaker craze. Copland even took Simple Gifts from a 1940 Andrews publication on Shaker music. The song’s position in Appalachian Spring heightens its reaffirmation of American values as represented by the simple, primitive—but white and Christian—popular image of Shaker culture. Copland’s appropriation of Shaker music relied on an existing culture that positioned Shakers as primitive outsiders, using them to create an idealized American past. The issues of appropriation and commodification are still difficult questions facing us today, and Appalachian Spring should serve as a reminder of this tendency in American culture.

Works: Aaron Copland: Appalachian Spring (518-21)

Sources: Elder Joseph Brackett: Simple Gifts (518-21)

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Matthew Van Vleet