Comments | margdean56: Special Inaugural Moment

margdean56

Special Inaugural Moment

Jan 20, 2009 19:15

Well, there were a lot of them, many tied up with having a president who can speak, but there was personal, private pleasure in the musical number played by the quartet of violin, cello, clarinet and piano, as a part of the ceremony.

I've had a special fondness for "Simple Gifts" for a long time. Those Mythopoeic Society members among my LJ friends ( Read more... )

new hope, inauguration, music, simple gifts

Comments 2

princejvstin January 21 2009, 02:30:52 UTC

I thought Simple Gifts was a new piece. When was it written?

margdean56 January 21 2009, 02:57:45 UTC

By "Simple Gifts" I mean the theme that John Williams incorporated into what was indeed a new piece. It started out as a Shaker tune and has had a varied career since then. Aaron Copland also used it in his "Appalachian Spring", and it's had a number of different sets of lyrics written for it. The original, however, is:

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,
'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we are in the place just right,
We'll be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gained,
To bow and to bend we will not be ashamed.
To turn, turn, 'twill be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come round right.