4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Mostly modern choral music with only a few Shaker melodies, June 28, 2010
This review is from: Simple Gifts (Audio CD)
"Simple Gifts" is a follow-up to the Tudor Choir's "Gentle Words," a recording of achingly beautiful Shaker songs. Alas, this collection doesn't live up to the promise of its predecessor, largely because much of the content of this album is not Shaker music per se. Though it is pretty choral music, much of it is rather modern, including pieces by 20th century composers Ralph Vaughan Williams, John Ireland, John Rutter and choir director Doug Fullington. One long work by contemporary composer Kevin Siegfried (a Shaker poem set to his music) takes up almost one fourth of the playing time on the CD! These songs lack the passion and raw power of the original Shaker songs. Lastly, there are no fewer than four versions of the song 'Tis a Gift to be Simple on this CD, which is a bit repetitive even for an admittedly pleasant song.
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