Sheet music quest

September 18, 2007 3:00 PM

Sheet music filter- Looking for the score for vocal performance of the Shaker hymn I Danced in the Morning. I have a friend whose funeral memorial is very soon and just need the sheet music for a singing version. I find lots of trombone versions and such but just want to be able to hand out the sheet music. It is a public domain song as far as I know.
posted by Freedomboy to media & arts (6 comments total)

Is this the song you're talking about?

I danced in the morning
When the world was begun,
And I danced in the moon
And the stars and the sun,
And I came down from heaven
And I danced on the earth,
At Bethlehem
I had my birth.

There's info about it here. A link on the page says it goes to sheet music, but it doesn't seem to work.

This site charges $1.93 a copy.

Also, according to this page, it's not public domain.

This page claims to have it but you need to download some sort of plug-in.
posted by Lucinda at 3:18 PM on September 18, 2007

The Shaker hymn is Simple Gifts. It has many permutations including Lord of the Dance.
Type "Shaker hymn Simple Gifts" into Google and click on the Wikipedia entry. If all else fails, you could devise your own sheet music.
posted by Cranberry at 3:50 PM on September 18, 2007

The music for Simple Gifts is on the abc music notation site at mit.
posted by calumet43 at 5:28 PM on September 18, 2007

That song used to be in the hymnals at a lot of churches.
posted by RussHy at 5:35 PM on September 18, 2007

The original Shaker tune is Simple Gifts. That tune is probably in the public domain by now. Lord of the Dance (which is the proper name of the song, and it will be much easier to find that way) was only written in 1963, and is therefore probably not in the public domain.

The song is, however, probably found in the hymnal. (The only hymnal I have at home that doesn't have Lord of the Dance in it is the hymnal printed in 1962....)
posted by jlkr at 6:28 PM on September 18, 2007

The Shaker dance song is in the public domain, having been written in 1848 by Elder Joseph Brackett, who hardly ever gets credit for the dang thing.
posted by rikschell at 7:18 AM on September 19, 2007