The Composition

A Shaker Gift Song is the third movement of the larger work Four Shaker Songs. This work is based on a Shaker lullaby, “Here Take This Lovely Flower,” found in Dorothy Berliner Commin’s extraordinary collection, Lullabies of the World, and in Daniel W. Patterson’s monumental collection, The Shaker Spiritual. This song is an example of the phenomenon of the gift song, music received from spirits by Shaker mediums while in trance (see pp. 316 ff. in Patterson, op cit., for a detailed account, and also Harold E. Cook’s Shaker Music: A Manifestation of American Folk Culture, pp. 52 ff.). Although the Shakers practiced celibacy, there were many children in their communities, including the children of recent converts as well as orphans whom they took in. Like many Shaker songs, this lullaby embodies the Shakers’ ideal of childlike simplicity.

The Composer

Frank Ticheli (b. January 21, 1958) is an American born composer. His works are diverse and include pieces for concert band, orchestra, chorus, and various chamber groups. Ticheli graduated high school from L.V. Berkner High School in Richardson, Texas. Upon graduating high school, he attended Southern Methodist University in University Park Texas. Here he studied with Donald Erb and Jack Waldenmaier and earned his Bachelor of Music in Composition. Ticheli then studied with William Albright, Leslie Bassett, William Bolcom, and George Wilson and the University of Michigan, where he earned both his Master’s and Doctorate degrees in Composition.

Following completion of his degree’s, Ticheli became an Assistant Professor of Music in San Antonio, Texas at Trinity University. While in Texas, he was a member of the advisory committee for the San Antonio Symphony’s “Music of the Americas” project and also served on the board of directors of the Texas Composers Forum. From 1991 thru 1998, Ticheli was composer-in-residence with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra in Orange County, California. He has been a Professor of Composition at the University of Southern California’s Thorton School of Music since 1991.

Over his lifetime, Ticheli has been the recipient of many awards. He has received The Arts and Letters Award, Goddard Lieberson Fellowship, and Charles Ives Scholarship, all from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Ticheli has also received the National Band Association/Revelli Memorial Prize, the A. Austin Harding Award, and First Prize in the Texas Sesquicentennial Orchestral Composition Competition, the Britten-on-the-Bay Choral Composition Contest, and the Virginia CBDNA Symposium for New Band Music. At USC, he has received the Virginia Ramo Award for excellence in teaching, and the Dean’s Award for Professional Achievement. In 2011, Ticheli even endowed the “Frank Ticheli Composition Scholarship” which is to be awarded to an incoming graduation composition student each year.

The Performance

This is a recording from Large Group Performance Evaluation in March 2015.