This song gave a title to Edward D Andrew's pioneering study of Shaker songs and a theme to Aaron Copeland's ballet suite "Appalachian Spring." These men made it the most widely known of the Shaker Spirituals. It has also had popularity among the Shakers. More than fifteen manuscripts preserve the tune, and it survives in oral tradition.

The manuscripts identify the song as a Quick Dance, but give conflicting word of its origin. One written at Lebanon says that it was received from a Negro spirit at Canterbury. Andrews reports seeing it described as "composed by the Alfred Ministry June 28, 1848." I have been unable to find his authority but several manuscripts do record the song from the singing of Elder Joseph Brackett and a company from Alfred, who visited a number of societies in the summer of 1848. In her youth at Hancock, Mrs Olive H. Austin heard that it was Elder Joseph's own song. Eldress Caroline Helfrich there remembered seeing him sing it in a meeting room, turning about "with his coat tails a-flying."

Copland discovered the tune in Andrews's book and used it as a theme for variations in the seventh section of Appalachian Spring, a ballet depicting pioneer life in Pennsylvania. The ballet was first performed on October 30, 1944, and received both a Pulitzer Prize and the New York Music Critics' Award in 1945. Copland later observed that when he chose this tune for use in Appalachian Spring his research "evidently was not thorough, since I did not realize that there never have been Shaker settlements in rural Pennsylvania!" Nevertheless, Copland's use of the melody in Appalachian Spring--and subsequently in the first set of Old American Songs (1950)--brought the tune to the attention of a wider audience, a rare instance of a classical composer taking a nearly forgotten folk melody and reintroducing it to the people.

First, a word of caution--don't believe the information you read about this song in newspapers or on the Internet. Often it's incorrect. For example, is it true "Simple Gifts" is a Shaker hymn? Definitely not! The Shakers had three basic categories of choral music: anthem, hymn and song. Shaker hymns and songs had similar structures of two sections [A+B], usually of eight measures each. Hymns often had only the second section repeated, or ABB. While in the songs both sections were repeated, or AABB. Shaker hymns had two or more stanzas of text. Shaker songs had only one stanza. Thus "Simple Gifts" is a song, not a hymn.
What type of song is it? In several Shaker music manuscripts, it is identified as a "Quick Dance" or simply as a "Dance Song."