Poster Thanksgiving Table
A Thanksgiving table
Didriks via Flickr - CC BY 2.0

Learning to Listen: Music for Giving Thanks

Learning to Listen: Music for Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday, but people from all cultures celebrate either Thanksgiving (e.g. Canadians, Armenians), days of gratitude or harvest festivals, adding their own elements of food, music and other traditions to the celebrations.

This week, we'll hear music written for giving thanks on Learning to Listen. We'll also hear selections from a poem by T.S. Eliot, inspired by Eliot's hearing of a quartet by Beethoven (reading the poem is our special guest and colleague, classical music host Jeff Esworthy).

Program Playlist

JS Bach: 'Now Thank We All our God' from Cantata BWV 79
The King's Brass
(Summit Records DCD 428)

Trad. Dutch arr E Kremser: Prayer of Thanksgiving (We Gather Together)
The Boston Pops Orchestra and Choir/ Arthur Fiedler
(Philips 454391)

Unger: Thanksgiving Waltz
Jay Ungar (fiddle) and Molly Mason (guitar)
(EMI 56720)

Traditional: Armenian Canticle of Thanksgiving
Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Jerold D Ottley, conductor.
(Sony SMK 61983)

Mendelssohn: from Elijah - Chorus - "Thanks Be to God"
Bryn Terfel, recitative
Edinburgh Festival Chorus, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Paul Daniel, conducting
(London/Decca 289 466 075)

Schubert: 'An Die Musik'
Bryn Terfel

Beethoven: String Quartet Op. 132 No. 15 III. Adagio

Whitacre: i thank You God for most this amazing day
Polyphony/Stephen Layton
(Hyperion 67543)

Grieg: Tak (gratitude) Op. 62 No 2
Balazs Szokolay, piano
(Hyperion 8.550577)

Ralph Vaughn Williams: A Song of Thanksgiving
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir/Richard P Condie, conductor
(SONY SMK 61983)

Bernstein: "Thank You" from 'Mass'
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra/Marin Alsop

Marcelli: 'Song of Thanks' from Carmelita
Mormon Tabernacle Choir/Jerold Ottley, director
(SONY SMK 61983)

Humperdinck: Nun ist die Hexe tot (Now the Witch is Dead) from Hansel and Gretel State Opera, Dresden, Otmar Suitner, conductor

Copland: The Promise of Living from The Tender Land The Boston Pops Orchestra and Chorus/Arthur Fiedler, conducting

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