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Thanksgiving music

98.210.17.61
Posted on November 25, 2015 at 09:23:03
TGR
Audiophile

Posts: 3002
Location: No. California
Joined: March 22, 2004
 Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I actually get really irritated with the intrusion of Christmas onto Thanksgiving - "Black Friday" starting on Thanksgiving is driving me right up the wall. While I believe less government regulation is better, this is a place where I wish someone would cry "stop".

OK - off my soapbox. I have a ton of appropriate Christmas music - everything from Bach's Christmas Oratorio to "A Charlie Brown Christmas". But I always have difficulty coming up with appropriate Thanksgiving music. Maybe a mental block, but the only 3 I can think of:

Beethoven's String Quartet Op. 132
Beethoven Pastorale Symphony
Copland Appalachian Spring (yeah, I know - this is like the character in Mystery Men who calls himself the Blue Rajah without wearing a stitch of blue.....but what holiday is more American than Thanksgiving, and what music is more American than Appalachian Spring?)

So - any other ideas?

 

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RE: Thanksgiving music, posted on November 25, 2015 at 09:30:09
Travis
Audiophile

Posts: 6170
Location: La Grange, Texas
Joined: November 25, 2001
 The Tender Land by Copland. The excerpts on Sony with Copland and NYCO cast is excellent as is the suite w/o voices. I prefer with voices. There is a harvest celebration scene with chorus.






"If people don't want to come, nothing will stop them" - Sol Hurok

 

Dvorak's "New World" Symphony and "American" String Quartet!, posted on November 25, 2015 at 09:33:53
John Marks
Manufacturer

Posts: 7806
Location: Peoples' Democratic Republic of R.I.
Joined: April 23, 2000
 My favorite New World is Antal Dorati's--believe it or not.

As far the American Quartet goes, my fave the Melos Quartet might never have made it to CD, so I defer to the Prince of Snarkness, I mean David Hurwitz, who thinks that the (new line-up of the) Talich's Quartet's is the best in modern sound. CD La Dolce Volta 254.

I have started listening on Steinway Streaming, and it is very fine.

ATB,

John

 

RE: Thanksgiving music, posted on November 25, 2015 at 11:13:10
brusson
Audiophile

Posts: 17
Location: Portland, OR
Joined: November 8, 2005
 The last movement of the Ives "Holiday Symphony" is "Thanksgiving or Forefathers Day".

 

American composers on my list, posted on November 25, 2015 at 11:17:05
Amphissa
Audiophile

Posts: 2717
Location: Zardoz
Joined: March 9, 2004
 I tend to prefer American composers. My personal choices include.

George Gershwin
Howard Hanson (esp 4th Symphony)
Alan Hovhaness (esp Mysterious Mountain)
Charles Loeffler (symphonic poems)
Louis Gottschalk
Duke Ellington
Erich Korngold
William Grant Still

Boston Six composers:
Amy Beach
Arthur Foote (esp his chamber music)
John Knowles Paine
Horatio Parker
Edward MacDowell
George Chadwick

There are others too. I just sort through the pile to find something interesting.

There are only a few non-American composers I ever play on Thanksgiving Day. Dvorak's New World Symphony and his American Quartet (No. 12). I also sometimes include Myaskovsky's 21st Symphony (1938), which was commissioned for the 50th Anniversary of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.


"Life without music is a mistake" (Nietzsche)

 

The Prince of Snarkness, posted on November 25, 2015 at 11:23:51
Chris from Lafayette
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Posts: 26480
Location: SF Bay Area
Joined: February 17, 2004
Contributor
  Since: February 6, 2012
 Excellent, John! I actually think Dave will appreciate that! ;-)

I certainly agree with the Dvorak works you mentioned too. I couldn't begin to name a favorite New World recording however - Neumann's early digital one, Harnoncourt/Concertgebouw (believe it or not!), Ancerl, Paray (if you like it hepped up!) - all come immediately to mind, and that's just for starters! I haven't heard the Phase-4 Dorati performance in decades, so I don't remember it all that well. As for the American Quartet, again, there are lots great recordings featuring both Czech and non-Czech groups. One which I haven't heard (which I suspect would be excellent) is the Zemlinsky Quartet on a Praga SACD.

 

Duke Ellington... N/T , posted on November 25, 2015 at 11:30:12
musetap
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Posts: 31879
Location: San Francisco
Joined: July 8, 2003
Contributor
  Since: January 28, 2004
 aa
"Once this was all Black Plasma and Imagination"-Michael McClure



 

Something stuffy, posted on November 25, 2015 at 11:35:39
genungo
 William Byrd, perhaps?

 

LOL! - The wit flows freely today! [nt] ;-), posted on November 25, 2015 at 11:50:03
Chris from Lafayette
Audiophile

Posts: 26480
Location: SF Bay Area
Joined: February 17, 2004
Contributor
  Since: February 6, 2012

 

RE: Thanksgiving music, posted on November 25, 2015 at 12:15:07
Jim Treanor
Audiophile

Posts: 2167
Location: Pacific Northwest
Joined: June 1, 2003
 William Schuman's "American Festival Overture" and (by way of William Billings) "New England Triptych"
The third movement of Ned Rorem's Third Symphony
Howard Hanson's "Merry Mount Suite"
"The Masque" from Leonard Bernstein's Second Symphony


Jim

 

Roy Harris Symphony 3, Morten Lauridsen's "Lux Aeterna", posted on November 25, 2015 at 14:05:46
John Marks
Manufacturer

Posts: 7806
Location: Peoples' Democratic Republic of R.I.
Joined: April 23, 2000
 Both easy to find on YouTube.

JM

 

One of my better coinages, I think--Thanks. nt, posted on November 25, 2015 at 14:06:24
John Marks
Manufacturer

Posts: 7806
Location: Peoples' Democratic Republic of R.I.
Joined: April 23, 2000
 jm

 

RE: Thanksgiving music, posted on November 25, 2015 at 14:46:02
mkuller
Audiophile

Posts: 38130
Location: SF Bay Area
Joined: April 22, 2003
 ...my favorite holiday, too.

You are encouraged to eat and drink to excess then take a nap and you don't have to buy anyone presents - it doesn't get much better!

 

RE: Thanksgiving music, posted on November 26, 2015 at 05:05:22
briggs
Audiophile

Posts: 1674
Location: Connecticut
Joined: April 16, 2002
 As a New Englander I feel I should recommend something by Charles Ives, but honestly I can't.

 

Playing right now, posted on November 26, 2015 at 06:50:10
jec01
Audiophile

Posts: 1462
Location: Baltimore, Maryland
Joined: September 22, 2004
 Cantus: "A Harvest Home"

Happy listening,

Jim

"The passage of my life is measured out in shirts."
- Brian Eno

 

Harris is incredible symphony. Those chord progressions! , posted on November 26, 2015 at 13:16:16
jdaniel@jps.net
 I have his 6th as well on Varese Sarabande; same compelling voice.

 

Nat, Ella, Shearing, London, posted on November 26, 2015 at 18:54:48
LWR
Audiophile

Posts: 66808
Location: The woods
Joined: August 12, 2003
 Frank, Sarah, Dinah, Norah.

 

Nice *, posted on November 26, 2015 at 19:42:56
Mike K
Audiophile

Posts: 13975
Location: 97701
Joined: September 23, 1999

Lack of skill dictates economy of style. - Joey Ramone

 

"Let's not kid ourselves," Roy Harris once wrote... (BBC YT), posted on November 27, 2015 at 08:38:19
John Marks
Manufacturer

Posts: 7806
Location: Peoples' Democratic Republic of R.I.
Joined: April 23, 2000
 "Let's not kid ourselves," Roy Harris once wrote. "My Third Symphony happened to come along when it was needed."

Remarkably modest, that!

Yeah, it just happened to come along...

I think it is one of the few perfectly-realized American symphonies. The form of the symphony is a perfectly-sized container for the inspiration and the craft.

The hymn-like opening with musical exclamation points in the upper strings, for me, says "This is American music" as only a few other pieces in any genre do.





So, of course, here's a great BBC performance under Grant Llewellyn...

Ciao,

John

PS1: Seeing as Ormandy's LP AFAIK never made it to CD, I think that Neeme Jarvi/Detroit on Chandos is my favorite that you can buy new today.

PS2: I met Roy and Johanna Harris in Nashville in 1979 when I was graciously invited to the lack of a better word wrap party for his residency at the Blair School. A few months later, he was gone... . I did get to tell him how much the Third Symphony meant to me.

 

RE: Something stuffy, posted on November 27, 2015 at 12:12:44
Old SteveA
Audiophile

Posts: 648
Joined: March 27, 2011
 Or maybe some Buxtehude. & you could have a "Buxtehude - A - Nannie" Thanksgiving !!!

(I've never really heard his music , but his name is fun to throw around though !; Well I get a kick out it anyway !)

 

I have a handsome, pristine Bernstein Columbia 6 eye. nt, posted on November 27, 2015 at 17:54:12
jdaniel@jps.net
 .

 

The Meters - Chicken Strut, posted on November 28, 2015 at 06:19:56
andy evans
Audiophile

Posts: 4382
Joined: October 20, 2000
 Turkeys - Learn to Strut Yo Stuff......

Man: "How did you prepare the turkey?"
Wife: "I just told it straight - you're gonna die."

 

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