Thanksgiving for Music

 

Thanksgiving is a well known holiday in the United States, and there are several classical music pieces that fit for this time of year.

A popular choice is Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring, which was composed as a ballet to tell the story of American pioneers building a farmhouse. A piano arrangement can be heard at https://youtu.be/zyrOl4vwyD0. Even though the season is spring, this suite expresses the American frontier spirit associated with Thanksgiving.

Vivaldi’s third movement, “Autumn,” from his 1725 composition The Four Seasons certainly capture the feeling of fall. In addition, the lyrics “celebrate the peasant, with songs and dances, and the pleasure of a bountiful harvest.”

England has celebrated days of Thanksgiving for centuries. The 18^th century English composer Maurice Greene wrote the anthem “Thou Visited the Earth, which is very appropriate for Harvest Thanksgiving. The lyrics are based on Psalm 65: ‘Thou visitest the earth, and blessest it; and crownest the year with thy goodness.”

The hymn “For the Beauty of the Earth,” written in 1864 by Folliott Sanford Pierpoint, was first considered a communion hymn, but soon became a popular song for Thanksgiving.

William Lloyd Webber -- a London composer, organist, and choirmaster—wrote “A Hymn of Thanksgiving” in 1936. You probably know his son Andrew Lloyd Webber better because of his 21 musicals and other scores.

But the 4^th century Saints Ambrose and Augustine could be considered the earliest Thanksgiving composers with their “Te Deum,” although Saint Niketas, bishop of Remesiana about the same time in history, is also credited for this hymn of Thanksgiving. The Te Deum is still part of the Liturgy of the Hours, giving thanks to God.

In all these cases, we can be thankful for such classical composers.

Falling For The Piano

 

Musicians are often inspired by nature. For instance, Tomoko likes to garden, and she sees the garden as a metaphor for musicians; both take much work and much patience. “Labor is labor,” says Tomoko. Both require connections, and both offer ways for self-expression. The rewards can be immediate, as when planting or weeding – such as working through a particular section of a composition – and sometimes it takes years to see the results.  Autumn is one example of inspiration for composers.

One of the most known compositions is Vivaldi’s Four Seasons’ “Autumn,” which has been arranged for piano.

Tchaikovsky’s composition The Seasons is comprised of 12 movements, one for each month. Autumn months paint musical scenes of a harvest and a hunt, and his October movement “Autumn Song” reflects a mournful fall.

While Felix Mendelssohn is very famous, his sister Fanny is not as celebrated. Indeed, some of her compositions were written under her brother’s name. Her excursions into nature inspired her cycle of piano pieces titled Das Jahr (The Year), which include autumn months.

Born soon after Fanny died, Cecile Chaminade was a French composer and pianist – and the first female composer to be award the prestigious Legion of Honor. Her most famous piano composition is Automne, Etudes de Concert, Opus 35, which contrasts seasonal peace and melancholy with a dramatic storm scene.

In his second book of preludes for piano, Debussy’s piece Brouillards (Fog/Mist) leverages the black keys to create a hazy sound, more pronounced than the faint left hand chords.

A more upbeat impression of fall is captured in Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag.“

An even more recent piece is American composer Joseph Schwantner’s piano miniature “Veiled Autumn,” which mirrors the changeability of fall weather.

So if autumn feels like the darkening end of the year, music lovers can feel uplifted by this autumn-inspired piano works.

 

The Secret Facts of Composers

Piano teachers need to know their music, and it’s useful to know about the composers themselves. Tomoko likes to read biographies – especially those of composers. And she relates stories about them to her students, providing context for the compositions as well as making those composers more human. Here are some of the lesser known facts about some of them.

Vivaldi became a priest when he was 25, and served as a master of violin at an orphanage. Vivaldi suffered from bronchial asthma throughout his life, which kept him from playing wind instruments.

Liszt was very popular when young, and he was quite the playboy. One of his illegitimate daughters become Richard Wagner’s wife. Nevertheless, throughout his life he considered becoming a priest, and took four minor religious orders when 54.

Schubert was famous for his musical parties, which sometimes lasted until dawn. Yet he was very prolific; he wrote more than 20,000 bars of music, including 600 songs. He wrote 8 songs in one day. 

Rachmaninoff's fingers could span 12 keys.  On the other hand 😉, Schumann ruined his performing career by practicing with a homemade finger-stretching device; then he would plunge his hands into slaughtered animals’ entrails to heal himself.

Frederic Handel loved rich food and wine. He would order enough food for three people – for himself. The food caused him gout, and the wine may have caused him lead poisoning. 

Johann Sebastian Bach frequented Leipzig’s Café Zimmermann where he would drink several cups of coffee (which was a luxury beverage at the time). He liked coffee so much he wrote the Coffee Cantata about a woman who was trying to stop her coffee drinking habit.  Bach was also an amateur mathematician, which is evident in his compositions, especially his canons.

Speaking of coffee, Beethoven was so meticulous that he would measure exactly 60 beans when making coffee.

Mozart’s life included many interesting facts. He could write music before he could write words. He could listen to a piece of music just once and be able to write it down from memory perfectly. He wrote half of his symphonies between the age of 8 and 19. was a big cat fan. He would imitate cats when bored during rehearsals. In fact, he liked cats so much that he wrote a song called "The Cat Duet,” in which the husband asks his wife questions and she answers back in meows.