THANKSGIVING
​
​by Judith Eckelmeyer

(GRACE WOODS MUSIC SESSION NOVEMBER 20, 2023)

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Okay, true confessions: You haven’t received information about the contents of this music session because I started out in one direction and realized I really needed to go in another! Originally I had planned to present a work called “Thanksgiving and Forefathers Day”, from Four New England Holidays, by that most iconoclastic American composer Charles Ives. 

 A Symphony: New England Holidays by Charles Ives
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas

While it’s an interesting work, it seemed to be more irritating on the whole than thanks-generating. We’ll try it some other time, perhaps. So, after days (!) of thinking and searching and pondering I found a couple of works that were more in keeping with the spirit of gratefulness: Handel’s Chandos Anthem No. 1, “O be joyful in the Lord”, and Schubert’s Symphony No. 5, B-flat major, D. 485. By the time that decision was made it was Saturday evening…. I hope you’ll all be thankful for the result of the delay and enjoy the music.

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Portrait of Handel, 1726–1728

James Brydges, Duke of Chandos, took advantage of George Frideric Handel’s loss of compositional opportunity when the Italian opera firm in London collapsed in 1717. 

James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos

By then Handel was a celebrated composer of operas in the Italian style and with Italian texts. Brydges brought Handel to his estate, Cannons, where Handel got to work creating 11 “Anthems” named for the Duke of Chandos, a Te Deum, and two dramatic works, Acis and Galatea andEsther.

Cannons House, Middlesex, England, seat of the Duke of Chandos

The text of each of the anthems is one or more of the psalms, taken largely from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. The first anthem, like several others, was scored for a trio of vocal soloists, without alto, and a small orchestra of strings (with no violas), oboe and bassoon; others, written later, had more resources: four or five-part chorus and orchestra. The intimate nature of the works is in keeping with their performance venue, the Duke’s chapel. Handel began the anthems with an instrumental sonata, then treated each verse of the psalms as a separate and unique unit. The text, fortunately for us, is in English. The movements are:

1. Sonata (orchestra)
2. Tenor: O be joyful in the Lord, all ye lands;
3. Chorus: serve the Lord with gladness and come before his presence with a song.
4. Soprano and Tenor: Be ye sure that the Lord he is God: it is he that has made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
5. Chorus: O go your way into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, ad speak good of his Name. 
6. Soprano, Tenor and Bass: For the Lord is gracious, his mercy is everlasting: and his truth endureth from generation to generation. 
7. Chorus: Glory be to the Father, glory be to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;
8. Chorus: As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

Handel's Chandos Anthem No. 11, "Let God Arise"
Lynne Dawson, soprano | Patrizia Kwella, soprano | James Bowman, countertenor |
​Ian Partridge, tenor | Michael George, bass
The Sixteen, on period instruments | directed by Harry Christophers

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Franz Schubert by Josef Kriehuber (1846)

Franz Schubert’s early compositional maturity was in part aided by his own home life, where his father had established an amateur orchestra, for which Franz composed a number of works, beginning with his third symphony in 1815. His fifth symphony, in 1816, is one of his most cheerful and yet concise. The themes are lovely and memorable, carried lightly by a modest orchestration of flute, oboe, horns and strings. The work is in the traditional four movements: Allegro; Andante con moto; Menuetto and Trio: Allegro molto; and Allegro vivace.

Franz Schubert: 5. Sinfonie B-Dur D 485
Sinfonieorchester – Frankfurt Radio Symphony ∙ Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Dirigent

(Auftritt) 00:00
I. Allegro 00:15
II. Andante con moto 07:25 
III. Menuetto. Allegro molto – Trio – Menuetto 17:34 
IV. Allegro vivace 22:53

Judith Eckelmeyer ​© 2023