Wouldn’t it be great if there were a body of Thanksgiving music as expansive as Christmas music? There is!! Psalm settings–there are zillions of great ones, and we Mormons mostly don’t know them at all. So many great things to discover–start here!
Two settings by Hugo Distler:
(not a great performance–youtube provides choirs with not-too-vibrato-y sopranos, reasonable rhythmic intensity, bearable German diction, and decent intonation, but not all at the same time)
And one by contemporary Norwegian composer Knut Nystedt:
Psalm 90–Charles Ives in finest form:
And Ralph Vaughan Williams with the same text:
(Also here, with a really good choir, but anemic organ: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=la1Vb3mxrsQ)
Some French, for good measure: (not a perfect performance, but I am a sucker for young choirs!)
And God’s favorite, British choirboys singing Anglican chant:
And a little more Vaughan Williams, setting George Herbert’s “Let All the World in Every Corner Sing”:
Happy Thanksgiving!
By Common Consent, a Mormon Blog 
Fabulous! Thank you, Kristine!
Excellent choices, all around.
Excellent!
A quick follow-up post.
http://timesandseasons.org/index.php/2013/11/hodayot-a-dead-sea-scroll-thanksgiving/
Thank you!! It is already making my day. I believe someone on FB said that you need to create a spotify list. You do! I’ll follow it if you do.
I had a thanksgiving playlist this year that I really enjoyed. It wasn’t quite as classical as this, but I enjoyed bob Dylan’s “every grain of sand” and Dayenu, “what a wonderful world”,
Bing singing “count your blessings instead of. Sheep….that kind of thing I enjoyed it. Maybe next year. I’ll look for more classical selections.
Always love hearing “Praise to the Lord” in the original German. Thanks.
Great choices – thanks for doing this. And that last Vaughan Williams piece – thrilling!
Thank you, Kristine. I was hoping you’d do this. Your selections are always new (to me) and inspiring.