Giving Thanks

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With music and stories for Thanksgiving, it's Giving Thanks: a Celebration of Fall, Food, and Gratitude. Classical music is the heart and soul of Giving Thanks.

Between the music, no clichés about pilgrims and pumpkin pies. Instead, it's a contemporary celebration of the spirit of Gratitude. And we continue a Giving Thanks tradition shared by 300 APM stations: a spellbinding story from actor Charles Laughton, giving thanks for Art that connects us all to the creative spirit.

• HOUR I
• Traditional: We Gather Together – Boston Pops/John Williams (Philips CD 454391)
• Bach: Cantata No. 29, "Wir danken dir" (We Thank Thee): Sinfonia – Tafelmusik Baroque Orch (Tafelmusik CD 1001)
• Dana Gioia on his childhood Thanksgiving
• Telemann: Tafelmusik Book III: Bergerie – Tafelmusik Baroque Orch (Reference CD 2101)
• Nora Ephron remembers Thanksgiving, and reads "What I Will Miss"
• Siegfreid Ochs (attrib. Handel): Dank sei Dir, Herr ("Thanks be to Thee") – Takako Nishizaki, violin Polish National Radio Symphony (Marco Polo CD 223586)
• Traditional: We Gather Together – Peter Barnes: The Invitation | Jacqueline Schwab, piano (Studio recording)
• Richard Strauss: Sonatina No. 2, "The Happy Workshop": 2nd movement – Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (DG CD 445819)
• Mozart Laudate Dominum – Joshua Bell, violin | Orchestra of St. Luke's (Sony CD 97779)
• Dana Gioia on gratitude and humility, and reads his poem Words
• Traditional (arr. Dale Warland): Simple Gifts – Dale Warland Singers (Gothic CD 49243)
• Copland: Corral Nocturne – London Symphony Orchestra/Copland (Sony CD 42430)
• Baxter Black Goat Thanksgiving
• HOUR II
• Godfrey Ridout: Fall Fair – Edmonton Symphony/Uri Mayer (CBC 5069)
• Dana Gioia on the worst and best Thanksgiving, and reads "Prayer at Winter Solstice"
• Morten Lauridsen: Sure on this Shining Night – Conspirare (HM CD 907534)
• Traditional: Thanksgiving Suite [Wondrous Love/Come Thy Fount of Every Blessing/For the Beauty of the Earth]
• Traditional: Psalm of Life – Jacqueline Schwab, piano
• From Kerouac's "The Dharma Bums," Chartres Cathedral story; Psalm 104 – Read by Charles Laughton (Capitol LP TBO 1650 (out-of-print)
• Traditional (arr. Stephen Paulus): We Gather Together – Dale Warland Singers (Gothic CD 49243)
  

  
  

  

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  Host John Birge

  GIVING THANKS HOST JOHN BIRGE produced his first Thanksgiving Day special in 1985 when working as the morning host at WGUC in Cincinnati. The program grew to become an annual tradition, which he brought with him when he came to American Public Media in 1997. Giving Thanks now airs on public radio stations nationwide on Thanksgiving Day. John Birge also hosts the daily morning drive-time show on American Public Media's classical music network.