Customer Reviews

Home to Thanksgiving

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This is a wonderful collection of music for thanksgiving - not just for the holiday, but for everyday. From the energetic opening, "Tis By Thy Strength The Mountains Stand", to the haunting "Evening Hymn" at close, this music is pure joy to listen to. The styles are quite varied and cover everything from plainchant to a somewhat modern take on Thoreau, and it is all very well performed. It is music that sends the soul soaring in thanksgiving to God.

"Paul Hillier takes a global--or at least Western European/North American--view of Thanksgiving in this eclectic program of primarily vocal music from medieval to modern times. Rather than a compilation of American tunes associated with the Thanksgiving holiday (as you might suspect from the Currier & Ives front cover), Hillier's program is centered on the long history of giving thanks to God, whether it was 12th century French monks or an 18th century New England church congregation. The selections are taken from more than a dozen previous Harmonia Mundi recordings that, if nothing else, serve as a nice introduction to Hillier's excellent and unusually varied body of work. Included are performances by Theatre of Voices, His Majestie's Clerkes, harpist Andrew Lawrence-King, and a number of vocal soloists. Among the highlights are chants by Peter Abelard, motets by Thomas Tallis, several early American hymns, a rousing version of Jeremiah Ingalls' "The Apple Tree", and Hillier himself in a gentle, thoughtful rendition of John Cage's "The Year Begins to Be Ripe" from Litany for the Whale." --David Vernier,[...]