Miss Jacobson's Music: November 2016

Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon,

Histoire naturelle générale et particulière (Oiseaux),

1799-1808

Since 1947, the National Turkey Federation (NTF) has

presented the President of the United States with a live

turkey and two dressed turkeys in celebration of

Thanksgiving. The annual presentation of the National

Thanksgiving Turkey to the President has become a

traditional holiday ritual in the nation's capital, signaling

the unofficial beginning of the holiday season and providing

the President an opportunity to reflect publicly on the meaning

of the Thanksgiving season. After the ceremony, the live bird

retires to a historical farm to live out the rest of its years.

The Wild Turkey by Audubon

American Country Music and
Hymn and Fuguing Tune No. 2

by Henry Cowell

Henry Cowell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRla9DeBMAk

Chester Overture for Band

by William Schuman

William Schuman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ-z384ORuM

Chester is the third movement of a piece

called The New England Triptych, based

on a book of tunes written by William Billings

during the American Revolutionary War.

Chester begins with a march that was played by the

Continental Army and sung around the campfire:

Chester: America's first unofficial National Anthem
It was written in 1770 and revised in 1778 and was
second in popularity only to "Yankee Doodle."

http://www.americanrevolution.org/washingtonsmusic.html

Let tyrants shake their iron rod,
And slavery clank her galling chains,
We fear them not, we trust in God,
New England’s God forever reigns.
The foe comes on with haughty stride,
Our troops advance with martial noise,
Their vet’rans flee before our youth,
And gen’rals yield to beardless boys.

Schuman then transports this hymn to the 20th
century, by altering its rhythmic and harmonic

structure until it is barely recognizable. In the

end, the musical battle is won by tonality as the

march reappears in its original form.

William Schuman: Composer Portrait

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzBtHOlkWw8#t=106

Grandma Moses: Catching the Thanksgiving Turkey, 1943

Johann Wenzel Peter (1745-1829): Turkey

New World Symphony

By Antonin Dvořák

George Szell, Conductor
Cleveland Orchestra

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MLvIGHCUAg#t=1173

Audubon's painting of a turkey hen with her poults

http://www.history.org/Foundation/journal/Holiday06/turkeys.cfm

Variations on 'America'

By Charles Ives

"The President's Own" United States Marine Band
Timothy Foley, Director
Transcribed by William E. Rhoads
from William Schuman's orchestration of
E. Power Biggs's edition of
Ives's variations for organ, S140.