The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music: Today is Thanksgiving. What piece of classical music or composer do you most give thanks for?

By Jacob Stockinger

Today is Thanksgiving Day – Thursday, Nov. 27, 2014.

And today’s post is simple:

Just tell The Ear what piece of music or composer you most give thanks for and why.

It doesn’t have to be big (an opera, symphony or concerto) or a recognized masterwork. It could be a small work (a prelude or song) that you are perhaps learning to play or sing that you heard most recently.

The music or the composer could be very well-known or obscure.

Your choice could be old or it could be new.

But whatever your choice is, it should hold special meaning for you. The piece of music should speak to you deeply and directly and make you feel that your life is enriched by it –- at least right now, if not in the past or the future, even though such choices tend to have staying power even from childhood into old age.

If The Ear gets enough reader comments and responses, maybe even with links to a YouTube video, it might serve as a list of suggested listening for other readers.

To celebrate all your choices, and all the possibilities of the musical arts, here is the original version with orchestra and 16 singers done by the London Symphony under conductor Sir Adrian Boult, of the lovely “Serenade to Music” by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.