An American Thanksgiving

An American Thanksgiving was commissioned by the Dale Warland Singers for their final season, and premiered on November 1, 2003. The concert had a Thanksgiving theme; I picked these three hymns for their compatible texts and above all their compelling melodies. I have tried to stay close to the wonderful spirited rhythms and elemental, forthright harmonies of the original settings found in the Sacred Harp collection.

*****
Webster
Come, we who love the Lord,
And let our joys be known:
Join in a song with sweet accord
And thus surround the throne.

Let those refuse to sing
Who never knew our God;
But servants of the heav’nly King
May speak their joys abroad.

The God that rules on high,
That all the earth surveys,
That rides upon the stormy sky
And calms the roaring sea.
Isaac Watts, 1707

*****
McKay
O the transporting, rapturous scene
That rises to my sight!
Sweet fields arrayed in living green,
And rivers of delight.
There gen’rous fruits that never fail
On trees immortal grow,
There rocks and hills and brooks and vales
With milk and honey flow.
Samuel Stennett, 1787

*****

Ninety-Third Psalm
Grace! ‘Tis a charming sound,
Harmonious to the ear;
Heav’n with the echo shall resound,
And all the earth shall hear.

Grace first contrived the way
To save rebellious man;
And all the steps that grace display,
Which drew the wondrous plan.

Grace taught my wand’ring feet
To tread the heav’nly road;
And new supplies each hour I meet,
While pressing on to God.

Grace all the work shall crown
Through everlasting days;
It lays in heav’n the topmost stone.
And well deserves our praise.
Philip Doddridge, 1755