Top Ten Thankful Classical Songs

We love Top Ten lists just as much as the next guy, so here goes our Thanksgiving Edition! (click on the title to hear an example!)

#10. Leonard Bernstein: Turkey Trot (Divertimento)

#9. Trad, arr Carmen: Turkey in the Straw

#8. The Cranberries: Zombie (performed by the Poteet Orchestra)

#7. Ludwig van Beethoven: Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lydischen Tonart (String Quartet #15, Opus 132)

#6. Philip Glass: The American Four Seasons

#5. Aaron Copland: Simple Gifts (Old American Songs)

#4. Samuel Barber: First Essay

#3. Ralph Vaughan-Williams: March of the Kitchen Utensils (The Wasps)

#2. Ludwig van Beethoven: Shepherd's Song: Happy and thankful feelings after a storm (Symphony #6 "Pastorale")

and the Number One Classical Thanksgiving Song

Eric Whitacre: I thank you God for this Most Amazing Day

Giving Thanks Key

This Thanksgiving I want to give thanks for the people with whom I make MUSIC. There are many of them: INSPIRED composers that create, MUSICIANS that realize a composer's dream, people who 'ORCHESTRATE' the means by which we make the music, to the receivers of the music -- the AUDIENCE.

This circle is a GIFT. We share something so beautiful, fulfilling, so RECHARGING. We connect in shared desire to reach out, to COMMUNICATE the soul of the music that touches us so deeply.

The music and people with whom I play have made me WHO I AM today.

I love them all. I owe them all. Thank you for YOU -- all of you!

Stephanie Key
Artistic Director & Founder, SOLI
Assistant Principal Clarinetist, San Antonio Symphony

Giving Thanks Oboe

If I have a “main” story about gratitude in meeting a musician, it is my longtime friend Warren Jones that I have to talk about.
I started graduate school at the San Francisco Conservatory in the fall of 1974. The graduate school class was small – 20 or so. Many of us had accomplished some good things as musicians, but one of us, Warren Jones, was rumored to be the most significant of us. I didn’t know him at all.
We took a class together that met in the evening. Around dinner time I was in a practice room, working on the Oboe Concerto by Richard Strauss. The door burst open.
“Do you have a piano score for that?”
It was Warren. He’s a good bit taller than me and in those days dressing in ways that I would have to call bold and colorful. I was intimidated to say the least.
“Yes I do,” I said.
“Well let me play it.”
So Warren sat down at the piano in the practice room and started to play the first movement with me. It suddenly made musical sense that it hadn’t made before. Suddenly there was time for all the things I needed to do, breathe, extra time to elongate or emphasize part of a phrase, and much more. Now I knew why Warren had the reputation that exceeded the rest of us by so much.

Now, 36 years later, I have been on the stage performing with Warren more times than I can count. We’ve been close friends ever since that day. Every time I work with Warren, I emerge from the collaboration a better musician.
If I can sum up, in a few words, why he is so wonderful, it is this: He is never in a hurry. There’s always more time in the music than one might think. Tiny adjustments to tempo, a few percent, I mean, are easy for him, in a way that they are not for most of us.
If you want to know more about Warren, look at his website, http://www.warrenjones.com/. If you want to hear him play, keep your eye on the Olmos Ensemble concerts. His performance for this season is passed, already, but he’ll be back next season.
The recording I’ve submitted to John Clare with this story is from the Olmos Ensemble’s concert on October 26th. It is the Three Romances, composed by Robert Schumann, for oboe and piano. Schumann wrote something beautiful when writing these and also something treacherously difficult, causing fatigue in an oboist that can really limit the expressive range of the pieces. Warren plays them in such a way as to make room for phrasing and breathing in such a way that the pieces are as easy to play as they could possibly be.
(click on the link below to hear their performance)

Romance 1
Romance 2
Romance 3

Happy listening, Happy Thanksgiving!
Mark Ackerman

Giving Thanks Double Bass

I’m thankful for having had the opportunity to study the double bass under John Schaeffer, retired Principal Bass of the New York Philharmonic. Schaeffer was a demanding teacher who taught me the most important lesson of all—you have to take the responsibility to teach yourself. Even though I don’t play the double bass anymore, he is still one of the biggest influences of my life.
Schaeffer was a great bassist, a real expert on orchestral playing and somewhat of a caricature of a gruff New York Philharmonic musician. Unless he was on stage, you almost never saw him without a big cigar in his mouth. He was opinionated about other musicians and he never minced words about any student’s playing. I once asked him about a legendary bassist of the previous generation who had died before I was born, but with whom Schaeffer had played with when he first got to the New York Philharmonic. His response was, “He was so bad he didn’t even know how to turn the page in the music!”
Schaeffer hated the bureaucracy of The Juilliard School. I’ll never forget registration one year. I finally got up to the head of long line (this is before the era of computerized registration) and met the Registrar. She said, “YOU! You’re one of those Schaeffer students!” I meekly replied, “Yes.” She then said I should tell my teacher to get down to the office and pick up his paychecks IMMEDIATELY. It seems Schaeffer refused to set foot in the administrative offices and the school refused to mail him his check. This stalemate had gone on for more than a year and was disrupting their accounting system!
Another one of his students loved to go to downtown jazz clubs. Schaeffer knew that this student had been out very late the previous night, so he called him at 8 a.m. the next morning. He asked, “Did I wake you up?” The student replied, (barely audibly) “Yes.” Schaeffer yelled, “GOOD, now get up and practice!”
Schaeffer only accepted three students at a time and he never got involved in school politics. He wasn’t the most famous or most popular teacher in New York at the time. But, he was an amazing teacher. Most of my lessons were at his house in Queens. I’d meet him backstage at Avery Fisher Hall after a Philharmonic rehearsal and we would drive out to his house. He had a huge mirror in this studio and we played facing the mirror. I was required to play everything by memory, so I could look into the mirror and analyze my technique. He also required me to solfège (singing with syllables do, re, me, etc.) every piece before I was allowed to play it on the bass. He didn’t want technique to influence the musical interpretation.
We spent an enormous amount of time on etudes and orchestral music. He wasn’t interested in flashy concertos. He said to me, “A bassist’s job is to fart in the right place.” He believed the orchestral repertoire was the most important music to learn. Most of my lessons lasted three hours and we went over and over and over a passage until he was satisfied. He’d ask me, “Is it in tune? Is the tone right? Was the rhythm perfect? What is the phrasing? Is it even? What about the articulation?” All this for a simple passage that most teachers wouldn’t even review in a lesson! We played these orchestral passages over and over again, until I could HEAR the most subtle differences. After a lesson, I’d take the subway back to Manhattan. I was often so exhausted by the intense experience that I’d fall asleep on the train.
Schaeffer had a fantastic collection of old Italian basses and French bows. He was very generous, loaning me instruments and bows for all my years at The Juilliard School. He said he did it because he hated to listen to student’s lousy instruments. But, we knew that wasn’t the real reason. He was trying to teach us very subtle differences in sound. When you regularly play a great 300-year old instrument, you learn to produce sound differently. He had six instruments in his house and another at Lincoln Center, so he could let us learn on a variety of great basses.
So, Happy Thanksgiving Mr. Schaeffer. And thank you for pushing me so hard all those many years ago.

Jack Fishman
Former double bassist and
Currently President & CEO
San Antonio Symphony

Giving Thanks for Role Models

Throughout a lifetime, we all encounter numerous teachers, some better than others. If we're lucky, we might even encounter a teacher whose lessons linger forever.

I believe most musicians have an inner  voice which we rely upon when the chips are down and we are trying to do something extraordinary. That voice, I believe, is often that of our truest teacher. The voice which always speaks to me at such times is that of Wayne Barrington, my French horn teacher during my years at UT Austin in the late 60s and early 70s. He is my role model and I give thanks each time I hold my horn in my hand for all he gave me . But it's much more than that. Mr. Barrington's lessons were foremost about playing the horn, but many times he also taught discipline, honor and integrity. For those life lessons I give thanks.

In June of this year, a number of Mr. Barrington's former students gathered to honor him for the myriad lessons he offered us over his long years as an educator and role model. I am thankful we had this opportunity to again say thank you to such an extraordinary man. Thank you, Maestro.

-Contributed by James Baker-

Giving Thanks: Dr. Timothy Kramer

I am thankful for the friendship and guidance of former Trinity University professor Timothy Kramer. Kramer, who is now the chair of the Music Department at Illinois College, was one of my favorite professors while I was a student at Trinity.


Although I was not a music major, nor did I even minor in music, I did hang about the department a fair amount. Two of the courses I took were Electronic Music and Music Composition, both taught by Dr. Kramer.

Electronic Music was fantastic because we students got to play with an incredible collection of musical toys, including synthesizers, voltage-controlled oscillators, wave generators, and many, many other noisemakers. And I’ll never forget the first day of Composition class, when Dr. Kramer knocked a music stand over on the floor and asked us “How do you like my piece?” He was illustrating the infinite possibilities that came with the modern definition of music. Creating a framework and rules from which we constructed our pieces was then part of the learning process for us all. Hearing my final project that semester, scored for oboe, piano, double bass, and percussion, performed live, is still one of the great musical joys of my life.

His enthusiasm for innovation and musical experimentation was infectious. Thank you Dr. Tim Kramer!

Nathan Cone, Director of Classical Programming, TU Class of 1995.

Giving Thanks 2010 Teachers

This Thanksgiving, we're sharing thankful classical thoughts. Kenneth Thompson, Executive Director of Musical Arts Centers of San Antonio, Inc. share his thanks:

I am thankful for the teachers who were my leaders and guides through the world of music. They are a part of me on a deep level and I see their influence in everything that I do. I am grateful that they shared their energy, time and wisdom. It was an honor to work with each of you! Thank you Nelita True, Jean Barr, Anna Haun, Anton Nel, Carolyn True, John Weems, Betty Nolting, Chris Wallace and Nancy Wilson!

What music or composers are you thankful for? Let us know in the comments!

About Kenneth: In June of 2000 Kenneth Thompson received the Texas Music Teachers Association’s ‘Pre-Collegiate Teacher of the Year Award’ for the state of Texas. TMTA is the largest association of private piano teachers in Texas and is affiliated with Music Teachers National Association. In November 2009 Mr. Thompson received the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ from Musical Bridges Around the World for his work in raising the level of piano teaching in San Antonio.

Giving Thanks 2010

This Thanksgiving, we're sharing thankful classical thoughts. Host John Clare shares music and composers he is thankful for:
Composer Steve Stucky hails from Hutchinson, KS and grew up in Waco, TX. A violist and composer, Steve won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005.  We talked soon after, although he had been on my short list of composers for Composing Thoughts.  Later that year, he introduced me to a cellist who was performing in the area and was premiering a work of his.  Elinor and I connected and Steve let us broadcast the premiere! That summer I met up with Steve and Elinor in Itaca where Steve lived.
We became fast friends and have stayed in touch ever since. There were many more trips to Ithaca and we'd meet up in NYC or Dallas.  Currently Steve is chairman of the American Music Center and I was just elected to the board last May.
Steve still visits Texas and we we snapped this photo in Main Plaza downtown last November.  He'll be in Dallas again this week for his Rhapsodies and next May before the Carnegie Hall premiere of his August 4th, 1964.
Steve writes powerful and passionate music that I am grateful for and enjoy studying.
What music or composers are you thankful for? Let us know in the comments!