Even though I keep thinking Thanksgiving is two weeks off (not to worry—I have the wherewithal to make the pumpkin pie and the cranberry relish), it’s in fact next Thursday. So today’s earworm is my favorite Thanksgiving hymn, “For the Beauty of the Earth”.
Although it’s been taken over by Americans (ish), the hymn was written by an English hymnodist, Folliott S. Pierpont, in 1864. Despite Pierpont’s Tractarian leanings, “For the Beauty” strikes me as very Low Church, somehow. The simple listing of all the natural wonders that enrich our lives actually makes me think of “Pied Beauty”, one of my all-time favorite poems, and written by a Roman Catholic priest, so maybe I have no notion of high or low church. Um.
These days, it’s hard to find an online rendition that hasn’t been polluted by John Rutter. For me, the only tune is “Dix”, and here’s one of those ubiquitous and frankly indistinguishable all-male a capella groups singing it.
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