A Thanksgiving Of American Folk Hymns is a visual feast from the rich tradition of music at Brigham Young University. As the hour long program begins, an early American landscape of colorful leaves and delicate autumn branches gives way to 400 singers and over a hundred instrumentalists joined in song. To see them, through windows of faith, is to hear beloved favorites anew-Shaker hymns, American folk songs, an African-American spiritual, Southern folk hymns and such classics as Abide With me; 'Tis Eventide and The Battle hymn of the Republic. Voices soar, and we see in the faces of fervent young performers a celebration of the gladness and sorrow that has shaped America-an America we have been and hope to be. |
