It’s curious that for all the vast multitudes of music written for the Winter holidays, there’s hardly any to help us celebrate Thanksgiving. But that certainly isn’t because music isn’t appropriate for giving thanks.

One of the best Thanksgiving songs I can think of doesn’t pertain specifically to the American holiday, but to the greater idea of thankfulness and gratitude. It’s the so-called “Heiliger Dankgesang” (Song of Holy Thanksgiving) from Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 15, Op. 132

Prior to composing the quartet in 1825, near the end of his life, Beethoven had been suffering a terrible illness. In fact, he was fairly certain he was going to die from it. But he made an unexpected recovery and was able to finish the quartet. Over the third movement, he wrote the words “Holy song of thanksgiving of a convalescent to the Deity, in the Lydian Mode”.

The reverent, heavenly, hymn-like music that begins the movement gives way after a few minutes, shockingly, to an exuberant and nostalgic dance-music, suggestive of Earthly experience. The contrast between heavenly and Earthly plays out again before settling into the broad, otherworldly hymn-song texture to close out the movement.

We are accustomed to saying that music evokes emotions like happiness, sadness, love, or fear. But why don’t we hear music described as ‘grateful’? It’s not that gratitude is more personal or subjective than fear or love. Perhaps it’s because gratitude is a complicated and more subtle emotion. It’s a close cousin of humility, mixed with happiness as well as sadness. Whatever the exact cocktail, the feeling of gratitude is certainly predicated upon honesty and transparency, which is where Beethoven’s Thanksgiving Song begins and ends.