True summer music – no cheating

As we are in mid-July, summer should be in full swing. With that in mind, let’s take a look at five pieces of music that inhabit the tone of summer.

There is one caveat here, the word “summer” cannot appear in the title of the piece. That rules out Vivaldi’s “Summer” from The Four Seasons along with Frank Bridge’s Summer and Frederick Delius’ A Song of Summer and at least a dozen others.

Anyone can Google classical music for summer and see lists of pieces that contain the word “summer.” We are going after something finer here.

When I think about summer, Russia might not be the first place that comes to mind. However, I would imagine that Russians have an extra appreciation of summer based on their winter. Musically, I find the third section of Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings to be evocative of a summer day.

This music isn’t just a series of lazy naps on a sunny beach. Rather, this is a summer experience that has some activity to it. There’s even a bit of drama on this summer day.

“Daybreak” from Maurice Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloe interprets the rising of the sun but it is rising on a warm summer day. I can recall being a school-aged child and waking up on summer days with the realization that I didn’t have anything to do except whatever I wanted to do. It is a glorious feeling and I find it in this music by Ravel. Ah, the glory of a summer day from one’s childhood.

Many of us find ourselves hiking during the summer season. Some hikes are more demanding than others. We might find ourselves on a hike that is a little more than we had anticipated. For the most part, the difficulty of the hike is relative to the payoff.

The “Adagio” from Bruckner’s Symphony No. 5 starts off very much like a fatigued hiker. The strings pluck out the steps while the oboe plays a mournful tune for our aching feet. All seems to be lost when we arrive at the vista as the strings intone a solemn hymn of nature at the 2:30 mark of the video — washing the accumulated dust of the trial off of our souls. We continue on our journey with renewed enthusiasm.

Nothing is more associated with summer than a national park and no national park is as impressive as the Grand Canyon. Ferde Grofé wrote his Grand Canyon Suite between 1929 and 1931 just as the automobile was opening up the country to the summer road trip. “On the Trail,” the third section of the suite, impersonates the canter of the donkey train as it descends into the canyon.

The final piece of summer is the opening movement of Dvorak’s American Quartet. Dvorak’s warm and energetic lyricism is a perfect fit for summertime listening.