End of Summer (from Poem Symphonies) (1990)

Orchestral Winds – 5 min.
Publisher: Lauren Keiser Music Publishing 

[2fl.2ob.2bn.2cl+bcl.1asax. / 4hn.3tpt.3tbn.1tba. / 2perc. / pno.]

Video

Audio

Score (Free Download)

Program Note

End of Summer for Wind Orchestra is one of a series of Poem Symphonies. Each “symphony” is inspired by the work of a contemporary American poet. The symphonies are not attempts to get poetry to music, but rather each proceeds from a poem, using the visions, images, and atmosphere of the poem as a point of departure.

“End of Summer”
by Stanley Kunitz

An agitation of the air,
A perturbation of the light
Admonished me the unloved year
Would turn on its hinge that night.
I stood in the disenchanted field
Amid the stubble and the stones,
Amazed, while a small worm lisped to me
The song of my marrow-bones.
Blue poured into summer blue,
A hawk broke from his cloudless tower,
The roof of the silo blazed, and I knew
That part of my life was over.
Already the iron door of the north
Clangs open: birds, leaves, snows
Order their populations forth,
And a cruel wind blows