{"id":126,"date":"2011-08-22T21:16:11","date_gmt":"2011-08-23T01:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/wordpress-camp\/pschmid1\/?p=126"},"modified":"2024-05-28T08:14:42","modified_gmt":"2024-05-28T12:14:42","slug":"comments-on-barber-summer-music-for-wind-quintet-part-1-youtube","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/?p=126","title":{"rendered":"Comments on Samuel Barber’s “Summer Music for Wind Quintet”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barber – Summer Music for Wind Quintet (Part 1) – YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A fine professional ensemble (Ensemble Wien-Berlin) handles this difficult but stunningly beautiful music–one of the very great wind quintets ever written. \u00a0 See also Part 2 on YouTube (link below) for the conclusion of this piece. \u00a0Both posts, by the way, include the music so if you read music you can follow along! \u00a0 Flute part is at the top, then oboe, then clarinet, then horn, then at the bottom bassoon.<\/p>\n

Rightly called “Summer Music,” this piece evokes the ebullient energy of summer as powerfully as a poem like Wallace Stevens’ “Credences of Summer.” \u00a0This power is nicely captured by the bubbly arpeggios of the flute, clarinet, and bassoon, which often gurgle underneath the other music lines and, in other sections, are front and center, flowing leisurely in counterpoint. \u00a0They are optimistic, effervescent, confident of endless sunshine. \u00a0 They dance. \u00a0At the end of the piece (in Part 2 in the YouTube excerpt) their notes fly upwards exuberantly like a flight of birds to make an end. \u00a0At times Barber sounds to my ear like he’s tipping his hat here and there to Stravinsky, especially his wind pieces from the 1920s, like the Octet. \u00a0 And of course the lively ghost of Mozart hovers kindly in the background. \u00a0But it’s all also inimitably Barber’s own, especially because of what happens with the horn and oboe parts.<\/p>\n

For all their liveliness, the horn and oboe parts speak often not of summer’s fullness but of something else that’s hard to name\u2014something that’s definitely sounded in a minor key, not a major key. \u00a0The horn and oboe parts thus sometimes contrast with the bubbly excitement of the other winds, sounding against them, under them, beyond them. \u00a0Their notes are often long drawn out, not quick runs up and down the scale. \u00a0They evoke a different emotion and make me feel that before my eyes (and ears) a beautiful summer’s day is turning into evening. \u00a0It’s a counterpoint to pure effulgence, one that doesn’t negate it but makes such optimism all the more precious because its sunniness is cast against a darker backdrop. \u00a0Hard to put into words, but the horn and oboe parts make my eyes sting with tears just about every time I hear this piece. \u00a0 Those plangent, minor, repeated held tones of the oboe and horn sound for me notes of loss and yearning, the music of the transcience of all things. \u00a0I hear and feel time passing. \u00a0This side of “Summer Music” is more like Stevens’ great elegy “Auroras of Autumn.”<\/p>\n

I’m no musician, nor am I an expert commentator on music adept with all the techical knowledge and terms. \u00a0 So I rely on analogies and metaphors to describe my reactions. \u00a0But they too are a part of what music does<\/em>. \u00a0As I write this on an August evening, through the window I can hear crickets and in the distance the surf of traffic on a local highway….<\/p>\n

Thank you\u00a0szilszabee<\/a> <\/strong>for posting this on YouTube!<\/span><\/p>\n

Barber – Summer Music for Wind Quintet (Part 2) – YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This performance of Barber’s “Summer Music” by Ensemble Wien-Berlin is available on Sony CD, Twentieth Century Wind Music<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Barber – Summer Music for Wind Quintet (Part 1) – YouTube. A fine professional ensemble (Ensemble Wien-Berlin) handles this difficult but stunningly beautiful music–one of the very great wind quintets ever written. \u00a0 See also Part 2 on YouTube (link … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=126"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1297,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126\/revisions\/1297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/pschmid1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}