Summer-Night Songs (1994, rev. 1997)
for soprano saxophone and harp, 8 minutes
Instrumentation
soprano saxophone, harp
also oboe, piano and B-flat clarinet, piano
Recording
Exhortations (Athena Records), 1998
An evocative work which depicts a calm summer night interrupted by a rainstorm. Extended techniques on the harp couple with lyrical and virtuosic saxophone. (Versions for clarinet and oboe with harp, and saxophone, oboe, or clarinet with piano, are also available).
Program Notes
Summer-Night Songs was originally scored for the unusual but highly colorful ensemble of soprano saxophone and harp (1994, rev. 1997); transcriptions for clarinet and piano, as well as the present version, were made in 2002. Programmatic in inspiration, Summer-Night Songs evokes the atmosphere of a calm summer evening and a brief but violent rainstorm which interrupts its tranquility. Coloristic effects on the piano, both on the keyboard and on the strings, create a sonorous backdrop for the saxophone’s lyrical “night-songs," heard in the opening and closing sections of the piece. The central section depicts a coming rainstorm and its sudden arrival. Though fierce, it is a brief storm, and as the music clears, a piano cadenza (subtitled “the moon re-appearing through clouds”) leads gently to the closing section, in which the calmer night-song music is heard again. The music dissipates on a long-held oboe tone and an ascending scale into the extreme high register of the piano.
—Andrew Earle Simpson
Listen + Watch
Summer-Night Songs, for soprano saxophone and harp
Video by Nick Ferrario (2013)
Peter Sparling video “Elsewhere Anchises” set to Summer-Night Songs
Peter Sparling (dancer/choreographer). The visual clarity and fluid visceral power of their performances fuse with a reading of Seamus Heaney’s acclaimed translation and the music of Andrew Earle Simpson.
Main Theme
Storm
Performers: Robert Faub, soprano saxophone, Jessica Suchy-Pilalis, harp