Songs of Summer - A Jazz Cantata
for Choir, Piano, Double bass and Drum kit
Songs of Summer is a jazz-inspired work for choir and trio that explores various themes of a British summer. It is mostly a celebratory and positive piece, that takes pleasure in the arrival of warmth and sunshine after a long cold winter. The first movement Summer is coming anticipates the new season with excitement and carefree abandon. This is followed by Good morning Sun, an appreciation of the warmth and bright colours of a sunny summer's day. The third movement Summer Fruit Market depicts a summer market with its numerous fruits, from the quiet early morning to the joyous business of midday. To contrast, Great is the sun has a relaxed and peaceful afternoon mood, as well as a passing feeling of overheating, crying out for shade. As with a typical British summer, there follows a storm and a downpour of rain in How beautiful is the rain, greeted with relief and awe. Warm summer sun was written by Robert Richardson on the death of his daughter, and was later adapted by Mark Twain on the death of his own daughter. It is a melancholic meditation on the comfort that sunshine can bring to those we have lost. Walt Whitman's ecstatic and exuberant ode to the sun completes the work, O Sun of real peace, with an almost religious fervour celebrating peace. The final section uses music that has appeared throughout the whole piece, in a joyous gospel mood that praises the sun.
Scoring: SATB choir with piano, double bass, drum kit (3 players)
The work was composed for the City of Bristol Choir, conducted by David Ogden, and first performed by them in St George's Brandon Hill, Bristol on 22nd June 2025.
Duration: c. 30 minutes
Listen to the first performance here:
1. Summer is coming (3'40)
2. Good morning Sun (3'29)
3. Summer Fruit Market (4'55)
4. Great is the sun (4'58)
5. How beautiful is the rain (4'28)
6. Warm summer sun (5'34)
7. O Sun of real peace (5'00)
Texts:
1 – Alfred, Lord Tennyson – The Throstle: Summer is coming
‘Summer is coming, summer is coming.
I know it, I know it, I know it.
Light again, leaf again, life again, love again,’
Yes, my wild little Poet.
Sing the new year in under the blue.
Last year you sang it as gladly.
‘New, new,’ is it then so new
That you should carol so madly?
‘Here again, here, happy year’!
O warble unbidden!
Summer is coming my dear,
And all the winters are hidden.
2 - Annette Wynne - Good Morning Sun
Good morning Sun,
Our work is done
For now we play
And make our day
In cloudless sky
The sun goes high
To spread its light
And bring delight
So warm and bright
Shake off the night
These skies of blue
Our spirits renew
With shades of gold
Drive out the cold
Sing loud and long
Our summer song
Shine, O shine sun,
Shine, shine, shine on me!
3 - Christina Rossetti – from 'Goblin Market': Summer Fruit Market
Come buy, come buy:
Apples and quinces,
Lemons and oranges,
Plump unpeck’d cherries,
Melons and raspberries,
Bloom-down-cheek’d peaches,
Swart-headed mulberries,
All ripe together
In summer weather
Come buy, come buy.
Wild free-born cranberries,
Crab-apples, dewberries,
Pine-apples, blackberries,
Apricots, strawberries;
All ripe together
In summer weather
Come buy, come buy.
Grapes fresh from the vine,
Pomegranates full and fine,
Dates and sharp bullaces,
Rare pears and greengages
Damsons and bilberries
Taste them and try.
All ripe together
In summer weather
Come buy, come buy.
Currants and gooseberries,
Bright fire-like barberries,
Figs to fill your mouth,
Citrons from the south,
All ripe together
In summer weather
Come buy, come buy.
4 – Robert Louis Stevenson – Summer Sun: Great is the sun
Great is the sun, and wide he goes
Through empty heaven with repose;
And in the blue and glowing days
More thick than rain he showers his rays.
Though closer still the blinds we pull
To keep the shady parlour cool,
Yet he will find a chink or two
To slip his golden fingers through.
5 – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - Rain In Summer: How beautiful is the rain
How beautiful is the rain!
After the dust and heat,
In the broad and fiery street,
In the narrow lane,
How beautiful is the rain!
How it clatters along the roofs,
Like the tramp of hoofs
How it gushes and struggles out
From the throat of the overflowing spout!
Across the window-pane
It pours and pours;
And swift and wide,
With a muddy tide,
Like a river down the gutter roars.
The rain, the welcome rain!
6 – Robert Richardson/Mark Twain – Warm summer sun
Warm summer sun,
Shine kindly here,
Warm southern wind,
Blow softly here.
Green grass above,
Lie light, lie light.
Good night, dear heart,
Good night, good night.
7 – Walt Whitman – O Sun of real peace
O sun of real peace! O hastening light!
O free and extatic!
O the sun of the world will ascend, dazzling, and take his height!
O so amazing and broad, up there resplendent, darting and burning!
Pour down your warmth, great sun!
Shine, O shine sun,
shine, shine, shine on me!
for Choir, Piano, Double bass and Drum kit
Songs of Summer is a jazz-inspired work for choir and trio that explores various themes of a British summer. It is mostly a celebratory and positive piece, that takes pleasure in the arrival of warmth and sunshine after a long cold winter. The first movement Summer is coming anticipates the new season with excitement and carefree abandon. This is followed by Good morning Sun, an appreciation of the warmth and bright colours of a sunny summer's day. The third movement Summer Fruit Market depicts a summer market with its numerous fruits, from the quiet early morning to the joyous business of midday. To contrast, Great is the sun has a relaxed and peaceful afternoon mood, as well as a passing feeling of overheating, crying out for shade. As with a typical British summer, there follows a storm and a downpour of rain in How beautiful is the rain, greeted with relief and awe. Warm summer sun was written by Robert Richardson on the death of his daughter, and was later adapted by Mark Twain on the death of his own daughter. It is a melancholic meditation on the comfort that sunshine can bring to those we have lost. Walt Whitman's ecstatic and exuberant ode to the sun completes the work, O Sun of real peace, with an almost religious fervour celebrating peace. The final section uses music that has appeared throughout the whole piece, in a joyous gospel mood that praises the sun.
Scoring: SATB choir with piano, double bass, drum kit (3 players)
The work was composed for the City of Bristol Choir, conducted by David Ogden, and first performed by them in St George's Brandon Hill, Bristol on 22nd June 2025.
Duration: c. 30 minutes
Listen to the first performance here:
1. Summer is coming (3'40)
2. Good morning Sun (3'29)
3. Summer Fruit Market (4'55)
4. Great is the sun (4'58)
5. How beautiful is the rain (4'28)
6. Warm summer sun (5'34)
7. O Sun of real peace (5'00)
Texts:
1 – Alfred, Lord Tennyson – The Throstle: Summer is coming
‘Summer is coming, summer is coming.
I know it, I know it, I know it.
Light again, leaf again, life again, love again,’
Yes, my wild little Poet.
Sing the new year in under the blue.
Last year you sang it as gladly.
‘New, new,’ is it then so new
That you should carol so madly?
‘Here again, here, happy year’!
O warble unbidden!
Summer is coming my dear,
And all the winters are hidden.
2 - Annette Wynne - Good Morning Sun
Good morning Sun,
Our work is done
For now we play
And make our day
In cloudless sky
The sun goes high
To spread its light
And bring delight
So warm and bright
Shake off the night
These skies of blue
Our spirits renew
With shades of gold
Drive out the cold
Sing loud and long
Our summer song
Shine, O shine sun,
Shine, shine, shine on me!
3 - Christina Rossetti – from 'Goblin Market': Summer Fruit Market
Come buy, come buy:
Apples and quinces,
Lemons and oranges,
Plump unpeck’d cherries,
Melons and raspberries,
Bloom-down-cheek’d peaches,
Swart-headed mulberries,
All ripe together
In summer weather
Come buy, come buy.
Wild free-born cranberries,
Crab-apples, dewberries,
Pine-apples, blackberries,
Apricots, strawberries;
All ripe together
In summer weather
Come buy, come buy.
Grapes fresh from the vine,
Pomegranates full and fine,
Dates and sharp bullaces,
Rare pears and greengages
Damsons and bilberries
Taste them and try.
All ripe together
In summer weather
Come buy, come buy.
Currants and gooseberries,
Bright fire-like barberries,
Figs to fill your mouth,
Citrons from the south,
All ripe together
In summer weather
Come buy, come buy.
4 – Robert Louis Stevenson – Summer Sun: Great is the sun
Great is the sun, and wide he goes
Through empty heaven with repose;
And in the blue and glowing days
More thick than rain he showers his rays.
Though closer still the blinds we pull
To keep the shady parlour cool,
Yet he will find a chink or two
To slip his golden fingers through.
5 – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - Rain In Summer: How beautiful is the rain
How beautiful is the rain!
After the dust and heat,
In the broad and fiery street,
In the narrow lane,
How beautiful is the rain!
How it clatters along the roofs,
Like the tramp of hoofs
How it gushes and struggles out
From the throat of the overflowing spout!
Across the window-pane
It pours and pours;
And swift and wide,
With a muddy tide,
Like a river down the gutter roars.
The rain, the welcome rain!
6 – Robert Richardson/Mark Twain – Warm summer sun
Warm summer sun,
Shine kindly here,
Warm southern wind,
Blow softly here.
Green grass above,
Lie light, lie light.
Good night, dear heart,
Good night, good night.
7 – Walt Whitman – O Sun of real peace
O sun of real peace! O hastening light!
O free and extatic!
O the sun of the world will ascend, dazzling, and take his height!
O so amazing and broad, up there resplendent, darting and burning!
Pour down your warmth, great sun!
Shine, O shine sun,
shine, shine, shine on me!