Commissioned by the Chamber Music Society of Detroit, Summer Music is Barber's sole work for wind ensemble. Barber wanted this score to have a languid feel, although he did complain that it was often played too slowly. Summer Music's opening melody is derived from the first seven measures of Barber's earlier, unpublished orchestral work Horizon, mostly transposed up a step, and a violin solo from Horizon also turns up here in a version for flute and bassoon. Barber may also have found some inspiration in Jean Françaix's Wind Quintet No. 1, which the New York Woodwind Quintet was rehearsing when Barber was discussing his Summer Music commission with them. In particular, Barber seems to have picked up Françaix's penchant for contrary-motion runs in the flute, clarinet, and bassoon.

Rhapsodic and modal, the piece begins with the lazy melody from Horizon, here introduced by horn and bassoon. Constantly shifting time signatures impart a dreamy, rhythmic vagueness to the music. The tempo picks up a bit as the oboe (Barber's favorite wind instrument) introduces a theme similar to the opening melody. Suddenly, the instruments engage in a long, rapid, chattering, and even cackling passage of mostly sixteenth notes. Eventually the oboe regains control of the proceedings, singing its melody over an uneasy, inhaling-exhaling figure in the other instruments, notably the horn. At length the opening material returns, the theme and subsidiary material sliding from one instrument or group of instruments to another. Next, the oboe introduces a quick, syncopated, folk-like theme that passes through the ensemble. Soon the pace slows again, and after the syncopated tune tries to reassert itself the opening melody returns, rondo-like. Almost immediately the music becomes more animated and builds in volume and intensity, but this recedes into a slower, conversational passage reminiscent of the quieter parts of Janácek's Mládi. A brief, quick coda spins the work's principal thematic fragments through a musical kaleidoscope, and the piece ends with a soft but self-satisfied and witty burble.

© All Music Guide

Portions of Content Provided by All Music Guide.
© 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. All Music Guide is a registered trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.