The end of summer

[PatrickOD]

(i) When is it ? (in my opinion it's TODAY !!)

(ii) How do you feel about it ? ..... whenever it is.

(iii) Can you think of any 'classical' works that deal with it ? (I can't)

Alison, the end of Summer, for me, has always been the end of August. The school holidays were over, the new term loomed, the carefree days were gone. I'm talking about when I was young, but I still experience the same sinking feeling as August draws to a close.

To hammer home the point I take you back to 1953. Sunday August 30. I was 17. A group of us boys were hanging out bemoaning the end of Summer. We spent some time in the Boys' Club, playing cards, smoking, and singing. Some of us were quite musical and we enjoyed trying out our own ear arrangements of popular songs - I sang bass. We kind of identified with this number at the time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKSF7C3D-a8

I'm sorry I can't offer you a nice Schubert part song - it was a few more years before I even noticed one.

In the middle of a song I got a message that I was wanted at home. Funny.... my mother and young sister had gone away that day on a trip to the seaside. They must have returned earlier than expected. The truth of the matter was that my mother had had a fatal heart attack walking on the beach in a beautiful part of Donegal, and relatives had come to break the news. Not only was Summer over, but the whole course of my life had changed.

So, the end of Summer, the end of August and the end of my youth are inextricably linked for me.

[Serial_Apologist]

A very poignant recollection, PatrickOD. Forgive me, but I have somehow always assumed you to be somewhere in my age group (65). Amazing to learn that R&B numbers of that kind were available in Ireland in 1953. When did you first get to hear that one - and was it obtainable from a local shop?

S-A

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

I picked some lovely juicy blackberries this evening, much nice to eat them raw straight off the plant rather than cooked, I also had a couple of juicy apples off the tree. A near neighbour has a glut of William pears and is giving them away, they are absolutely delicious. It certainly seems a very abundant harvest of fruit this year, which is good as everyone shares their surplus.

I too went on a brambling expedition yesterday - picked a pound of 'em up on the Ridge, with the Cathedral in the distance. I froze half and used the others in a blackberry and apple crumble - a sure sign of the end of summer.

http://i687.photobucket.com/albums/vv232/IlGrandeInquisitor/CathedralviewfromWhiteshuteRidge.jpg

I also associate Brahms' Clarinet Sonatas with the end of summer, along with Strauss' Four Last Songs, full of wistful nostalgia and a sense of things coming to a natural close.

[Alison]

What a touching message Patrick.

Well here we are then towards ten o'clock on 31 August.

There is a certain melancholy in my heart but at least we have each other !

Alison x

[PatrickOD]

Alison, your warmth shines through. And I thank you for it.

S_A, to answer your question, think 'Radio'.
In addition, there were the local bands who played the popular music of the time.
Record players were a rarity but one of our gang had one - he was later to become a singer with a successful showband, and he had access to lots of American records.
Then there was sheet music, and some of us could hack our way through a lot of numbers.
If I had remained in that town I am sure my future career would have been very different. But Je ne regret rien.

[Alison]

I do like the organ sounds of your song, Patrick.

Sort of warm and comforting.

What happened to that sound ?

[Serial_Apologist]

Alison, your warmth shines through. And I thank you for it.

S_A, to answer your question, think 'Radio'.
In addition, there were the local bands who played the popular music of the time.
Record players were a rarity but one of our gang had one - he was later to become a singer with a successful showband, and he had access to lots of American records.
Then there was sheet music, and some of us could hack our way through a lot of numbers.
If I had remained in that town I am sure my future career would have been very different. But Je ne regret rien.

That's very interesting - and thanks for the reply Patrick. The main reason I asked was because I don't think anything as "raunchy" as that kind of music was ever played on the BBC wireless back in the early 50s. It would have been Doris Day and Pat Boone on the Light Programme, maybe Edmundo Ros at the most risque!

[PatrickOD]

I do like the organ sounds of your song, Patrick.

Sort of warm and comforting.

What happened to that sound ?

I don't know if it was a Hammond, Alison, but Hammonds were big in popular music. And still are, it would seem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ck__wghRww

S_A, I'm sure there is a BBC history buff here who could clarify what stuff was played back then. I heard it somewhere, perhaps on the forerunner of Radio Eireann - the old Athlone station. But my memory is not good enough to recall what songs I heard and where I heard them. I do remember hearing 12th Street Rag in particular and quite a bit of Dixieland. My dad played 12th Street from the sheet music, and a mate and I played it with four hands.

[salymap]

My sympathy too Patrick. i had a similar sort of experience, but my father died suddenly of a heart attack while I was at work, talking about a wonderful concert at Maida Vale the night before. Everything changed from that moment.

Heads up for Breakfast at 9.12 today. Weill September Song sung by Lotti Lenya. Is it the same song
that we were talking about. Shall try to listen.

[Anna]

Here is death at it's most beautiful!
Proclaim it with swathes of orange and yellow and brown.
Unfurl bright banners of purple and red and gold
See them flutter, and twist, and dance
Against ceilings of azure or cloud grey
Rejoice in the colourful death of Summer

[Stillhomewardbound]

The end of summer for me is always associated with 1972 when my father had taken the difficult decision to relocate the family from Dublin to London.

We had been blissfully happy in a great big Victorian pile in Sandymount close to it's golden strand as immortalised by Joyce, and yet suddenly, there we were in a squat, little house in the horribly landlocked suburb of Finchley.

It was said that, emotionally, my mother never fully unpacked her bags and I think myself and our siblings left a big chunk of our young lives behind in Dublin. So, every year at this time I recall the date of our arrival and add another year to the mental calendar - this year 39 years on - since we left Ireland.

Each of us remains Irish through and through and while we have assimilated over the years, we know we will always be exiles once cast on a foreign shore.

Here are some pictures of those special childhood years:

http://tpmckgallery.blogspot.com/2011/02/blog-post.html

Though not as sad at all as PatrickOD's loss, there was certainly a loss of innocence for us children at that time.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

re Patrick's song .... sounds like the Hammond B to me [but definitely not in 'funky' mode] and i am sure that it would have been played , not least on the Sunday morning Family Favourites and its theme tune 'With A Song in My Heart'

[Stillhomewardbound]

... I behold your adorable face
Just a song at the start
Soon becomes a hymn to your grace (Lorenz Hart)

[Norfolk Born]

re Patrick's song .... sounds like the Hammond B to me [but definitely not in 'funky' mode] and i am sure that it would have been played , not least on the Sunday morning Family Favourites and its theme tune 'With A Song in My Heart'

Ah yes....Sunday dinner while listening to Jean Metcalf and Cliff Michelmore on 'Two-Way Family Favourites' from 12.00 noon (13.00 in Germany). Memories of 'bumper bundles' and the odd classical piece. I think JM admitted that 'Nimrod' always brought a lump to her throat. The 1812 Overture - or at least the climax - also got played; I think they always chose the Dorati/Minneapolis recording 'featuring real cannon'. There would also be occasional appeals, on hot summer days, not to play the radio too loudly, for fear of offending the neighbours. While I can't be sure, I think the recording used for the theme tune was by Andre Kostelanetz.

[cavatina]

Well, it's September first, everyone. Here are thirty-eight Mp3 versions of "September Song":

SEPTEMBER SONG

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2007/09/september-songs.html

I always thought there was something special about Jimmy Durante's version...makes me cry my eyes out every single time. Don't miss it.