Musical inspiration for making the most of summer

Every year right around this time I get a little panicky. We have now officially passed this summer’s halfway point — there are only 41 measly days left. Eep.

I had so many plans. Gin and tonic hour on the deck.

I was going to get quite good at barbecuing. That pile of novels getting dusty on my bedside table still needs whittling down.

This may sound ominously biblical, but we’ve now got 40 days and 40 nights to make the most of what’s left of summer. Of course, what you do with your summer is entirely up to you, but I do have a little musical advice.

There is a magical piece of music and prose called Knoxville: Summer of 1915 by Samuel Barber and James Agee. Agee was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his novel A Death in the Family. Barber is best known for Adagio for Strings, an iconic piece of 20th Century music.

With Knoxville, it was the words that came first. Agee evokes a scene from his own childhood with endearing naivety and a nostalgia that makes your heart ache a little:

“It has become that time of evening when people sit on their porches, rocking gently and talking gently and watching the street … On the rough wet grass of the backyard my father and mother have spread quilts ... The stars are wide and alive, they all seem like a smile of great sweetness, and they seem very near.”

In 1947, Barber was commissioned to write a new work and he immediately turned to Agee’s profoundly quieting words.

All the sounds of a small town summer evening are recreated by Barber’s ingenious orchestration.

When I listen to this remarkable work, it always leaves me with the notion that if you really try, time can be suspended, at least for a little while. Maybe the real way to make the most of summer is simply to do less.

Gordon Gerrard is the music director of the Regina Symphony Orchestra.