Summerfield Reber Clark

Band
Number of Players:Standard
Copyright:2006
Flute
Oboe (opt.)
Bassoon (opt.)
Clarinet in Bb 1
Clarinet in Bb 2/3
Bass Clarinet 1/2
Alto Saxophone 1/2
Tenor Saxophone
Baritone Saxophone
Trumpet in Bb 1
Trumpet in Bb 2
Trumpet in Bb 3
Horn in F 1
Horn in F 2
Trombone 1
Trombone 2
Euphonium
(Baritone T.C.)
Tuba
Timpani (triangle)
Percussion 1 (snare drum, bass drum)
Percussion 2 (field drums 2 or more)
Percussion 3 (crash cymbals, tam-tam, suspended cymbal, tambourine, triangle)
Percussion 4 (bells)
Percussion 5 (chimes)
"Summerfield" was commissioned by the Commack High School Wind Ensemble, Melissa Hendrickson, Conductor. The title of this piece comes, in a very round about way, from the name of a rock band of which I was a member while in college.

The majority of the members of the rock band Summerfield consisted mainly of music education majors with a few outsider hard core rockers. It was the mid to late nineteen seventies and we played everything from the Doobie Brothers to Chicago to Blood Sweat and Tears to many covers of any and all rock tunes of the day.

The band had many adventures and traveled widely in our region, typical of the college circuit bands of that time. What set us apart was our four man horn section and our commitment to doing horn band tunes.

Summerfield's horn section came from a music department whose directors were dedicated to the wind band music of Grainger, Holst, Vaughn-Williams, Persichetti, Chance, Reed, Nelhybel, and many others. We came from a world steeped in wind band tradition.

Although Summerfield was playing pop music, the undercurrents in the band, especially the horn section, came from those musical values instilled in us by our teachers and the wind band tradition.

In retrospect this musical situation reminds me of the Irish céilís that I've been to on visits to Ireland. A céilí is an informal dance and music get-together with food and drinks that is attended by both young and old. The bands at the céilís are invariably young but play the traditional tunes of the Irish tradition with as much force and heart as the punk tunes they inevitably render on the same job.

Summerfield, set in a somewhat contemporary fashion and interpreted by a current day director and ensemble, attempts to celebrate the music of all time in the context of the music of one's own time. To that end I've used the following traditional folk melodies: the Irish tune Spancil Hill a recollection of boyhood days long ago and far away, the English tune Ramble Away, from Somerset in the Midlands about a young man out for conquest, and from Liverpool The Leaving of Liverpool, about those girls we've left behind. The text of the tunes is printed in the back of the score.
Reber Clark