John Burge

Commissioner: The Elora Festival Singers, Noel Edison, Music Director

Dedication: For Noel Edison and the Elora Festival Singers

Premiere: Elora Festival Singers, Noel Edison, conductor, at St. John’s Church in Elora, Ontario, August 5, 2007.

Program Note: Indian Summer was commissioned by Music Director, Noel Edison, and the Elora Festival Singers, for the 2007 Elora Summer Music Festival.  Noel and the choir premiered the work on August 5, 2007 at St. John’s Church in Elora, Ontario.  The commission requested a choral setting of a poem that made reference to summer and Emily Dickinson’s spiritual reflection upon the late arrival of a few summer-like days in what should be the fall season seemed appropriate.  This is a moment that many inhabitants of Northern climes can attest.  The bitter/sweet quality conveyed by the glow these warm days provide can be quite profound as deep down, we know that this moment cannot last.  For Emily Dickinson, these are days to be enjoyed and she makes the analogy that, in the same way that Christians use bread and wine of the communion service to symbolize Jesus Christ and the Lord’s sacrifice, the days of Indian summer provide us with a moment that tangibly allows us to experience the beauty of the Lord’s work.

Text:

     These are the days when birds come back, / A very few, a bird or two, / To take a backward look.

     These are the days when skies put on / The old, old sophistries of June, — / A blue and gold mistake.

     Oh, fraud that cannot cheat the bee, / Almost thy plausibility / Induces my belief,

     Till ranks of seeds their witness bear, / And softly through the altered air / Hurries a timid leaf!

     Oh, sacrament of summer days, / Oh, last communion in the haze, / Permit a child to join,

     Thy sacred emblems to partake, / Thy consecrated bread to break, / Taste thine immortal wine!

           -Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

This score can be purchased directly from Boosey and Hawkes Music Publishers (UPC-073999186932).