It’s that time of year.

“The frost walked last night.
From the maple tree that shades my roof the golden and scarlet leaves are sidling down through the sunny morning air, leaving at every moment a little more blue.
No cricket sings.
There has been havoc in the multitudes of the fern.
Summer is gone ... and I must soon be going.”

— from The Cabin Down the Glen by Odell Shepard

Autumn reminds us how short and precious our time is upon this earth.

Sometimes music can enhance that realization.

To hear “Summer is Gone,” my setting of Shepard’s autumnal prose, sung by my dear friend and ‘brother from another mother,’ Chris Miller, with his wife Beth Troendly accompanying, click on the link above.

To see a PDF of the score, click on the link above.

This art song, most likely my last (because, having said what I have to say, I put down my composing pen not long after), has never been sung or recorded until now. You are the first to hear it.