Deep Summer Music

• Deep Summer Music, a tone poem for full orchestra, premiered in 1982 with the Minnesota Orchestra under the baton of Joseph Giunta.
• Larsen wrote the following about the piece:

“Panorama and horizon are part of the natural culture of the plains states. On the plains, one cannot help but be affected by the sweep of the horizon and depth of color as the eye adjusts from the nearest to the farthest view. The glory of this phenomenon is particularly evident at harvest time, in the deep summer, when acres of ripened wheat, sunflowers, corn, rye, and oats blaze with color. In the deep summer, winds create wave after wave of harvest ripeness which, when beheld by the human eye, creates a kind of emotional peace and awe: a feeling of abundance combined with the knowledge that his abundance is only as bountiful as nature will allow.”¹

1. Libby Larsen, “Deep Summer Music,” Libby Larsen (1982), accessed September 27, 2022, https://libbylarsen.com/works/deep-summer-music.