Description
Based on “Summertime Rag” for cello and guitar by the late Chris Benson (also available on this site, in my transcription) I added a choral part with appreciative words about the summer, a sort of half-rag half-madrigal affair.
It is performed here by the Composer’s Choir in New York (July 2015)
In the summer time when the work was done
we’d take our ease and have our fun
we’d been always looking forward
to the warm dry days of sun
Time’s rolled on and joy is past
how could we think it would last?
Summer time’s a distant memory
pale and over cast.
But the summer time will always stay
in memory’s eternal day
let us keep the fondest recollection
of the far off summer time!