Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year

Spring can really hang you up the most, you know? But that doesn't stop me from loving this season of growth, rebirth, rejuvenation, renewal, re-everything, and crazy, crazy weather. Oh how I love spring. 

Spring is the time of year when you never really know what to expect from Mother Nature. You might wake up to sunshine streaming through the windows and birds singing their come hither melodies, experience a torrential downpour with lightning and thunder accompaniment during the lunch hour, and find yourself seduced outside in the afternoon by a double rainbow that quickly fades when the hail starts falling. And then the fog rolls in. Spring. A good time to dress in layers.

After a long, dreary winter, along with fresh sprouts and longer days, spring has a way of bringing with it a renewal of hope: an understanding that there are sunnier days ahead, both actual and metaphorical. When spring has sprung, it’s the release of a tightly wound coil. Suddenly, I can breathe. (And then the pollen stuffs me up again, but let’s just pretend it doesn’t for a moment. Because it’s also like a Vitamin B-12 shot for creative individuals.

Spring has been inspiring artists for eons. Poets, painters, and musicians. I don’t know a lick about poetry or watercolor, but I’ve been a fan of music that pertains to the changing of the seasons for about as long as I can remember, and not an equinox nor a solstice is allowed to pass by without at least a small dedication to the changing of the season on Siskiyou Music Hall. Usually it's more likely a rather large dedication.

By the time you read this, the first official day of spring will have already come and gone (this year it was March 20th). But we're celebrating spring a little late this year, dedicating April's Recordings column to all the glorious music that has been written in its honor. Below you'll find two lists of music inspired by all things a la primavera, fruhling et printemps; one that's for Classics & News fans, the other for folks of the Rhythm & News persuasion.

Spring - The Classical Playlist

1. Vals de Primavera - Agustin Barrios
2. Last Spring - EdvardGrieg
3. Appalachian Spring - Aaron Copland
4. Spring from The Seasons - Mark O'Connor
5. Spring from The Four Seasons - Antonio Vivaldi
6. Rondes de Printemps - Claude Debussy
7. Spring Morning - Frederic Delius
8. Spring Blossom (Sakura) - Traditional Japanese Melody
9. Symphony No. 1, Spring - Robert Schumann
10. Spring Song - Jean Sibelius
11. Spring from The Seasons - Alexander Glazunov
12. Violin Sonata No. 5, Spring - Ludwig Van Beethoven
13. Ocean In Springtime (Haru No Umi) - Michio Miyago
14. Voices of Spring - Johann Strauss, Jr
15. Primavera Porteno - Astor Piazzola
16. Pluie de Printemps - Django Reinhardt
17. Spring Song - Felix Mendelssohn
18. Der Fruhling from The Seasons - Franz Joseph Haydn
19. String Quartet No. 14, Spring - W.A. Mozart
20. Fruhlingstraum - Franz Schubert
21. Spring Waters - Sergei Rachmaninov
22. The Rite of Spring - Igor Stravinsky

Spring - The Rhythm Playlist

1. March (A Prelude to Spring) - Jon Foreman  
2. Spring Wind - Jack Johnson
3. Spring - Heidi Happy
4. Printemps - Coeur de Pirate
5. Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most - Norah Jones & Marian McPartland
6. Spring Blossom - Oi Va Voi
7. They Say It's Spring - Blossom Dearie
8. Spring - The Innocence Mission
9. Spring - Saint Etienne
10. Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year - Ella Fitzgerald
11. I Love Paris In The Springtime - Frank Sinatra
12. Y'a Pas De Printemps - Edith Piaf
13. La Primavera - Manu Chao
14. Spring Rain - The Go-Betweens
15. Spring Thaw - Bela Fleck
16. Spring Buds - Keller Williams
17. Swing Spring - Joe Henderson
18. Springtime - Donald Fagen
19. Spring - Dori Caymmi
20. Joy Spring - Clifford Brown & Max Roach
21. Spring Haze - Tori Amos
22. Spring - Tracy Chapman

Valerie Ing-Miller is the Northern California Program Coordinator for JPR, and can be heard weekday afternoons hosting Siskiyou Music Hall on the Classics & News Service from our Redding, California studios. Although Valerie has been the host of a classical music program for over a decade, her musical taste extends far beyond the genre. She’s always got a song in her head, and can often be found singing along to new wave hits from the 80’s, or belting out jazz standards.