Autumn has long been a source of inspiration for all artists, whether they be painters, poets or musicians. The tingle of autumn has been recorded by the brush, the musical theme and the written word. What better description of autumn is there than WALT WHITMAN’s "Shot gold, maroon and violet, dazzling silver, emerald, fawn. . ." His phrases from “Halcyon Days” also seem to grip the spirit of Autumn:

As softness, fullness, rest, suffuse the frame, like fresher, balmier air,
As the days take on a mellow light, and the apple at last hangs really finished and indolent-ripe on the tree,
Then for the teeming quietest, happiest days of all!
The brooding and blissful halcyon days.

One of English literature's most famous autumnal poems comes from JOHN KEATS. The first stanza of To Autumn reads:

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees, And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells With a sweet kernel; To set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees, Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

Equally famous is Ode to the West Wind by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY. It begins:

O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,
Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing.
Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,
Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou,
Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed
The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,
Each like a corpse within its grave, . . .

WILLIAM MORRIS captured the haunting quality of the autumnal nights in the second stanza of his poem, November:

Look out upon the real world, where the moon
Half-way 'twixt root and crown of those high trees
Turns the dead midnight into ghostly noon,
Silent and full of wonders, for the breeze
Died at the sunset, and no images,
No hopes of day, are left in sky or earth —
Is it not fair, and of most wondrous worth?

THOMAS HOOD rhapsodized on the sadness of the fall season in his poem, Autumn. It reads, in part:

I saw old Autumn in the misty morn
Stand shadowless like Silence, listening
To silence, for no lonely bird would sing
Into his hollow ear from woods forlorn,
Now lowly hedge nor solitary thorn;
Shaking his languid locks all dewy bright
With tangled gossamer that fell by night,
Pearling his coronet of golden corn.

DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI wrote in Autumn Song:

Know'st thou not at the fall of the leaf
How the heart feels a languid grief
Laid on it for a covering,
And how sleep seems a goodly thing
In Autumn at the fall of the leaf?
And how the swift beat of the brain
Falters because it is in vain,
In Autumn at the fall of the leaf
Know'st thou not? and how the chief
Of joys seems — not to suffer pain?
How the soul feels like a dried sheaf
Bound up at length for harvesting,
And how death seems a comely thing
In Autumn at the fall of the leaf?

EMILY DICKINSON wrote eight lines which she called Autumn:

The morns are meeker than they were,
The nuts are getting Brown;
The berry's cheek is plumper,
The rose is out of town.
The maple wears a gayer scarf,
The field a scarlet gown.
Lest I should be old-fashioned,
I'll put a trinket on.

Though most poets seem to dwell on the sadness of the season, it remained for a contemporary of William Shakespeare's to catch the gaiety and true beauty of autumn. JOHN DONNE’S The Autumnal begins:

No Spring, nor Summer Beauty hath such grace
As I have seen in one Autumnal face.

About the Compilation

With these ten popular songs on autumnal themes, Camarata has created a new kind of musical poetry. For the first time he is combining the pipe organ, the piano, a choir and the symphony orchestra. None is treated as a solo instrument — rather, all are integrated as instruments of the symphony. Buddy Cole performs on the full console pipe organ, and Ray Turner plays the piano interludes. Many new musical sounds evolved by Camarata have been adapted to these songs. Designed to sound as one instrument are the violin and voice, organ and oboe, organ and viola and piano and vibraharp. There are lacy duets between organ and muted trumpet, organ and English horn, violin and flute and organ and strings. The voices often form a background curtain for a soft trombone, violin, trumpet, celeste or marimba. Two of the world's oldest instruments — the organ and the human voice — unite to emulate the sounds of electronic instruments. The effects are as refreshing as they are unusual, they make for excellent listening at all times.

Camarata would like to thank his colleagues, Leo Shuken and Jack Hayes for their colorful and unique orchestrations.

Restoration Showcase

The following is a comparison of the original digitization from LP Vinyl (by Todd Horan) and the restored album.

Pops, Clicks and Noise Reduction performed by AI
EQ Enhancement, Remastering and Track “Sweetening” performed by Joshua L Harris
(Use Before & After Toggle to hear the difference)