Summertime: Concert Band Conductor Score & Parts

Calvin Custer's arrangement distills Gershwin's genius into something your students can actually shape with their instruments. The scoring sits squarely in Grade 3 territory without feeling dumbed down, and it gives every section a moment to breathe with genuine musical responsibility. It's the kind of piece that reminds a band why they're learning phrasing in the first place.

Warm, unhurried, and genuinely beautiful. The melody settles into your ear like something you've always known, while the harmonic richness around it hints at the sophisticated orchestrations of the original.

Bands ready to explore legit legato writing and dynamic control without getting bogged down in rhythmic complexity. Custer's scoring rewards the player who can sustain a phrase and the conductor who knows how to balance a lyrical arrangement.

• Shape the main melody through long-line phrasing rather than note-by-note articulation; think of it as singing a phrase in one breath even across bar lines.
• Balance the inner voices in the reeds so the harmony never overwhelms the soprano line. This requires listening during sectionals, not just full rehearsals.
• Let the natural rubato of the melody breathe without dragging; Gershwin's melodies want space but they don't want to stop moving.

Program this as a contrast piece on a concert mixing styles and eras. It works especially well as a bridge between more challenging contemporary works, giving your audience a moment of clarity while your players practice musically mature phrasing in a familiar context.

• Sustained legato phrasing across multiple measures
• Dynamic shadings that serve the melody rather than the metronome
• Balancing voiced parts so the primary line sings through the ensemble
• Breath management for long melodic lines