David Summer, Music Samples
All Recordings © Copyright 2002-2009 by David Summer
All of the sound clips on this page are excerpts from recordings made by David using his home recording studio.
Classical Pieces
Trumpet Voluntary (originally called Prince of Denmark's March) was written around 1699 by the English baroque composer Jeremiah Clarke.
Clarke was the first organist of the then newly rebuilt St. Paul's Cathedral.
The piece was, for many years, incorrectly attributed to Jeremiah Clarke's contemporary Henry Purcell.
Trumpet Voluntary is very popular as a ceremonial processional.
David has performed the piece as a wedding processional as well as a processional for Confirmation and First Communion ceremonies and at graduation ceremonies.
Trumpet Voluntary (despite the name of the piece) also works well as a ceremonial piece for
flute alone.
Trumpet Voluntary was played during the wedding of Princess Diana and Prince Charles in St Paul's Cathedral.
The BBC often broadcasted the piece during World War II, especially when broadcasting to occupied Denmark and it is currently used as the march of the Nobel Prize laureates at the Nobel ceremonies in Stockholm.
An excerpt for the Trumpet Voluntary can be heard in the Beatles song,
It's All Too Much from Yellow Submarine.
Alla Hornpipe is a movement, in 3/2 meter, from the
Water Music by George Frideric Handel.
The Water Music premiered in the summer of 1717 when King George I requested a concert on the River Thames.
The entire Water Music composition opens with a French overture and includes minuets, bourrées and hornpipes.
It is divided into three suites. The Alla Hornpipe is from the Suite in D major.
David Summer Classical Recordings
The Alla Hornpipe, from the Water Music is often used as a wedding recessional or as a postlude to a service.
It's also used frequently for television and radio commercials, including commercials for the privatization of the UK water companies in the late 1980s.
The Music for the Royal Fireworks ,
which was also written for outdoor performance, is often paired with the Water Music on recordings.
Composer Georg Philipp Telemann is considered to be a link between late Baroque and the Classical Period. He was an incredibly prolific composer, writing more music than his contemporary composers Bach and Handel combined.
Telemann's works for flute include 11 Concertos, 3 Double Concertos, 12 Fantasias for unaccompanied flute, numerous flute sonatas and the famous Suite in A Minor for flute and strings.
This Sonata in F for Flute by Telemann is especially well suited as a prelude to a service.
Jean-Philippe Rameau was one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the Baroque era.
Like many composers of the era, Rameau worked as a church organist.
Rameau is mainly known for his operas and along with Francois Couperin, was one of the two masters of the French school of harpsichord music in the 18th century.
This Minuet by Rameau is also especially well suited as a prelude to a service or as a postlude during a ceremony with unaccompanied flute.
My Heart Ever Faithful is from the Bach Cantata BWV 68. It's popular among vocal soloists who perform for church ceremonies.
As a solo flute piece, My Heart Ever Faithful is especially well suited for a prelude to a service or during a candle lighting ceremony for a wedding featuring unaccompanied flute.
Live, in performance, recordings of more classical pieces can be found on the
Location Recording page.
Christmas Tunes
Here are excerpts from some tunes that were arranged, performed and recorded by David for that most wonderful time of the year.
David Summer Christmas Recordings
The First Noel is a traditional English Christmas carol.
In this arrangement, David has changed some of the traditional chords suit his descending string part.
This recording was produced using over 25 tracks including flute, trumpets and keyboards.
The flute and the trumpet tracks were all recorded using two different microphones, a condenser mic (a Neumann TLM 103) and a ribbon mic (a Royer R-122), with the tracks panned left and right on mixdown.
Joy to the World is a popular Christmas carol with a melody believed to have been written by Handel.
For this recording, approximately 40 tracks were used.
The reason there are so many is that all the brass parts, trumpets and trombones, were overdubbed in order to give a fuller overall sound.
For more information on recording brass instruments, see
David's article on recording brass instruments, published in Electronic Musician Magazine.
Lo How a Rose E'er Blooming is a 15th Century German Christmas carol.
David arranged this for a capella voices and he sings all the voice parts.
See David's article on a capella recording for more information on how Lo How a Rose E'er Blooming was recorded and a capella recording in general.
Covers
…and finally, just for fun, this cover version of the classic 60's tune California Dreamin'.
California Dreamin'
California Dreamin', by The Mamas & the Papas, was first released in 1965.
For this recording 32 tracks were used, again overdubbing the trumpet and trombone parts for a fuller sound.
This recording features guest artist Eric Summer on guitar and bass.