Fall Multimedia Mixtape

Published October 30, 2026

Fall Multimedia Mixtape

Autumn is my favorite season. Maybe because the temperature hits the perfect zone between summer hot and winter cold. Maybe because the trees explode with color. Maybe because the angle of light casts longer shadows. Maybe because it is the time for harvest, summing-up, gratitude. Maybe because my birthday and anniversary are both in October. Maybe because the orchestra year begins and the baseball season culminates. Whatever the reason, I love it. To tip my cap to this time of year, I thought I’d compile something of a mixed-media mixtape to share with you. Here’s some music and writing, sprinkled with a few photos I’ve taken, that I hope you enjoy.

Vivaldi: Autumn from The Four Seasons

Of course I had to start with this classic. This performance is by the brilliant group, Apollo’s Fire. They perform on period instruments, very much like would have been played in Vivaldi’s day:

Vivaldi: Autumn from The Four Seasons

To Autumn by John Keats (1795-1821)

Each year, I kick off the season with a reading of my favorite poem about Fall: To Autumn by John Keats:

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-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d 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.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
  Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
  Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,
  Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
    Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
  Steady thy laden head across a brook;
  Or by a cider-press, with patient look,
    Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
  Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
  And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
  Among the river sallows, borne aloft
    Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
  Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
  The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft,
    And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

The Great Pumpkin Waltz by Vince Guaraldi

From the same vibe as the seminal Charlie Brown Christmas album, Vince Guaraldi’s The Great Pumpkin Waltz is a swinging way to prepare for Halloween:

The Great Pumpkin Waltz by Vince Guaraldi

From Take Time for Paradise

As the World Series is upon us, this favorite piece of writing by A. Bartlett Giamatti (former commissioner of Major League Baseball and father of famous actor, Paul) perfectly and poetically encapsulates the power of our great game:

“[Baseball] breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall all alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.”

― A. Bartlett Giamatti, Take Time for Paradise: Americans and Their Games

The Harvest Home Suite: Autumn (Thanksgiving Hymn) by Jay Ungar and Molly Mason

This gem comes from the duo who wrote and recorded the beloved Ashokan Farewell from the Ken Burns Civil War series:

The Harvest Home Suite: Autumn (Thanksgiving Hymn)

Autumn Song from The Seasons by Tchaikovsky

This movement by the great Russian composer drips with the longing and nostalgia of looking back:

Bruce Liu - Tchaikovsky: The Seasons

When October Goes by Barry Manilow

I would say this performance is a guilty pleasure, except that it is stone cold masterpiece. With a perfect lyric by Johnny Mercer and accompaniment by some legends of jazz, Manilow sings this wistful tune perfectly:

When October Goes

November Woods by Arnold Bax

This evocative tone poem by a composer who should be better known, skillfully paints a picture of the bluster and chill that comes when winter approaches:

November Woods by Arnold Bax

Otoño Porteño from The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires by Astor Piazzolla

This performance of Piazzolla’s complimentary companion to Vivaldi’s classic is a very special snapshot. Recorded by the Reno Chamber Orchestra exactly six years ago during the heart of the pandemic, masks and social distancing reflect a time that has fortunately gone by. Because we could not play in our home concert hall, this performance was held the Acro Enso dance studio. They allowed us to use their space, but because of the room’s special floor, we had to perform in our stocking feet. Guest conductor Conner Gray Covington leads the orchestra with the stunning violin soloist Blake Pouliot. Note: We performed the movements in a different order, so although it says “Summer” is the first thing we play, the video actually begins with “Autumn” or Otoño Porteño. I’ve included all four movements, as this is a recording I remember fondly and am proud of:

Reno Chamber Orchestra | LIVE Concert October 2020 | Piazzolla Four Seasons of Buenos Aires

Autumn in New York by Frank Sinatra

The Chairman of the Board gets the last word in our autumnal stroll. This classic Billy May Orchestra arrangement of Vernon Duke’s classic depicts the best time to be in the Big Apple and hearkens back to a time and sound in Reno when live musicians backed singers like Sinatra and others:

Autumn In New York

Scott Faulkner is principal bassist of the Reno Phil and the Reno Chamber Orchestra. He is also faculty director of the League of American Orchestras’ Essentials of Orchestra Management program, a 10-day intensive that takes place at the Juilliard School each July. Autumn remains his favorite season.