[1] They were composed in the summer of 1959 when Piston, as had become his habit, retreated to the Green Mountains in Vermont to work from a hilltop with a magnificent view spread out before him.
While Piston disowned any specific programmatic intentions, he did not object if others made their own associations.
I did not intend to openly suggest the subject matter, but a man came up to me, following the premiere, and said, "I hope you don't mind my saying that I smelled clams during the first movement."
[4] The first two movements (both of which are loose binary forms) are especially evocative with, for example, "amazingly life-like" bird and insect chirps and buzzes in "Summer Evening".
The last movement, "Mountains", is—appropriate to its title—in an arched ABCBA form in which the sections are differentiated by tempo and expressive character: A is "Maestoso" and monumental, B is "Risoluto" and lively, and C is "Meno mosso" and atmospheric.