Imaginary

Visual Arts

• Georgia O’Keeffe, Calla Lilies on Pink (1928)
• Pavel Filonov, Formula of Spring (1927-29)
• Georgia O’Keeffe, Pink Tulip (1926)
• David Burliuk, Spring in Countryside (1917)
• John William Waterhouse, A Song of Springtime (1913)
• Mikalojus Ciurlionas, Allegro (Sonata of the Spring) (1907)
• Isaac Levitan, Early Spring (1898)
• Arkhip Kuindzhi, Early Spring (1895)
• Paul Gauguin, Winter's End (1885)
• Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Spring (The Four Seasons) (1879)
• Konstantin Korovin, Early Spring (c. 1870)
• Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Spring (1563)
• Sandro Botticelli, Primavera (1478)

Music: songs and other short pieces

• The Beatles, Here Comes the Sun
• Peter Kater & Nawang Khechog, A Fresh Wind
• Suk, Jaro (Spring), Op. 22a
• Alfvén, Spring in Roslag
• Leroy Anderson, The First Day of Spring
• Respighi, Spring (La Primavera), from Three Botticelli Pictures P136 (1922)

Music: Composers, artists, and major works

Compositions:

• Raga Bahar, a Hindustani classical raag for late evening or any time during spring, is about the beauty of spring (“Bahar” means “spring” in Hindu) (performances by Mukherjee, Bismillah Khan and Vilayat Khan).
• Schumann: Symphony No. 1 in B-flat Major, Op. 38, "Spring"
• Copland, Appalachian Spring
• Britten, Spring Symphony for soloists, mixed choir, children's choir and orchestra, Op. 44 (1949)
• Bax, Spring Fire
• Delius, On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring
• Strauss, Frühlingsstimmen (Voices of Spring)
• Rorem, Spring Music, for violin, cello & piano (1990): 1. Aubade; 2. Toccata; 3. Fantasia; 4. Bagatelle; 5. Presto.
• Bloch, Hiver-Printemps (Winter-Spring) for orchestra
• Paine, Symphony No. 2 in A Major, Op. 34, "In Spring" (1879)
• Mozart, String Quartet No. 14 in G Major, K 387, "Spring" (1782)
• Moeran, Songs of Springtime, for mixed chorus (1934)
• Gade, Frühlings-Phantasie (Spring Fantasy), Op. 23 (1852)
• Herzogenberg, Die Geburt Christi (The Birth of Christ), op. 90 (1894): set to this music, the Christian nativity story is a metaphor for renewal.
• Franck, Les Eolides (The Breezes), M43 (1876)
• Langaard, Symphony No. 2, “Vãrbrud” (Awakening of Spring), BVN 53 (1912-1914)
• Goldmark, Overture: Im Frühling (In the Spring), Op. 36

Albums:

• George Winston, “Winter into Spring”
• David Kikoski, “Phoenix Rising”

Poetry

After dark vapors have oppress'd our plains
For a long dreary season, comes a day
Born of the gentle South, and clears away
From the sick heavens all unseemly stains.
The anxious month, relieved of its pains,
Takes as a long-lost right the feel of May;
The eyelids with the passing coolness play
Like rose leaves with the drip of Summer rains.
The calmest thoughts came round us; as of leaves
Budding -- fruit ripening in stillness -- Autumn suns
Smiling at eve upon the quiet sheaves --
Sweet Sappho's cheek -- a smiling infant's breath --
The gradual sand that through an hour-glass runs --
A woodland rivulet -- a Poet's death.

[John Keats, Sonnet: “After Dark Vapors Have Oppress’d Our Plains”]

Other poems:

• Pablo Neruda, “March days return with their covert light”
• Seamus Heaney, “Rite of Spring”