Autumn

The crisp afternoons that give way to winter’s chill, the brilliant colors that fade to black-and-white, the warm hearts that grow cold with the waning sun — the bittersweet beauty of autumn may be a fleeting thing, but it’s potent enough to provide the inspiration for a whole season’s worth of wonderful songs. So, while Frank Sinatra is happy to be home for a glittering, shimmering “Autumn In New York,” Nat “King” Cole is mourning the love that drifts away in shades of red and gold in “Autumn Leaves.” An older, wiser Neil Young is rekindling romance under a “Harvest Moon,” but Guns N’ Roses are struggling to keep love’s flame lit in the cold “November Rain.”

“Who Knows Where the Time Goes?” wonders Fairport Convention, but all we can tell ’em is that more great autumn songs fly by in Next Steps.

Autumn’s musical flavors are so rich and varied, The Four Seasons composer Antonio Vivaldi needed no less than three brilliant baroque movements to capture its essence in his Concerto in F Major, RV 293 — a.k.a. “Autumn.” Maybe more than any other time of the year, fall speaks to different artists in different ways — folk-pop groover Donovan sees it as a spooky “Season of the Witch,” but for alt-rock philosophers the Shins, it’s all part of “The Past and Pending.” And jazz priestess Cassandra Wilson? She matches season to voice, with the deep, burnished tones of a sensual “Autumn Nocturne.”

Alterna-icons the Cure are mourning “The Last Day Of Summer,” but we’re celebrating more awesome Autumn tunes, in Deep Cuts.

All it takes is one listen to the sentimental instrumental “Pumpkin” from professional wry guy Randy Newman to know that autumn can bring out the romantic in everyone. Even arena rockers aren’t immune to the heady charms of the season, as Blue Öyster Cult offer up a power-ballad tribute to a glowing “Harvest Moon.” Jazz immortal Miles Davis wields the endlessly expressive powers of his horn to create a tone-poem ode to the swirling sensations of “Fall,” and a contemplative Willie Nelson ticks off a country countdown to the blues on “The Thirty-Third of August.”

Summer has its sunny, party-day appeal, spring its flings with new beginnings. Winter has its cold, lonely nights. But autumn? Autumn is the season that really inspires, the time when artists go deep, reflecting on the multihued meanings of changing colors, falling leaves, and life’s ever-evolving stages. For R.E.M., it’s the time to bid adieu to magical evenings spent “Nightswimming,” but for Earth, Wind & Fire “September” is a whole new season for dancing. The White Stripes feel the pull of inside activities on a raw and raucous “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground,” while theatrical-rock impresario Jeff Wayne finds it’s “Forever Autumn” when his love falls away “like a leaf on a breeze.” The best part of autumn for us? Our long-playing set of songs that brings the season around whenever, wherever we like.