Samuel Barber
Samuel Osborne Barber (March 9, 1910–January 23, 1981) was an American composer of classical music, best known for his Adagio for Strings.
He was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania and began to compose at the age of seven. He studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia before becoming a fellow of the American Academy in Rome in 1935. The following year he wrote his String Quartet in B minor, the second movement of which he would arrange Read Full BioSamuel Osborne Barber (March 9, 1910–January 23, 1981) was an American composer of classical music, best known for his Adagio for Strings.
He was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania and began to compose at the age of seven. He studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia before becoming a fellow of the American Academy in Rome in 1935. The following year he wrote his String Quartet in B minor, the second movement of which he would arrange, at Arturo Toscanini's suggestion, for string orchestra as Adagio for Strings, and again for mixed chorus as Agnus Dei.
He tended to avoid the experimentalism of some other American composers of his generation, preferring relatively traditional harmonies and forms until late in his life. Most of his work is lushly melodic and has often been described as neo-romantic, though some of his later works, notably the Third Essay and the Dance of Vengeance, display a masterful use of percussive effects, modernism, and neo-Stravinskian effects.
His songs, accompanied by piano or orchestra, are among the most popular 20th-century songs in the classical repertoire. They include a setting of Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach, originally written for string quartet and baritone, the Hermit Songs on anonymous Irish texts of the 8th to 13th centuries, and Knoxville: Summer of 1915, written for the soprano Eleanor Steber and based on an autobiographical text by James Agee, the introductory portion of his novel A Death in the Family. Barber possessed a good baritone voice and, for a while, considered becoming a professional singer. He made a few recordings, including his own Dover Beach.
His Piano Sonata, Op. 26 (1949), a piece commissioned by Richard Rodgers and Irving Berlin, was first performed by Vladimir Horowitz. It was the first large-scale American piano work to be premiered by such an internationally renowned pianist.
Barber composed three operas. Vanessa, composed to a libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti (his partner both professionally and personally), premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. It was a critical and popular success, and Barber won a Pulitzer Prize for it. At the European premiere it met with a chillier reception, however, and is now little played there, although it remains popular in America.
Barber produced three concertos for solo instruments and orchestra. The first was for violin. The second was for cello. And the third and last was for piano.
The Violin Concerto was written in 1939 and 1940 in Sils-Maria, Switzerland and Paris. The work was premiered by violinist Albert Spalding with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy on February 11, 1941. The concerto soon entered the standard violin and orchestral repertoire.
The Cello Concerto was completed in 1945. It was commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra for the Russian cellist Raya Garbousova who premiered it on April 5, 1946. The following year the work won Barber the New York Music Critics' Circle Award.
The Piano Concerto was composed for and premiered by pianist John Browning, on September 24, 1962, with Erich Leinsdorf conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Lincoln Center, New York. The work was met with great critical acclaim. It won Barber his second Pulitzer Prize in 1963 and the Music Critics Circle Award in 1964. John Browning played the piece over 500 times in his career, securing its place in the repertoire.
Barber also wrote a virtuosic work for organ and orchestra, Toccata Festiva, for the famed organist E. Power Biggs in the early 1960s. The New York Philharmonic commissioned an oboe concerto, but Barber completed only the slow central Canzonetta before his death.
Among his purely orchestral works, there are two symphonies (1936 and 1944), the overture The School for Scandal (1932), three essays for orchestra (1938, 1942 and 1978), and the late Fadograph of a Yestern Scene (1973). There are also large-scale choral works, including the Prayers of Kierkegaard (1954), based on the writings of the Danish existential theologian, Søren Kierkegaard, and The Lovers (1971), based on Twenty Poems of Love and a Song of Despair, by Pablo Neruda.
In addition to the sonata, his piano works include Excursions Op. 20, Three Sketches, Souvenirs, and various other single pieces.
Never a prolific composer, Barber wrote much less after the critical failure of his opera Antony and Cleopatra. This had a libretto by film and opera director Franco Zeffirelli, and had been commissioned to open the new Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in 1966. The opera was more favorably received in 1975 presented in the intimate setting of the Juilliard School with the partnership and stage direction of Gian-Carlo Menotti, and was subsequently recorded.
He died in New York City in 1981.
He was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania and began to compose at the age of seven. He studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia before becoming a fellow of the American Academy in Rome in 1935. The following year he wrote his String Quartet in B minor, the second movement of which he would arrange Read Full BioSamuel Osborne Barber (March 9, 1910–January 23, 1981) was an American composer of classical music, best known for his Adagio for Strings.
He was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania and began to compose at the age of seven. He studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia before becoming a fellow of the American Academy in Rome in 1935. The following year he wrote his String Quartet in B minor, the second movement of which he would arrange, at Arturo Toscanini's suggestion, for string orchestra as Adagio for Strings, and again for mixed chorus as Agnus Dei.
He tended to avoid the experimentalism of some other American composers of his generation, preferring relatively traditional harmonies and forms until late in his life. Most of his work is lushly melodic and has often been described as neo-romantic, though some of his later works, notably the Third Essay and the Dance of Vengeance, display a masterful use of percussive effects, modernism, and neo-Stravinskian effects.
His songs, accompanied by piano or orchestra, are among the most popular 20th-century songs in the classical repertoire. They include a setting of Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach, originally written for string quartet and baritone, the Hermit Songs on anonymous Irish texts of the 8th to 13th centuries, and Knoxville: Summer of 1915, written for the soprano Eleanor Steber and based on an autobiographical text by James Agee, the introductory portion of his novel A Death in the Family. Barber possessed a good baritone voice and, for a while, considered becoming a professional singer. He made a few recordings, including his own Dover Beach.
His Piano Sonata, Op. 26 (1949), a piece commissioned by Richard Rodgers and Irving Berlin, was first performed by Vladimir Horowitz. It was the first large-scale American piano work to be premiered by such an internationally renowned pianist.
Barber composed three operas. Vanessa, composed to a libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti (his partner both professionally and personally), premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. It was a critical and popular success, and Barber won a Pulitzer Prize for it. At the European premiere it met with a chillier reception, however, and is now little played there, although it remains popular in America.
Barber produced three concertos for solo instruments and orchestra. The first was for violin. The second was for cello. And the third and last was for piano.
The Violin Concerto was written in 1939 and 1940 in Sils-Maria, Switzerland and Paris. The work was premiered by violinist Albert Spalding with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy on February 11, 1941. The concerto soon entered the standard violin and orchestral repertoire.
The Cello Concerto was completed in 1945. It was commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra for the Russian cellist Raya Garbousova who premiered it on April 5, 1946. The following year the work won Barber the New York Music Critics' Circle Award.
The Piano Concerto was composed for and premiered by pianist John Browning, on September 24, 1962, with Erich Leinsdorf conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Lincoln Center, New York. The work was met with great critical acclaim. It won Barber his second Pulitzer Prize in 1963 and the Music Critics Circle Award in 1964. John Browning played the piece over 500 times in his career, securing its place in the repertoire.
Barber also wrote a virtuosic work for organ and orchestra, Toccata Festiva, for the famed organist E. Power Biggs in the early 1960s. The New York Philharmonic commissioned an oboe concerto, but Barber completed only the slow central Canzonetta before his death.
Among his purely orchestral works, there are two symphonies (1936 and 1944), the overture The School for Scandal (1932), three essays for orchestra (1938, 1942 and 1978), and the late Fadograph of a Yestern Scene (1973). There are also large-scale choral works, including the Prayers of Kierkegaard (1954), based on the writings of the Danish existential theologian, Søren Kierkegaard, and The Lovers (1971), based on Twenty Poems of Love and a Song of Despair, by Pablo Neruda.
In addition to the sonata, his piano works include Excursions Op. 20, Three Sketches, Souvenirs, and various other single pieces.
Never a prolific composer, Barber wrote much less after the critical failure of his opera Antony and Cleopatra. This had a libretto by film and opera director Franco Zeffirelli, and had been commissioned to open the new Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in 1966. The opera was more favorably received in 1975 presented in the intimate setting of the Juilliard School with the partnership and stage direction of Gian-Carlo Menotti, and was subsequently recorded.
He died in New York City in 1981.
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autismcel0000.1
@Tani Moe
it's how you left your things
organized, the way you arranged it
in the motion of life without realising
that there is no tomorrow .
I see your blanket thrown on the mattress
as usual, the objects on the table. the floor,
i feel your hurry, I understand why now.
this scene seems unusual. minus you, it's
incorrect and unreal .
the silence of your room, your scent, and
my memory of burying you half an hour ago,
all stranger than a dream .
shamus jubenal
That is pretty. It sounds similar to an older poem which may have influenced it:
Do not stand
By my grave, and weep.
I am not there,
I do not sleep—
I am the thousand winds that blow
I am the diamond glints in snow
I am the sunlight on ripened grain,
I am the gentle, autumn rain.
As you awake with morning’s hush,
I am the swift, up-flinging rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight,
I am the day transcending night.
Do not stand
By my grave, and cry—
I am not there,
I did not die.
-Clare Harner 1934
Linda Renninger
A very moving comment.
My husband loved to run and he did a long one on a winter day at a peninsula near where he lived. ( This happened before we met).
As he rounded the furthest point he was confronted with the cold wind in his face which began to erase every bit of body heat. He realized that if he slowed down or, God forbid, stopped moving completely, his life would almost certainly end because, on a winter day, this park was deserted.
He scorned headphones when he ran, preferring to immerse himself in the internal "home movies" that would
play inside his mind when he did long runs.
I think this Adagio would have been an accurate soundtrack for the life and death moment he found himself in, but if he had been listening to it then, it may have plunged him into despair.
What music could have encouraged him to keep going ? Music full of strength and joy and determination.
Rocky's Theme ( Gonna Fly Now) would have tamped down the creeping fear, I think.
Music is so essential and powerful.
We must be aware of the choices we make ... It can revive us, or it can bring us down.
Julten
A minute of silence for the people who tried to search for this song but had no idea what they should type so they never found it
Seb astien
"Homeworld song" was my search
steve1234
pretty weird. fk!
Steven O Sullivan
@mostafa alk love that classic
Junait
What's worse is finding this and losing again, then I found again now here I am
Katy S
Me until 2 minutes ago
Robbie Paul
Napoleon Bonaparte said
"Music is the voice that tells us that the human race is greater than it knows."
This composition is proof
George De la Jungla
Yes
Taha Haji
it was a privilege to read this, good sir. Thank you.
IndianaBones
@Chaos Bohne That's not how evolution works.