Samuel Osborne Barber (March 9, 1910–January 23, 1981) was an American comp… Read Full Bio ↴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, 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, 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.
Knoxville: Summer of 1915 Op. 24
Samuel Barber Lyrics
We have lyrics for 'Knoxville: Summer of 1915 Op. 24' by these artists:
Michael Tilson-Thomas London Symphony Orchestra & Barbara Hendricks Saan man galing ang ihip ng hangin Mapuwing man ako ng…
We have lyrics for these tracks by Samuel Barber:
Adagio for Strings (From "Platoon") Самуэль Барбер (1910 - 1981) Умирая, он вряд ли думал о свое…
Adagio for Strings (from Platoon) Самуэль Барбер (1910 - 1981) Умирая, он вряд ли думал о свое…
Adagio for Strings (vocal version) (from Platoon) Самуэль Барбер (1910 - 1981) Умирая, он вряд ли думал о свое…
Agnus Dei Agnus Dei, Qui tollis peccata mundi, Miserere nobis. Agnus …
Agnus Dei Op. 11 The Lamb of God, Who took the sins of the world, Have…
Agnus Dei Op.11 Agnus Dei, Qui tollis peccata mundi, Miserere nobis. Agnus …
Agnus Dei, Op. 11 The Lamb of God, Who took the sins of the world, Have…
Barber: Agnus Dei Agnus Dei, Qui tollis peccata mundi, Miserere nobis. Agnus …
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Shin-i-chi Kozima
@Tom Etheridge
You are welcome ！
Really ,
your beard is incomparable ！
Someday please visit Japan in spring where the cherry blossoms in full bloom in everywhere are in full glory .
Japan is marvellous autumn .
In the autumn ,
the plaintive chirp of the transient life's autumn insects permeates our Japanese hearts from 1000 years ago .
Take care of yourself
Good luck ！
Be on the alert for Coronavirus infection ！
No man is an island ！
please live long ！
Richard Friedman
Sublime. This work for high voice and orchestra is a setting of excerpts from a 1938 prose poem by James Agee that would later serve as a preface for the author’s A Death in the Family. Barber’s piece premiered in Boston in 1948, with Eleanor Steber singing and Serge Koussevitzky conducting.
It has become that time of evening when people sit on their porches, rocking gently and talking gently and watching the street and the standing up into their sphere of possession of the trees, of birds' hung havens, hangars. People go by; things go by. A horse, drawing a buggy, breaking his hollow iron music on the asphalt; a loud auto; a quiet auto; people in pairs, not in a hurry, scuffling, switching their weight of aestival body, talking casually, the taste hovering over them of vanilla, strawberry, pasteboard and starched milk, the image upon them of lovers and horsemen, squared with clowns in hueless amber
A streetcar raising its iron moan; stopping, belling and starting; stertorous; rousing and raising again its iron increasing moan and swimming its gold windows and straw seats on past and past and past, the bleak spark crackling and cursing above it like a small malignant spirit set to dog its tracks; the iron whine rises on rising speed; still risen, faints; halts; the faint stinging bell; rises again, still fainter, fainting, lifting, lifts, faints foregone: forgotten. Now is the night one blue dew
Now is the night one blue dew, my father has drained, he has coiled the hose
Low on the length of lawns, a frailing of fire who breathes....
Parents on porches: rock and rock. From damp strings morning glories hang their ancient faces
The dry and exalted noise of the locusts from all the air at once enchants my eardrums
On the rough wet grass of the back yard my father and mother have spread quilts. We all lie there, my mother, my father, my uncle, my aunt, and I too am lying there....They are not talking much, and the talk is quiet, of nothing in particular, of nothing at all. The stars are wide and alive, they seem each like a smile of great sweetness, and they seem very near. All my people are larger bodies than mine,...with voices gentle and meaningless like the voices of sleeping birds. One is an artist, he is living at home. One is a musician, she is living at home. One is my mother who is good to me. One is my father who is good to me. By some chance, here they are, all on this earth; and who shall ever tell the sorrow of being on this earth, lying, on quilts, on the grass, in a summer evening, among the sounds of the night. May God bless my people, my uncle, my aunt, my mother, my good father, oh, remember them kindly in their time of trouble; and in the hour of their taking away
After a little I am taken in and put to bed. Sleep, soft smiling, draws me unto her: and those receive me, who quietly treat me, as one familiar and well-beloved in that home: but will not, oh, will not, not now, not ever; but will not ever tell me who I am
pieter lucas maria lemmens
One of the fine classical pieces composed on American soil. The orchestral score is amazingly refined and Maria sings great.
R Sinclair
Agreed, Barbers piece was truly amazing, rivals the "great masters" such emotional depth, Maria is outstanding though the (un- conducted) orchestra is superb! All around an amazing performance, and wonderful gift for all of us to enjoy! I donate to them as I want to support these lovely folks!
Debra Aponte
The soprano has a beautiful voice.
Andrea Soto Véres
Totally agree.
Marisa Louisa
Such a good looking soprano, amazing voice, so clear, clarity of sound from the chamber musicians
Tom Etheridge
Wow. What a gorgeous performance. The clarity of the score is breathtaking here.
Shin-i-chi Kozima
@Tom Etheridge
You are welcome ！
Really ,
your beard is incomparable ！
Someday please visit Japan in spring where the cherry blossoms in full bloom in everywhere are in full glory .
Japan is marvellous autumn .
In the autumn ,
the plaintive chirp of the transient life's autumn insects permeates our Japanese hearts from 1000 years ago .
Take care of yourself
Good luck ！
Be on the alert for Coronavirus infection ！
No man is an island ！
please live long ！
Tom Etheridge
@Shin-i-chi Kozima Thank you so much! I just now saw your reply, so I apologize for the delay in reply.
Shin-i-chi Kozima
Tom Etheridge なんと素晴らしい顎髭だろう‼️ Your beard is gorgeous！ Greetings from Japan . Please come to fascinating and mysterious and inspired Japan . We wait for you ！ So long . So long . Sayonara ！
Howard Chasnoff
The emotional intensity, the sense of foreboding, the calm bucolic scenes, the tenderness are all mixed in this incredible piece. For the first time we can see it performed a the chamber work that it is. Its a marvelous video. I had the good fortune to perform this (viola) once.