Samuel Barber,
The Composer and His Music
by Barbara B. Heyman
Samuel Barber, The Composer and His Music by Barbara B. Heyman |
Period: Early 20th
Century
Born: Wednesday, March 9, 1910 in West Chester,
Pennsylvania (USA)
Died: Friday, January 23, 1981 in New York, New York
(USA)
Nation of Origin: United States
Major Works:
Adagio for Strings, op. 11 (1937)
Opera
Vanessa
Scene for Soprano and Orchestra
Knoxville: Summer of 1915
Other Information:
Samuel Barber was born on 9 March 1910 in West Chester,
Pennsylvania. He already played piano at age 6, and wrote his first
piece at age 7. When he was 10 years old he tried to write an
opera, but never finished it. At 14 he began his studies at Curtis
Institute. There he studied composition (1926-31), piano (1926-31)
and singing (1926-30). Barber had a beautiful baritone voice and,
for some time, he wanted to be singer. During his studies at Curtis
Institute, Barber wrote his first piece: Serenade for
strings, op. 1 (1928 - in 1944 he arranged this piece for
string orchestra). In the same year he met Gian Carlo Menotti, an
Italian-born librettist, composer and conductor. This meeting led
to a lifelong friendship and professional relationship.
Barber drew attention to himself as early as 1931, when he was
barely past twenty, with Overture to School for Scandal, op.
5, premiered by Philadelphia Orchestra. Since then his music has
been regulary performed by notable conductors and performers
(Toscanini, Mitropoulos, Horowitz...). His early works are full of
lyricism making him a "tone poet", a poet that could sense and
capture the feelings and essence of his subject. Notable examples
of this are Music for a Scene from Shelley, op. 7 (1933),
Symphony no. 1, op. 9 (1936) and Essay no.1 for
Orchestra, op. 12 (1937). These works are full of deep emotions
and composer's thoughts. From this period dates his best-known
piece Adagio for strings, op. 11 (1937) which is actually
the slow movement from his String quartet in B minor, op.11
(1936). This piece was premiered by the NBC Symphony Orchestra in
1938 under Toscanini and, full of serenity and expressive emotions,
soon became one of the most popular American classical pieces.
During World War II, Barber, then a worldwide famous composer, was
a Corporal in the U.S. Air Force. In 1944 the U.S. Air Force asked
him to write a symphony. So, in 1944, Barber wrote Symphony No.
2, op. 19 - a work that describes a flight, terrors of war and
feeling of victory. The piece was first performed by the Boston
Symphony under Sergey Koussevitzky. It was a great success.
In 1945, as WWII was ending, Barber was commissioned by
Koussevitzky to write a cello concerto for Raya Garbousova, a
Russian cellist. The composer asked Garbousova to play her entire
repertoire for him so he could become familiar with her skills and
potentials. This resulted in one of the Barber's most important
works and (judged by performers) one of thee most challenging works
for cello. For soprano Eleanor Steber, Barber wrote a scene for
soprano and orchestra Knoxville: Summer of 1915 op. 24
(1947). This work is a set of poems by James Agee.
Barber finished his first opera Vanessa (op. 37) in 1957. It
is a 4-act stage work to a libretto by G.C. Menotti. It was
premiered by the Metropolitan Opera House, New York in 1958 to
great critical acclaim.
At that time it seemed that Barber's star would never stop rising.
But, in 1966 Barber had a failure with his biggest work: opera
Anthony and Cleopatra with a libretto by Franco Zeffirelli.
The work was revised in 1974 with help from his lifelong companion
Gian Carlo Menotti, but it never gained any success. Due to this
failure and, surely, to a cancer that was slowly but steadily
killing him, Barber's writing trailed off. Though he had some
commissions in the 1970s, his late works were not performed as
often. Barber died in 1981.
Samuel Barber was a curious figure in the music world of the first
half of the 20th century. At the time of avant-garde (Var`ese wrote
his Ionisation in 1931) and of Aaron Copland's founding of
American music, Barber did not stick to any style - a fact that
often confused critics. In 1970s Barber said "It is said that I
have no style at all but that doesn't matter. I just go on doing,
as they say, my thing." Nevertheless, he received numerous awards:
two Pulitzer prices (in 1958 for Vanessa and in 1963 for
Piano Concerto No. 1), the American "Prix de Rome", and he
was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
A nice overview of Barber's early pieces may be found on Special
Music SCD-8012 performed by Andrew Schenck and the New Zealand
Symphony Orchestra. Works include Overture to the School for
Scandal, Music For a Scene From Shelley, First Essay, Symphony
no.2 and Adagio for Strings. His Cello concerto is well
recorded and performed on Virgin Classics' VC 91083-2 (with Cello
sonata and Adagio). Though not mentioned in above text, Barber's
songs, colourful and emotional, have a very important place in his
legacy. They can be found on "The Songs" DG 435 867-2 2CD box with
Hampson, Studer, Browning accompanied by Emerson Quartet.
"Knoxville", with Adagio, Essays Nos. 1&2, "School for Scandal"
and Medea's Dance of Vengeance" on Telarc CD-80250.
Alen Hadzovic
alenh@nupedia.com
April 2000
Used by permission of the author
Essay contributed by:
Alen Hadzovic
General Bibliography:
Kennedy, Michael, The Oxford Dictionary of
Music, Oxford University Press, 2nd Edition, 1997, ISBN:
0198691629
Sadie, Stanley and Tyrrell, John; Editors, The New Grove
Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Groves Dictionaries, Inc.,
January 2001, ISBN: 1561592390
Slonimsky, Nicolas and Kuhn, Laura; Editors,
Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, Gale Group,
December 2000, ISBN: 0028655257
Slonimsky, Nicolas, Music Since 1900,
Schirmer Books, July 1994, ISBN: 0028724186
Links to essays at other sites:
 Twentieth Century Music: An Introduction by Eric Salzman |
Please note: These links will open in a new window.
Biographical essay at the Karadar site
If the Karadar link does not work, try searching karadar.com
directly.
Biographical essay at the Naxos site
If this link does not work, try searching naxos.com directly.
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