Samuel Barber

Samuel Barber ( born March 9, 1910 in West Chester, Pennsylvania, † January 23, 1981 in New York) was an American composer.

Life

Barber began composing at the age of seven years. With nine he had chosen this career. In a message he wrote to his mother, he said:

He studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia before he was in 1935 a member of the American Academy in Rome. The following year he wrote his Quartet in B Flat Major, whose known second set he arranged for string orchestra as Adagio for Strings ( ua. 1938 Arturo Toscanini ).

The popularity of the Adagio has outshone the rest of Barber's work. However, it is considered one of the most talented American composers of the 20th century. He avoided the experimentalism of some other composers of his generation and preferred relatively traditional harmonies and forms. His work is melodious and has often been described as the " neo- romantic period" in music. None of his other works came close to the popularity of the "Adagio", but some are still being performed and recorded.

His life companion was the composer Gian Carlo Menotti.

Works

In addition to the Adagio for Strings is his most famous work, the opera Vanessa on a libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti, premiered on January 15, 1958 in the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Gian Carlo Menotti wrote the libretto for Samuel Barber's nine -minute short opera A Hand of Bridge ( 1959).

The "new Met " at Lincoln Center was inaugurated on September 16, 1966 with the premiere of his opera Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare.

From his piano compositions, the Sonata Op 26 is the most important, not only because it represents his only confrontation with the twelve-tone music, but also because of their enormous difficulties for the pianist - so especially in at the request of Vladimir Horowitz ( of this Sonata premiered on December 9, 1949) added four-part final Fugue on a twelve-note, with numerous interval jumps in fast pace studded topic.

Chamber Music

Works for Orchestra

Vocal works

Works for wind

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