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Samuel Barber: The Composer and His Music / Edition 1

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ISBN-10:: 0195090586
ISBN-13:: 9780195090581
Pub. Date:: 05/12/1994
Publisher:: Oxford University Press

ISBN-10:: 0195090586
ISBN-13:: 9780195090581
Pub. Date:: 05/12/1994
Publisher:: Oxford University Press

Samuel Barber: The Composer and His Music / Edition 1

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Overview

Samuel Barber (1910-1981) was one of the most important and honored American composers of the twentieth century. Writing in a great variety of musical forms--symphonies, concertos, operas, vocal music, and chamber music--he infused his works with poetic lyricism and gave tonal language and forms new vitality. His rich legacy includes such famous compositions as the Adagio for Strings, the orchestral song Knoxville: Summer of 1915, three concertos, and his two operas, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Vanessa and Antony and Cleopatra, a commissioned work that opened the new Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center. Generously documented by letters, sketchbooks, original musical manuscripts, and interviews with friends, colleagues and performers with whom he worked, this is the first book to cover Barber's entire career and all of his compositions. The biographical material on Barber is closely interspersed with a discussion of his music, displaying Barber's creative processes at work from his early student compositions to his mature masterpieces. Heyman also provides the social context in which this major composer grew: his education, how he built his career, the evolving musical tastes of American audiences, his relationship to musical giants like Serge Koussevitzky, and the role of radio in the promotion of his music. A testament to the significance of the new Romanticism, Samuel Barber stands as a model biography of an important American musical figure.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195090581
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	05/12/1994
Edition description:	REPRINT
Pages:	608
Product dimensions:	6.13(w) x 9.12(h) x 1.45(d)

About the Author

Barbara B. Heyman, a pianist, editor, and musicologist, has written and lectured extensively on Samuel Barber. She lives in New York City.

INTRODUCTION

1. BEGINNINGS

2. A SERIOUS STUDENT
The Curtis Institute of Music, Scalero, Menotti, First publications, Three Songs

3. DISCOVERIES
Summers in Europe, the Menotti family, Serenade for String Quartet, Violin Sonata, Piano Concerto, Organ Prelude and Fugue, Interludes for Piano, Carillon pieces

4. UNCERTAINTIES
Overture to The School for Scandal, Dover Beach, Composer as singer

5. INDEPENDENCE
Cello Sonata, Music for a Scene from Shelley, Incidental Music for One Day of Spring

6. THE AMERICAN ACADEMY
Symphony in One Movement, Chamber Music, String Quartet

7. RECOGNITION
The Toscanini premieres: Essay for Orchestra, and the Adagio for Strings, Choral works

8. PRELUDE TO WAR
Violin Concerto, Four Songs, Second Essay

9. WORLD CATACLYSM
Commando March, Funeral March, Second Symphony, Night Flight, Four Excursions, Capricorn Concerto

10. MIDDLE YEARS
Cello Concerto, Medea, Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Piano Sonata

11. COMPOSER AS CONDUCTOR

12. SONG CYCLES
Melodies passagères, Souvenirs, Hermit Songs, "Adventure"

13. SEARCHES
Prayers of Kierkegaard, Summer Music, "Horizon"

14. VANESSA

15. INTERLUDE
Wondrous Love, Nocturne, A Hand of Bridge, Toccata Festiva, Die Natali

16. LINCOLN CENTER COMMISSIONS
Piano Concerto, Andromache's Farewell

17. A NEW OPERA HOUSE
Antony and Cleopatra

18. THE LAST YEARS
Despite and Still, Choral works, Mutations from Bach, The Lovers, Fadograph of a Yestern Scene, Three Songs, Ballade, Third Essay, Canzonetta for Oboe and String Orchestra

POSTLUDE

Works List
Bibliography
Notes
Index,

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Editorial Reviews

Eleven years after his death, the American composer Barber is the subject of a large-scale biography, the first since 1955 (Nathan Broder, Samuel Barber , LJ 12/15/54). Based on the author's Ph.D. dissertation, this exhaustively documented study makes extensive use of original sources, including correspondence, manuscripts, and interviews. Unfortunately, the material is quite poorly organized. The biographical narrative is constantly disrupted by lengthy, discursive discussions of Barber's compositions. Treating the ``life'' and ``works'' separately (cf. Eric W. White's Stravinsky: A Critical Survey , Greenwood, 1979, or Maynard Solomon's Beethoven , LJ 11/15/77) would have been much clearer and more user-friendly. Despite these major problems, this book is recommended for large music collections because it represents such thorough research. For others, the article on Barber in the New Grove Dictionary of American Music will suffice.-- Eugene Gaub, Villa Maria Coll., Buffalo, N.Y.

Library Journal

"There is nothing else like this authoritative guide and it's a welcome expanded return" — Professor Peter Dickinson, Musical Opinion Quarterly
"Heyman's meticulous accounting of that sad chapter will likely spur a new wave of scholarship on a composer with whom she has spent so many rewarding decades." — Russell Platt, Opera News

From the Publisher

Samuel Barber: The Composer and His Music / Edition 1

Samuel Barber: The Composer and His Music / Edition 1

Paperback

Temporarily Out of Stock Online

Overview

Product Details

About the Author

Table of Contents

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Temporarily Out of Stock Online

Overview

Product Details

About the Author

Table of Contents

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