Having won both a Pulitzer scholarship and the American Prix De Rome in quick succession, in 1935 Barber consolidated his early reputation with his Symphony In One Movement.
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This exuberant work is full of great tunes and infectious rhythmic élan, ending as it begins with an outburst of high spirits. Taking its title from Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s comedy, it’s an extraordinarily accomplished piece for a 23-year-old.ĭespite the title’s implication, it was not intended as a curtain-raiser but as “a musical reflection of the play’s spirit”. In 1928 he won Columbia University’s Bearns Prize for his Violin Sonata, and again in 1933 for his blazing orchestral overture The School For Scandal. Yet it was as a composer that Barber felt his destiny lay. It was during his time at Curtis that Barber also developed a rich baritone voice, which can be heard on a landmark recording of his own Dover Beach for voice and string quartet. One of his co-students at this time was the future composer of The Telephone and Amahl and the Night Visitors, Gian Carlo Menotti, who was destined to become Barber’s lifelong companion.
Aged only 10, he wrote a short opera entitled The Rose Tree, and two years later was employed as organist at Westminster’s Presbyterian Church.Īt 14 he became one of the first pupils at the new Curtis Institute Of Music in Philadelphia, where his tutors included the great conductor Fritz Reiner. Indeed, it is the tension Barber creates between emotional warmth and restraint that lies at the heart of his musical output.īarber’s prodigious gifts were evident from the start. SL: As for Adagio for Strings, it continues to move listeners, and remains a source of comfort in difficult times.One can sense Barber’s growing stylistic unease even in the glorious Violin Concerto, which for two movements is all Bruch and Sibelius, but in the finale becomes startlingly brusque, with an onrush of hurtling motorics à la Prokofiev. It's not throwing out what came before it's not asking what’s in fashion. PM: Barber always reminded him of Plato, and Plato represents this belief in the absolutes, as Bernstein says, a faith in the concept that there is an absolute beauty and an absolute rightness of things.
Moon took the title “Absolute Beauty” from a comment made by Leonard Bernstein. SL: Among the many people in the film are conductors Marin Alsop and Leonard Slatkin, biographer Barbara Heyman and Barber’s longtime companion, composer Gian Carlo Menotti. Samuel Barber: It has become that time of evening when people sit on their porches, rocking gently and talking gently… In an interview from the archives, Barber reads the lyrics that recall both Knoxville and his hometown of West Chester.Įxcerpt from Samuel Barber: Absolute Beauty An exploration of Barber’s music lends insight into his life, especially with the work Knoxville Summer of 1915.
Barber went on to create a body of work in a variety of forms that navigated between classical traditions and contemporary trends. Paul Moon: It’s a Victorian poem that already gives you clues about the seriousness of Samuel Barber’s intentions. Susan Lewis: Filmmaker Paul Moon explores Barber’s influence though a range of works, beginning with Dover Beach – for baritone and string quartet – which Barber wrote in 1931 as a student at Curtis: WRTI’s Susan Lewis talked with filmmaker Paul Moon about his documentary, Samuel Barber: Absolute Beauty, which had its Philadelphia premiere in July, 2017 on WHYY-TV. While Samuel Barber is best known for his moving Adagio for Strings, first performed in a radio broadcast in November of 1938, he wrote a lot of other music that continues to inspire musicians and listeners to this day.
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