Samuel Barber

Samuel Barber (1910-1981) is one of the most admired and honored American composers of the twentieth century. An unabashed Romantic, largely independent of worldwide trends and the avant-garde, he infused his works with poetic lyricism and gave tonal language and forms new vitality. His rich legacy includes every genre, including the famous Adagio for Strings, Knoxville: Summer of 1915, three concertos, a plethora of songs, and two operas, the Pulitzer prize-winning Vanessa, and Antony and Cleopatra, the commissioned work that opened the new Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center in 1966. Generously documented by letter, sketches, autograph manuscripts, and interviews with friends, colleagues, and performers with whom he worked, this ASCAP-Award winning book is still unquestionably the most authoritative biography on Barber, covering his entire career and interweaving the events of his life with his compositional process. This second edition benefits from many new discoveries, including a Violin Sonata recovered from an artist's estate, a diary Barber kept his seventeenth year, a trove of letters and manuscripts that were recovered from a suitcase found in a dumpster, documentation that dispels earlier myths about the composition of Barber's Violin Concerto, and research of scholars that was stimulated by Heyman's work. Barber's intimate relations are discussed when they bear on his creativity. A testament to the lasting significance of Romanticism, Samuel Barber stands as a model biography of an important musical figure.

Barbara B. Heyman is a musicologist who has written extensively about Samuel Barber. An accomplished pianist and violinist, she was educated at Barnard College, holds an MSSW degree from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in Music History from the City University of New York. She has written numerous articles for scholarly journals and encyclopedias, as well as Samuel Barber: A Thematic Catalogue of the Complete Works (OUP, 2012), the first thematic catalogue of an American composer.

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,