Samuel Barber

Samuel Osmond Barber II (1910–1981) was an American composer, pianist, conductor, baritone, and teacher, widely regarded as a leading figure in mid-20th-century classical music. Rather than following the experimental paths of musical modernism, his work generally stayed close to the lyrical, emotional language and formal structures of the 19th century. This approach was shaped by nine years of composition study with Rosario Scalero at the Curtis Institute and over twenty-five years of mentorship from his uncle, composer Sidney Homer. Still, after 1940, Barber did incorporate some modernist elements: the Cello Concerto (1945) and Medea's Dance of Vengeance (1955) show increased dissonance and chromaticism, while the Piano Sonata (1949), Prayers of Kierkegaard (1954), and Nocturne (1959) use tonal ambiguity and a limited form of serialism.

Barber excelled in both instrumental and vocal music, and many of his pieces quickly entered the standard classical repertoire. His Adagio for Strings (1936) and its choral adaptation, Agnus Dei (1967), became permanent fixtures in orchestral concerts. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Music twice: for his opera Vanessa (1956–1957) and for the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1962).

Mid career (1942–1966)

Another widely performed work is Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (1947), a setting for soprano and orchestra of a text by James Agee. By the time of his death, nearly all his compositions had been recorded. Many were commissioned or premiered by major ensembles and artists, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, Vladimir Horowitz, Eleanor Steber, Raya Garbousova, John Browning, Leontyne Price, Pierre Bernac, Francis Poulenc, and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.

Though Barber wrote a significant amount of purely instrumental music, about two-thirds of his output consisted of art songs for voice and piano, choral music, and songs for voice and orchestra. Among his most frequently performed vocal works are Sure on this shining night (solo version 1938, choral version 1961), also with text by Agee, and the song cycle Hermit Songs (1953), which sets anonymous texts by Irish monks from the eighth to thirteenth centuries.

Education and early career (1924–1941)

This focus on vocal music stemmed from his own brief career as a professional baritone in his twenties, which gave him a lasting love of singing. In 1935, he recorded his setting of Arnold's "Dover Beach" for NBC, singing the baritone part with a string quartet, and was a weekly performer on NBC Radio in 1935–1936, singing German lieder and art songs. During the 1950s, he occasionally conducted performances and recordings of his own works with symphony orchestras, and he taught composition at the Curtis Institute from 1939 to 1942.

Childhood (1910–1923)

Barber was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, to Marguerite McLeod (née Beatty) and Dr. Samuel Le Roy Barber. His mother, a pianist of English-Scottish-Irish descent, came from a family that had lived in the United States since the American Revolution. His maternal aunt, Louise Homer, was a leading contralto at the Metropolitan Opera, and his uncle, Sidney Homer, was a composer of American art songs. Louise Homer sparked Barber's interest in voice and introduced him to many great singers and songs, while Sidney Homer mentored him for over twenty-five years and deeply influenced his compositional style.

A child prodigy, Barber began piano at six and composed his first piece, Sadness, a 23-measure solo piano work in C minor, at age seven. Despite his musical gifts, his family hoped he would become a typical athletic boy and encouraged him to play football. At nine, he wrote to his mother: "Dear Mother: I have written this to tell you my worrying secret... I was not meant to be an athlet [sic]. I was meant to be a composer, and will be I'm sure... Don't ask me to try to forget this unpleasant thing and go play football." At ten, he wrote his first operetta, The Rose Tree, with a libretto by the family cook, and at twelve he became a church organist.

As a young boy, Barber studied privately with William Hatton Green, whom a peer described as one of his greatest early influences. At fourteen, he entered the youth artist program at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he spent ten years developing as a triple prodigy in composition, voice, and piano. While at Curtis, he also attended and graduated from West Chester High School, composing its song, Alma Mater, still in use today.

After high school in 1928, he entered Curtis's adult professional program, graduating in 1934. There, he studied piano with George Frederick Boyle and Isabelle Vengerova, composition with Rosario Scalero, conducting with Fritz Reiner, and voice with Emilio de Gogorza. In 1928, he met fellow Curtis student Gian Carlo Menotti, who became his lifelong partner.