Samuel Barber

If any composer may truly be considered our national composer, Samuel Barber should surely be in the running.  Notwithstanding the adulation of Aaron Copland’s populist music from the 1930s and 40s, most of the latter composer’s compositions in other musical styles are not well received by the American public–too dissonant and modern!  On the other hand, no major American composer...

From the time of his student days until his death in 1981, Samuel Barber has stood in the first echelon of outstanding American composers.   While not exactly a household word, his reputation as a composer of elegant, finely-crafted art is stellar.  Notwithstanding the adulation of Aaron Copland’s populist music from the 1930s and 40s, most of the latter composer’s compositions in...

If any composer may truly be considered our national composer, Samuel Barber should surely be in the running. Notwithstanding the adulation of Aaron Copland’s populist music from the 1930s and 40s, most of the latter composer’s compositions in other musical styles are not well received by the American public–too dissonant and modern!  On the other hand, no major American composer of the...

No major American composer of the twentieth century was a more ardent and eloquent champion of the lyrical, accessible, yet modern idiom than Samuel Barber. His musical style is founded in the romantic traditions of the nineteenth century, and built upon and extended the harmonic language and formal structures of that time. Unlike so many of his peers, he was not powerfully swayed by the...

If any composer may truly be considered our national composer, Samuel Barber should surely be in the running. Notwithstanding the adulation of Aaron Copland’s populist music from the 1930s and 40s, most of the latter composer’s compositions in other musical styles are not well received by the American public–too dissonant and modern!  On the other hand, no major American composer of...