Originally appeared March 6, 2002, in the Chicago Free
Press.
IF WE HAD TO NAME one American composer whose music is sure to
be played for the next hundred or two hundred years, it would have
to be Samuel Barber (1910-1981), whose 92 birthday anniversary we
celebrate on March 9.
From his earliest compositions Barber showed that he was able to
write in his own recognizable melodic style while preserving a
linkage to European romantic musical tradition. Without using jazz
or folk tunes or experimental techniques, he managed to sound
identifiably American simply by being himself.
"My aim," he once explained, "is to write good music that will
be comprehensible to as many people as possible, instead of music
heard only by small, snobbish musical societies in the large
cities."
Even people who care little about classical music have probably
heard Barber's most famous piece, the seven minute "Adagio for
Strings." It was used in the film "Platoon," in a perfume
advertisement and even as part of a rock album. There are almost 40
performances on CD.
When he finished the original string quartet version in 1936,
Barber realized that he had written something remarkable. He wrote
to a friend, "I have just finished the slow movement of my quartet
today--it is a knockout!"
Because of its unhurried pace, the Adagio is sometimes played at
memorial services. But it is far from a lament. It is abstract
music, a careful interweaving of melodic lines that slowly rise to
a high pitch of emotional intensity followed by a return to
calm.
Composer and critic Virgil Thomson once insisted, "I think it's
a love scene ... a detailed love scene ... a smooth, successful
love scene. Not a dramatic one, but a very satisfactory one."
Thomson may be on to something.
Barber did not publish much music, fewer than 50 works. He was a
painstaking craftsman, waiting for inspiration, prone to making
repeated revisions. But a higher proportion of his works probably
deserve to be called "great" than is true for almost any other
modern composer.
He wrote one piano concerto, one violin concerto, one cello
concerto, one piano sonata, two short ballets, two symphonies, two
major operas. Many have become part of the standard repertoire and
most deserve to be recognized as among the best works in the last
century.
Barber is particularly interesting, of course, because of his
long relationship with fellow composer Gian-Carlo Menotti after
they met in 1928 as students at Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of
Music.
People who say a composer's sexuality has no influence on his
music are wrong. By conditioning whom he has relationships and
friendships with, a composer's sexual orientation can influence the
kinds of pieces he writes, the texts he sets to music, the
instrumentation, even the musical style itself.
Menotti and Barber interacted constantly, encouraging each
other, offering suggestions on each other's work. Barber dedicated
his first symphony (1936) to Menotti. Menotti wrote one opera text
for Barber and helped revise another. The undulating beginning of
Barber's "Knoxville" (1948) is reminiscent of Menotti, as is some
of his ballet "Medea" (1947). Or vice versa.
Then too, the beautiful slow movement of Barber's piano concerto
(1962) started as a piece for a young flute player Barber had a
brief affair and long friendship with. Another man Barber had a
relationship with introduced him to Pablo Neruda's love poems which
Barber used for his orchestral song-cycle "The Lovers" (1971).
There is no space to discuss many of Barber's works. But three
deserve mention.
Symphony No. 1 (1936), a condensed, 20-minute symphony, is
Barber's first obvious great work and one of the first important
American symphonies. It has enough flash and dissonance to be
recognizably modern, but is romantic at its core, especially in the
beautiful, sad-sounding theme in the slow section.
The Violin Concerto (1939) is Barber's most lyrical, romantic
work, full of warm melodies and rich harmonies. By contrast, and
this became typical for Barber, the last section is a tumultuous,
fiendishly difficult "perpetual motion," a challenge for violinists
but exciting to listen to.
Although the concerto fell into disfavor during the 1960s, and
'70s when many academic composers and critics promoted
intentionally dissonant styles, the "New Romanticism" of the 1980s
and '90s led to its revival and there are now at least ten
recordings.
The Piano Concerto (1962) is certainly the best American piano
concerto, and probably the best in America or Europe in the latter
half of the 20th century. Many critics think it is Barber's finest,
most important single work. It is hard to disagree.
Listening again to these and other Barber pieces before writing
this column reminded me once again what a great composer Barber was
and how lucky we are that he refused to be unduly influenced by
transitory fads in contemporary music.
Late in life, Barber commented that some composers "feel they
must have a new style every year. This, in my case, would be
hopeless. ... I just go on doing, as they say, 'my thing.' I
believe this takes a certain courage."