Samuel Barber : the composer and his music / Barbara B. Heyman.
| Author/creator | Heyman, Barbara B. author. |
| Format | Book |
| Edition | Second edition, revised and expanded. |
| Publication | New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2020] |
| Description | xxvi, 630 pages : illustrations, music ; 24 cm |
| Subjects |
| Contents | Beginnings. Sidney Homer, uncle and mentor -- The composer in his early teens -- A serious student. Curtis institute of music -- The early songs and recognition -- "Dance" and Three songs: "The daisies," "With rue my heart is laden," and "Bessie Bobtail" -- Discoveries. Violin sonata, Prelude and Fugue for organ -- Stetserenade for string quartet or string orchestra -- The early piano concerto, Barber and Menotti in Europe -- Two interludes for piano -- Pieces for carillon -- Uncertainties. Overture to The School for Scandal -- Dover Beach -- Composer as singer -- The Angel Mary -- Move to a New York City -- Independence. Sonata for violoncello and piano -- Barber's career moves forward -- Music for a scene from Shelley -- Incidental music for One Day of Spring -- The American academy. Joyce's Chamber music -- Symphony in one movement -- String quartet -- Recognition. The Toscanini premieres: Essay for Orchestra and Adagio for strings -- The unaccompanied choral works -- A Stopwatch and an Ordnance Map -- Prelude to war. Concerto for violin and orchestra -- Four songs, op. 13 -- Second Essay for Orchestra -- Two songs, op. 18 -- World cataclysm. Commando March, Funeral march -- Second Symphony, Night Flight -- Revisions -- Four Excursions -- Capricorn concerto -- Middle years. Concerto for violoncello and orchestra -- Relationship with G. Schirmer -- Medea: Ballet, Cave of the Heart, Suite, Medea's Meditation and Dance of Vengeance -- Knoxville: Summer of 1915 -- Piano sonata -- Composer as conductor -- Song cycles. Mélodies passagères -- Souvenirs -- Hermit songs -- "Adventure" -- Searches. Prayers of Kierkegaard -- Summer Music, Horizon -- Vanessa. Vanessa at Salzburg -- Into the twenty-first century -- Interlude 1958-1960. Wondrous Love -- Nocturne -- A Hand of Bridge -- Toccata Festiva -- Die Natali -- Lincoln Center commissions. Piano concerto, Canzone -- Andromache's Farewell -- A new opera house. Antony and Cleopatra -- Redirection and revision -- The last years, 1967-1981. Despite and Still -- Two choral works, Mutations from Bach -- The Lovers -- Fadograph of a Yestern Scene -- Three songs, op. 45 -- Ballade -- Third Essay for Orchestra -- Canzonetta for oboe and string orchestra -- Finale -- Postlude -- Works list. |
| Abstract | 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. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| LCCN | 2018051601 |
| ISBN | 9780190863739 hardcover |
| ISBN | 0190863730 hardcover |
| ISBN | electronic publication |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Music | Music Stacks | ML410.B23 H5 2020 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |